[geomez]

Hello,

I'm having an issue with a lens that is soft or blurry at most apertures. The softness is consistent across the image. There are no outward signs of damage. The lens had just been shipped and it was loosely packed.

Could this be a result of impact damage during shipping?

In my experience lens damage due to impact has resulted in the misalignment of lens elements (resulting in softness/ focusing inconsistencies at one end of the resulting image but not the other), or noticeable physical or mechanical problems. I've never heard of impact damage resulting in a superficially damage-free body, no mechanical signs of damage, but the damage causing soft images.

Anybody know?

[timw4mail]

Does lens-compensation on the camera help any?

[VoiceOfReason]

Try manually focusing it using focus peaking and zoomed all the way in using live view.

[spinno]

Is it a new lens or a second-hand lens?

[DeadJohn]

Rule out focusing issues first. Camera on tripod. Stop down to around f/8. Manual focus using liveview zoom. If you can get things sharp there, the optics are probably undamaged.

Then try liveview autofocus. Things should remain sharp. If not, the optics might be good but a broken focusing mechanism

Finally, turn off liveview. Stay on the tripod and try regular autofocus. If focus is poor you probably need to use AF fine adjustment in the menu.

[clickclick]

Can you post a picture? What's the lens? Any chance an SMCP-DA 14mm? - example of a lens that's not particularly sharp until stopped way down. Do rule out fine focus adjustment and other focus issues as other have described above.

[jeallen01]

FWIW, the question arises as to exactly which lens it is? Some are just Bl**dly awful at best.

[spinno]

This may be a daft question but are you focusing too close

[geomez]

It's difficult to pose this question and to do any tests because I do not own the lens. It is a lens that I sold a couple weeks ago. It is a Samyang 14mm. I'd owned it for about a year and it hand no problems of any kind when I was the owner. I never noticed softness in the image. I test shot the lens tripod mounted facing a flatish object at F11 before I sold it to make sure no elements were misaligned. It passed the test.

The buyer of the lens is telling me about the softness of the images. I requested to see test shots. Also the box looks like it had been through hell and and some of the air bags I used as packing materials were popped.

My question here is to find out what you think about whether damage from shipping can result in a mechanically and aesthetically pristine lens with image softness across the board. It's not something that I've ever experienced in my years of buying and selling lenses nor is is something that I've read about happening like that. Have any of you heard of or experienced this?

[VoiceOfReason]

Generally if I have a bad experience with a shipped lens it is a misalignment thing where softness hits one side. Never heard it even across the frame.