How much to worry about a lens shipped without any padding?

spider-mario said:

Earlier this week, I ordered the RF 135mm f/1.8, and it arrived to me packaged like this:



I printed a rudimentary testing chart, shot it with the lens, analysed the results in MTF Mapper, and as far as I can tell, the lens performs well across the whole frame wide open, and with no obvious field curvature or tilt. Autofocus and stabilisation seem to work fine as well, and there is no obvious damage when looking at the lens from the outside.

Still, I can’t quite shake off the uneasiness I have about the whole ordeal. How likely is it that being shipped like this caused some subtle damage that is not immediately obvious but might bite me one day? Will it fail sooner because of this?

Sorry if this sounds rather silly and paranoid. I guess I kind of am, and looking for some reassurance.

Thank you all.

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so your tests indicate the lens is functioning perfectly fine.

other than time, what other tests could be applied to determine if the lens will fail sometime in the future?

along with this image you could return it and let them know it was improperly packaged and you suspect there may be potential for damage

jp pietro said:

so your tests indicate the lens is functioning perfectly fine.

other than time, what other tests could be applied to determine if the lens will fail sometime in the future?

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To this specific lens, I’m not aware of any (but on this forum, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some creative answers I would have never thought of), but I guess I was wondering if there might be some prior data from other lenses (for example Roger Cicala of Lensrentals coming in and saying “statistically, lenses that we receive like this tend to fail after 5 years instead of 8”, or “look at this lens we had that seemed fine most of the time but turned out to have a slightly loose element that only manifested itself at close focus” or whatever).

ishwanu said:

The same kind of question turns up here often. The usual answer is that the manufacturer's packaging is what really provides the protection for all the rough handling from the factory to your door, and there's nothing to be concerned about if that's in good condition.

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Thank you, I think this is the kind of reassurance I was hoping for. I suppose I was probably underestimating the cushioning capabilities of the styrofoam/plastic that holds the lens in place inside of the manufacturer’s box.

(Edit: to clarify, the order in which I responded to the two answers is not meant to have any significance. The “this is […]” is not meant to imply “unlike that other reply”. I appreciate both of them.)

I, too, would be concerned. A couple of years ago I received a lens the same way shipped with no packing. With mine it was obvious just from the first shots that the lens had problems. But given that you have carefully tested and found no fault, I would keep the lens.

While the packing job couldn't have done the lens any favors, with a replacement you have no way to know how it was handled before packing. The next lens might arrive perfectly packed, but was dropped 7 feet to a concrete floor in the warehouse. So if you have a winner, keep it.

As to the future, there's no way to predict.

Use and enjoy.

Gato

ishwanu said:

The same kind of question turns up here often. The usual answer is that the manufacturer's packaging is what really provides the protection for all the rough handling from the factory to your door, and there's nothing to be concerned about if that's in good condition.

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I got a Viltrox lens for Christmas; it was very tightly packaged in the box. I can’t imagine it being damaged if it was shipped like that.



Marie

keep in mind that the forces at play scale up with mass. i dunno how big the 135 is but it appears to still fall into a "pretty small" category. the packaging has foam inside to hold the lens, i imagine?

consider too that the black box is going to show if it was dropped. imagine dropping that from waist height on to a concrete floor - the box would probably be dented or torn on one corner right? so if it isn't then it hasn't been subjected to any force of that magnitude, inside the shipping box or otherwise.

Wboz88 said:

keep in mind that the forces at play scale up with mass. i dunno how big the 135 is but it appears to still fall into a "pretty small" category.

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About 1kg, and it has IS.

As above in the thread, no need to worry, especially if the lens'es box itself wasn't damaged.

With what a lens goes through my guess it will be 0K.

The life of a lens starts by being packed on a pallet, forked lift into a container, dumped on a wharf, picked by gantry crane and dumped onto the deck of a ship sailed across the wide blue, then dumped on another wharf, picked from that wharf by another container gantry and on another truck and driven to the warehouse, then put into a van and deviled to a shop for one of us to buy, all that without secondary packing.

I had a Nikon 500mm lens on a D750 that flew off a car fridge onto the floor of a Landcruser when it came to a sudden halt from about 40 kph on a safari in Kenya, they survived and are working well as seen below.





--
You may see my photos on other sites.

The packaging inside the OEM box should be adequate protection.

Would like to know, for our own reference of how different companies pack their shipments.

Tango 55 said:

Would like to know, for our own reference of how different companies pack their shipments.

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Digitec/Galaxus (Switzerland)

spider-mario said:

Tango 55 said:

Would like to know, for our own reference of how different companies pack their shipments.

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Digitec/Galaxus (Switzerland)

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Thanks!

spider-mario said:

Earlier this week, I ordered the RF 135mm f/1.8, and it arrived to me packaged like this:



I printed a rudimentary testing chart, shot it with the lens, analysed the results in MTF Mapper, and as far as I can tell, the lens performs well across the whole frame wide open, and with no obvious field curvature or tilt. Autofocus and stabilisation seem to work fine as well, and there is no obvious damage when looking at the lens from the outside.

Still, I can’t quite shake off the uneasiness I have about the whole ordeal. How likely is it that being shipped like this caused some subtle damage that is not immediately obvious but might bite me one day? Will it fail sooner because of this?

Sorry if this sounds rather silly and paranoid. I guess I kind of am, and looking for some reassurance.

Thank you all.

Click to expand...

If the box shows damage from being dropped, then maybe. But the box looks fine, the lens packaging looks fine. Your tests look fine. I would keep it.

My advice would be like this.

Send the photo you posted in your first post to the store where you purchased the lens.

Before sending the email, enable the option to ask for a read receipt and set the priority of the email to 'high'.

In this email say something like this:

Question about packaging

Hi, I ordered a lens from your store. Order number is <order-number-here>. In the box there was no padding to protect the lens. See the image in the attachment. Is that the default way you send your lenses, and is there a possibility my lens got damaged during transport because of the missing padding? Kind regards, ...

If you receive an email containing a read receipt, store in on your computer. If you receive a reply also store it on your computer. Make sure you receive a reply. If you don't, resend the email or call the store and ask them to reply to your email. It is important that if necessary you have proof they read your complaint.

What they reply does not matter that much. What does matter, is that if in a few weeks or months it turns out that there is something wrong with your lens (which you have not noticed yet), you can always refer to the email you sent. You can say 'I already sent you an email about this when I received the lens.' It will make a stronger case. Hopefully it won't be necessary, but better safe than sorry.

Wboz88 said:

keep in mind that the forces at play scale up with mass. i dunno how big the 135 is but it appears to still fall into a "pretty small" category. the packaging has foam inside to hold the lens, i imagine?

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Yes, forces scale up with the mass of the lens. Fortunately, the manufacturer knows the mass of the lens, and designs the packaging to match the lens.

Wboz88 said:

consider too that the black box is going to show if it was dropped. imagine dropping that from waist height on to a concrete floor - the box would probably be dented or torn on one corner right? so if it isn't then it hasn't been subjected to any force of that magnitude, inside the shipping box or otherwise.

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The manufacturer likely ships multiple lenses packed into a larger box. That larger box likely has no padding, nor extra space. That box is as likely to be dropped as your box.

My suspicion, is that there is no physical need for a larger box. The store could have just put an address label on the manufacturer's box and shipped it to you.

Two reasons that outer boxes are used:

• A box that obviously contains an expensive lens is more likely to be stolen.
• Some customers consider the manufacturer's box to be part of the product and want the box to be in pristine condition.