This can't be right, I'm quite sure you got a broken lens, I can't figure out any settings on a camera which can do something like this. How about the auto-focus and manual, any difference? F8 is near the average IQ if you got a 20EUR point and shooter (or 2Mpix mobile phone camera), but still, not very nice. =(

Those were with autofocus. Now I am not so sure because in other situations it performs better. I will have to mess with it more before I can decide if it's me or the lens. F2.8-F4 still seems softer than I would expect in some photos. I do think that after using this lens and the tokina that my A700 must be back focusing when a wide angle lens is mounted.

Yeah I'm thinking the same thing, maybe do a manual focus test just to make sure Brian.

Carl

Here are some other images. Not as bad as the first batch but still awfully soft at F2.8 IMO. As far as I can tell sharpness peaks at F8. If I am reading the photozone.de tests right, sharpness is supposed to peak at F4-F5.6 and go down at F8?
F5.6 on the left and F2.8 on the right. Manual focus doesn't make any difference that I can tell. All autofocus and handheld.

What do you guys think? Good or bad copy.

I've contacted BHphoto about exchanging it. Since they have yet to respond I am guessing I wont get another copy for the weekend. I ordered this next day because I wanted to have it for an event this weekend.. argh.

I've shot off 130-150 shots and have decided that none of them are of acceptable quality for a lens that costs this much. I honestly was much happier with the Tokina 19-35mm and the Sigma 24mm "out of the box" shots than I have been with this lens. At F2.8 it simply looks like something is off inside the lens. Weird distortions, not sharp anywhere, CA and PF make themselves known. At F4 it's sharper, but still pretty soft.

Some people on dpreview posted shots from their copys and most of them look sharper at F2.8 than this one does at F8.

I hope it's not...it's hard to say for me at least personally. If there's anything you'd like me to try with mine, just let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Thanks, but I have already decide I am going to send it back. I looked through some photos that were manually focused and auto focused and between F2.8 and F8 in some images it appears that nothing is in focus. I don't know how that could be? I look at a landscape shot and absolutely nothing in the picture is in focus? Everything is either very soft or it focused on nothing. Not even my cheapest, cruddiest lens can achieve this.

What a bummer.

Such a good lens too, weird, I haven't heard of any reports about this lens and quality control issues, not that they aren't out there.

Carl

I like them but I had one bad customer service experience with them, that I wasn't thrilled about. But I think eventually that happens with about every company, it only means so much.

I'm just curious to see if they give you a really hard time about the lens.

So far I am not happy with them. I e-mailed them Friday a few hours before they closed and never heard back from them. I guess I should have called. They're closed Saturday but open for a couple hours on Sunday. What I would like is for them to ship me another one via next day air while I ship this one back to them. I'm going to guess that they wont go for that but you never know. I'm not really keen to be out of my $33 worth of shipping. All I do know is that I wanted to have the lens for an event tomorrow and it's not going to happen.

Personally, I have had two of these lenses, one for the SONY and the other for a Canon EOS. Both lenses offered incredibly sharp images and I have not be left wanting for focus. Therefore ... exchange it. This is a rare occurance with THIS lens, believe me.

The 17-50mm f/2.8 is one of the three lenses I routinely carry in my sling bag. The others being the Tokina AT-X 840 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6 and the SIGMA 10-20mm f/4-5.6 DC EX HSM. The only other lens I would even consider replacing with would be the SONY 16-80mm f/3.5-4.5 CZ, which is nearly double the price of the 17-50

For what this lens delivers, it is truly a bargain. Also, make sure you are using "SPOT" focus in the AF area. Please click on the below link for image of control setting (A700):

An unexpected "LOCAL" focus setting can really deliver some screwy results and leave you scratching your head.

Good luck in your return.

I received a replacement lens today so far it seems to not suffer the issues of the other. It has a lower serial number than the previous one and the zoom ring initially felt a bit stiffer than I remember the other one being.. The only other difference was that the silica pack was in the bag with the lens. IIRC the first lens had a silica packet loose in the box. That may mean nothing.

BHphoto did send the replacement out next day air without charging me extra. That was good of them. My main complaint is that they're slow about the whole process. They had my original lens 5 days before shipping out another.

taken with the new copy.

And though slow at least as you mention they paid for shipping etc.

I hope it doesn't have any problems for you, I know I certainly love mine.