My 70-200 f4 "Pro" has died

[pdk42]

I must say my confidence in Panasonic has taken a bit of a beating with my recent 70-200 experience. I really don't want to change systems (again), but confidence is a fragile thing. I'm now waiting for the next Panasonic lens to fail. The 24-105 has a bad reputation for breakdown of the cement and causing white internal rash in some element groups so it'll be my luck for this to happen next.

 

[GeorgeHudetz]

I agree that it is shocking that you can’t get a “pro” level lens - that is still in production - repaired. It is a waste of the energy and resources that went into making that lens, and an insult to the customer. Having said that, I do wonder how the other manufacturers “rate” in this regard. Hopefully Sigma is better.

 

[CharlesH]

They said it was becoming a trend amongst all manufacturers, but that Panasonic were the worst. Sigma got a good word !

Other aspects, with Panasonic you get a three year extended warranty if you register the lens (at least in the U.S.). Also, how reliable are the lenses - how often do they fail?

I currently have 10 Lumix full frame lenses, three since 2019. Of these, the 70-300 failed and Panasonic said they could not repair it; they gave a pretty good discount on a replacement. I had seven M43 Lumix lenses and none of these failed. I did have a failure on a M43 1.4x extender. Panasonic has discontinued this extender and I had a devil of a time finding a replacement. Overall, with seventeen Lumix lenses I've had one lens failure, and one extender failure.

Over the years I've had Canon lenses and Sony lenses. I've lost track of how many, but no where near as many as Panasonic. I did not have any failures of Canon or Sony lenses.

I'd be interested in others experience with lenses from all manufacturers.

 

[pdk42]

Other aspects, with Panasonic you get a three year extended warranty if you register the lens (at least in the U.S.). Also, how reliable are the lenses - how often do they fail?

I currently have 10 Lumix full frame lenses, three since 2019. Of these, the 70-300 failed and Panasonic said they could not repair it; they gave a pretty good discount on a replacement. I had seven M43 Lumix lenses and none of these failed. I did have a failure on a M43 1.4x extender. Panasonic has discontinued this extender and I had a devil of a time finding a replacement. Overall, with seventeen Lumix lenses I've had one lens failure, and one extender failure.

Over the years I've had Canon lenses and Sony lenses. I've lost track of how many, but no where near as many as Panasonic. I did not have any failures of Canon or Sony lenses.

I'd be interested in others experience with lenses from all manufacturers.

I guess I must have gone through multiple tens of lenses over the years from multiple manufacturers - Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Sigma, Samyang, and other smaller manufacturers (TTArtisan, Voigtlander/Cosina etc). I look after my gear and none of them has failed. In fact, if you look at the 70-200 it looks mint. That's partly what's annoying me, but I accept that sh1t happens. What's really irking me is Panasonic's approach to spares and repairs.

I get that service operations are probably loss-making and that modern manufacturing is not conducive to easy repair, but there is a wider brand-perception issue here.

This is a lens that retails at £1449 in the UK. If I bought a domestic appliance of that sort of value (oven, cooker, washing machine etc), I wouldn't expect to throw it away if a component (say a motor or a fan) failed. That's my point. Why should a £1500 lens be throw away for a minor component failure?

 

[Pete_W]

I'd be interested in others experience with lenses from all manufacturers.

I have never experiences a lens failure. I've owned Panasonic m4/3 and L-mount lenses, Sigma L-mount lenses and Nikon F-mount lenses.

I should add that I have purchased all of my lenses new and from authorised retailers, no lenses purchased offshore. And I've generally picked up my lenses purchases rather than having them shipped to me to avoid additional transport.

 

[PJD]

... This is a lens that retails at £1449 in the UK. If I bought a domestic appliance of that sort of value (oven, cooker, washing machine etc), I wouldn't expect to throw it away if a component (say a motor or a fan) failed. That's my point. Why should a £1500 lens be throw away for a minor component failure?

On this point I agree. If Panasonic doesn't want to offer reasonably-priced actual repair options (where your lens is taken apart & fixed), they might, for example, offer to replace an out-of-warranty, less-than-3-year-old lens for about 40% of its original list price. This would be for replacement of a lens that isn't working properly but with no visible external damage, purchased new from a factory-authorized dealer. The replacement lens would be a new unit of the same model, or if no longer available, a similar-featured new model.

 

[xaviergut]

Just to compare:

In Austria, for Nikon's professional line (S-Line), repairs aren't typically billed by the hour. Instead, they often follow a "tiered pricing" system or flat rates based on the severity of the issue.

Here are the estimated costs you might encounter at an official service center for a pro lens (like a 24-70mm f/2.8 S or a 70-200mm f/2.8 S):

The Three Cost Tiers (Estimates)

* Tier 1: Minor Repair & Adjustment
* Cost: Between €150 and €250.
* Includes: Internal dust cleaning, firmware updates, focus system calibration, and replacement of external rubber grips.

* Tier 2: Impact or Electronic Repair (Major Repair)
* Cost: Between €400 and €650.
* Includes: Replacing the rear mount (if bent), swapping the autofocus motor (STM), or replacing the internal main circuit board (PCB).

* Tier 3: Critical Optical Damage
* Cost: €800 or more.
* Includes: Replacing a cracked front or rear glass element.

Occasionally, if the damage is catastrophic, Nikon will provide a quote that nearly equals the lens's value, in which case a repair is usually not worth it.

 

[Jonathan-Mac]

I was sorry to see on FB that your 70-200 had failed and couldn't be repaired. Not providing spare parts seems the most ridiculous reason there is to not repair an expensive electronic item. It must be a circuitboard or processor failure and it should be possible to repair it by just swapping that out. Not impressive at all.

I was very disappointed when I found out about the blue fogging and cement separation that some Lumix S lenses suffer from and that Panasonic has not admitted to the problem publicly. However, when I found out that all three of my Lumix lenses were affected, including the 16-35mm "Pro", Panasonic replaced them all, even the 16-35mm, which I had bought used and was not under guarantee. It seem crazy to offer that level of good will but then not repair similar lenses simply because you don't want to supply the parts to do so.

Even before hearing this story I had much more confidence in Sigma than I do in Panasonic, just based on my own experience and the huge number of stories online of lenses that became useless well before their time either by breakage, fogging or because they were poor copies. It would take a lot to get me to buy Panasonic over Sigma these days.

Panasonic have a lot of work to do if they want to be respected by their user base and to draw users from other brands to Lumix.