Problem with Zeiss16-80: focus blocks

I have my Zeiss 16-80mm since about 2 years now. I liked this lense very much ... at least until last Saturday as is suddenly stopped working in the middle of shooting a wedding. There are better things that can happen to you if you are the arranged photographer.

I experienced sporadic issues with focusing first. I.e. the ZA16-80 did not focus correctly on my A700. I turned of and on my A700 and also removed the lense from the body and attached it again. Doing this the lense continued focusing correctly. Several pictures later the focus suddenly blocked completely. Even on manual focus you are not able to move the focus ring. Even if removed from the A700 body.

Has anybody ever experienced something like this? Can this be fixed?

I think for a $700 lense you could expect to have it working for more than 2 years ...

Thanks for you help,
Chris

chrisherzog wrote:

Has anybody ever experienced something like this? Can this be fixed?

I think for a $700 lense you could expect to have it working for more than 2 years ...

Sounds like the focus gears are jammed/stripped in the lens. Sony can probably fix it, though unless you have an extended warranty it will cost you. And the lens body is nearly all plastic, which can make it tough for them to return it to like new condition.

I've had two of them that loosened up the inner support tube, which caused irregular focus but did not lock up the mechanism.

Walt

The 16-80 has great optics but the build quality is quite poor, at least on earlier production runs. I tried three samples before I got one I was happy with.

Even so, I would expect a relatively expensive lens to last more than two years. You might want to check your local consumer law regarding guarantees and product durability.

I have the same problem. A month before at my last day on holidays I tryied to take a picture and lens didn t focus. The ring was stucked when i tried to make it manual. I sent it to sony service here in Greece and they sent it to Hungary. I m still wait for my lens. They found something broken inside. I dont know how. I owned this lens for a year and half. The guarranty is only 1 year. The repair cost is 245 Euro. Too much expensive.

Finally I got my lense repaired at a Sony Service Outlet. €260,-. They replaced the focus driving mechanism. At was just some days over 2 years old. No warranty and unfortunally no goodwill either. I had hoped at least for a cost reduction of the repair as this is not a cheap lense ... I hope it´s not breaking again.

Chris

I think in general there have been a lot of focus complaints with that lens :/ at least it's damn sharp when it works tho

cheers