[mee]

What came of this? I see online of other people with supposed cracked cam barrel / supposed impact damage resulting in an unhonored warranty with Tamron.. seems like a somewhat common scenario.

[Erictator]

What came of this? I see online of other people with supposed cracked cam barrel / supposed impact damage resulting in an unhonored warranty with Tamron.. seems like a somewhat common scenario.

Hi Mee... I sorta ran out of steam and wanted to get on with my life. After a series of MANY emails back and forth, I got an email from a higher up manager at Tamron which I guess should be ok to post here if I sanitize any recognizable Asian names...

"thank you for contacting Tamron. I’m sorry you feel cheated, but perhaps I can help explain what was found during repair. Our code C for cam damage does say the cam is bent or cracked, and because this lens has tight tolerances, if the cam no longer conforms to a perfectly circular shape, it will grind against the surrounding structures, causing the autofocus to not work properly. It’s impossible to tell by visual inspection alone that a cam is bent out of shape – it can be off by a fraction of a millimeter, and that would be sufficient to cause problems, and as you see, many parts were affected by this seemingly innocuous problem. Unfortunately the only way the cam in the lens can be damaged is from some kind of external force – the lens simply cannot damage itself in this manner, or from normal use. It’s fortunate that you had a Mack warranty to cover this type of repair. It seems from our system that this usually major repair was knocked down to a minor repair – I cannot divulge the exact cost as this was a transaction between National Camera and Tamron. I can pass on your concerns to my higher ups, but I assure you we do our best to give you an honest and objective evaluation of your lens. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns."

So basically they flip flopped the HAND WRITTEN description of the tech that said cracked cam barrel, and now are saying that is was a "code c" and could be an out of round barrel... blah blah blah. I admit... I am weak, I gave up...I am so ashamed...

Hey, I moved on. If that is how they want to play it, lesson learned. I will do my part to warn people publicly... but I have to wonder if Tamron even gives a rats arse because it's Pentax, who they might view as no big deal since Tamron makes less and less lenses for K mount, and if they would have been a little more responsive if the lens was N or C mount? Bah! Who knows... I'm over it. (sorta)

Sad part is... I still love the optics! It is an amazing lens for the money and now that it is working back up to snuff, it does take the sting out of it a little.
Eric

[Nuno Almeida]

Well I got my back from Tamron a few weeks ago, with the same problem, my I dropped, the cost​ was 130€, being honest I agree with their assesment, at least in my case, it was clearly something distorted, the movement of the focus ring was uneven trough the rotation, although very small I could feel it, on side note, my k50 would pull trough it and the lens would work, the K1 don't, giving me the impression that the extra speed of the K1 focusing was achieved trough a more direct drive and not trough a stronger engine