D800E... brand new, left focus issue.

I know this topic has been beaten to death and back again, but I have had two brand new D800E bodies, and both are having focusing issues. Both of my bodies were purchased from B&H in the last 2 weeks and have serial numbers of 30108xx and 30109xx. I want your help to see if I'm doing something wrong or if the bodies are at fault. One, I've already returned (an exchange arriving Monday), the other I still have. I've been shooting for 15 years and have a Bachelor's in Imaging & Photo Tech, so I'm not a newbie.

I have been in contact with Thom Hogan trying to figure this out. He says that "the original problem is almost certainly solved. It involves the tables internal in the camera being programmed wrong. Nikon stopped programming that wrong a long time ago, AFAICT. They can fix it in repair if someone does have a camera that has that problem. But because Nikon stayed silent and now we all try to test our cameras, we're finding all kinds of anomalies. They may just be noise, they may be real, they may be intermittent, they may or may not matter. Hard to tell."

I have been testing using Reikan FoCal software to test the AF. Both bodies exhibited an obvious lack of focus on the left side using phase detect, and perfectly sharp using contrast detect (live view). The far left focus point achieves a quality of focus (QoF) of approximately 30-40% less than the center point. The right point achieves a QoF only 5% below the center. I tried running the AF Fine Tune test on the left focus point, and I maxed it out at -20, but the focus did get noticeably better (obviously, at the expense of every other focus point).

From some quick actual outdoor shooting, it appears to back focus considerably with the left focus point. I've only been testing with the Nikon 14-24mm @ 24mm so far. I have a 35 1.4G coming today, but I don't expect the results to be any different.

Is it safe to say the lens isn't at fault, since the left side of the frame can achieve focus using contrast detect? Or is it possible (beyond my knowledge here) that the camera is in spec, but the lens is mis-focusing somehow, only on the left only when using phase detect?

--
JMVDigital, Inc. www.jmvdigital.com