tjbel05 wrote:
Curious to know if the Lenscoat in the 90 degree weather could have affected the electronics. I know temperature flucuations can affect certain products.
It's more likely it's the black finish on the lens; there's a reason all the other manufacturers use a white finish on their big telephotos - to reflect heat. That's not to say that is what caused the failure, of course...
Sad to hear about the OP's problem. I remember one single time a guy posted on here with their 500PF being soft, and from their samples it really did look like there was something wrong with it, but other than that (and excluding the foot problems), I never heard of a problem.
Fact is, even in a perfect world, you are going to get a small number of problems. Even if a problem occurs with 1 out of every 100,000 products, which is practically like winning the lottery (but in a bad way), someone is going to get it badly. Indeed, even if only 40,000 people buy such a product, the probability of at least one being bad is still 32.97%, which is fairly high. And with all of Nikon or ANY camera company, someone is almost surely going to get that bad product, no matter how good the QC is.
Not saying the QC is always good (like with the early Z8 recall), but even if it is always good, someone is going to get something a little less than "up to spec".
I guess all we can hope for is that there aren't too many bad lenses and cameras out there.
I'm another weekend photographer who had bad luck with a Nikon lens!
I bought a Nikon 500mm f/4 G ED N lens (new with warranty) and a month later I had to replace the focus motor, which wasn't covered by the warranty! (I don't have an authorized Nikon repair shop in my country.)
Amazing how in Canada, Tamron and Sigma offer 7 year warranties on their lenses. I also unfortunately remember the 2 year Nikon warranty on camera bodies and 5 year warranty on lenses. Ah, the good old days.
