Canon India Sucks!

For the past three months Canon India has been trying to fix issues in my Canon EOS 7D and Canon 100-400L IS lens and Canon 17-40 f/4L lens. The issue started in March when my lenses were submitted for servicing. The 100-400 came back with huge amount of microfiber dust inside the lens. Since then there have been focusing issues with the body and lenses.

8 September 2012 - I gave two Canon EOS 7D bodies for servicing at Canon Pune Service Center. One body belonged to my friend and one belonged to me. Both were bought at the same time. I was facing issues of focusing and lack of sharpness since March when I got back my two lenses (Canon 100-400L IS and Canon 17-40 f/4L) serviced from Canon. Since the lenses had been recently serviced I assumed the body would be the cuplrit.

15 September 2012 - I received both the bodies back and a test at the service center revealed that the issue with my 7D had not been rectified.

First image with a friend's 7D which was bought along with mine and also given for servicing



Second image with my 7D. The difference is visible

I showed the images to the Pune service center manager who verified the same and accepted the faulty body back.

After this incident I received no update at all on the status of the request and had to call or send emails to Canon. I was being told that there are no updates in the system either. In the intermediate I also checked with the service center personnel if there might be a potential issue with the lenses and if they wish to take those for calibration. I was informed that there was no need for that and I would be provided the necessary assistance for doing the calibration myself.

13 October 2012 - Finally after a lot of follow up I received the camera back. At the service center to noticed a scratch while seeing through the viewfinder and showed it to manager. He admitted that the focusing screen had scratch and changed it. I decided to do a side by side testing using the 7D of my friend along with his 100-400 and my 7D and 100-400. What was noticed here is that there seemed to be an issue with the lens as well as the body. Note the 4 flower images with combination of bodies and lenses and the issue is pretty evident. I also found out that the camera had a new copyright owner by the name "Cory Goldberg". It was obvious that Canon tried to rollback the firmware and had to replace some hardware to do that. If that was faulty then it may have added to the problem. Canon India is still figuring out how that happened since I have not heard from them!

All images taken on a tripod

Image 1: Taken with my friend's 7D and 100-400 which were working fine

Image 2: Taken with his camera and my 100-400

Image 3: My camera and friend's 100-400 lens. In this size the issue may not seem large but in the full size RAW the difference is visible.

Image 4: My camera and my lens

After this testing I submitted the body and lenses for verification and also shared the images for reference. Again I had to follow up several times to find out updates. I was also requested to share images not taken in AI Servo mode since apparently shooting in AI Servo caused blurred images! If my confidence was low this ensured it was totally shot!

After that Canon again asked me to submit the camera and lenses for servicing. After they are back the issue still persists and Canon is shameless enough to say that the camera is working as per the specifications. I asked for RAW images from their side to prove this and I have received nothing but a repetitive shameless answer that the camera is working fine. On the contrary they are behaving as if I am Einstein reincarnate and I have some requirements which normal human beings cannot understand. In fact a gentleman handling the case said to me that he thought if the body and 100-400 are calibrated rest don't matter. And it is not as if the sharpness and focus issue of the 7D and 100-400 is rectified.

Here are a couple snapshots of images taken with the camera and my 17-40 and 50mm prime with the focusing points on. It is clear that the focus is off.

Note that all along I am suffering from a severe leg problem and could not walk without support. Still I had gone 15 kms one way to pick up and drop the camera 5 times with no result. Finally I have undergone a hip replacement and Canon is insisting that I should be present for further testing without which they cannot fix the issue. Hope they wake up and stop harassing their customer for their incompetence!

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