Hey,
My question is towards people who have had experience with Canon and other systems. I've heard a lot about the durability and longevity of made in Japan Canon lenses, but what about copy variations?
I've had an awful experience with Nikon in the past with 70-200 VRII and 80-400, and I know how frustrating it can be. What mostly drives me away from the current Nikon and Sony systems is the lens QC issues. I'm not playing the copy roulette game again.
I understand it's not easy to quantify, but it's the more important part of the system. So, again, how does Canon's made in Japan lens compare to others in terms of copy variations?
Cheers!
Optical Copy variation depends on several factors:
1)
Original design tolerancing: a design can be more or less tolerant of variation. Unfortunately, more tolerant often equates to less sharp or less something else.
2)
Specifications of manufacturing tolerances: this is somewhat price dependent. A more exact size cam or grind is more expensive. Notice 'more exact'. There is no perfect.
3)
Intra-assembly QA: this basically is whether each subassembly is tested and how during manufacture. The variation here is huge between manufacturers. Some use interferometers on every element and group. Some shine a light through it. Some assume it's fine.
4)
End assembly testing: Testing 'end manufacture' is too late, really. It keeps the really bad stuff from getting out but the financial cost of failing a lens is huge so there are mixed pressures here.
As others have said, most of this is manufacturer specific not country specific, but it does matter some. Zeiss brand manufactured in Germany, for example, has nothing in common with a Zeiss-xxxx partnership lens (which often is not manufactured by either the partner or Zeiss).
There's also today's reality that you know where the lens was assembled and often by what company. You have no clue in many cases who made the components inside it and where before said components were shipped to the place of assembly. Your made in Japan (or Germany or wherever) often has major blocks that were manufactured in China. The best example I've seen was a lens that the ENTIRE optical assembly was made in China, then inserted into the barrel in another country. That's rare but there are a number of lenses where the focusing group, motors, IS unit etc. are made elsewhere.
Canon makes the vast majority of what is in a Canon lens and they are all assembled in Canon's manner, more than most manufacturers for sure. One final note of some interest: those manufacturing methods change over time, so an 'older design' Canon lens made last Thursday made using the testing and standards of when it was designed 15 years ago.
