DA* 16-50mm SDM failure.... finally happened to me..

Before I bought the DA* 16-50mm I had read that it was prone to SDM problems (as in failure) but I went ahead and bought it anyway.. It is a great lens and I use it quite often.

A few months ago I noticed that AF was becoming intermittent on it and at first I chalked it up to issues with low contrast focus points.. then it reached the point where I had to actually defocus the lens manually to get it to focus automatically.  Then it reached a point where it just would not focus at all and off it went to C.R.l S. in Chandler, AZ.

Spoke with them this morning and it shipped on its return trip to me yesterday.  I asked what the repair involved and they informed me that they replaced the SDM.  Not unexpected.

Question:  If you have had your SDM replaced on that particular lens in the last year or so, how has the lens performed since it was returned from repair?  Has the SDM failed again since repair?

It seems the SDM is not quite up to the challenge of moving that much glass around and maybe a stronger SDM is needed for this lens.  Your thoughts?

--
Jim Radcliffe
http://www.boxedlight.com
The ability to 'see' the shot is more important than the gear used to capture it.