18-55mm blur right side - Serviceable?

I have an embarrassing confession to make.
Two years ago I bought an X-T3 with the 18-55mm kit lens.
I have taken RAW pictures but have just archived them in Lightroom for later editing.
Now when I started to edit my old RAW images I am discovering that all my pictures taken @55mm have a blurry right side, even at higher aperture numbers at different distances. I should have tested my equipment right away, but….

As I at the moment do not have access to a Fuji Service Center, I am wondering if anyone else has had a similar defect that you had the Service Center look at, and if it was repairable and what the cost was?

I think, as always, a few representative examples would help.

+ I would have a simple, quick and effective decentering test for you: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/63756500

Kind regards,

Martin

Portion Control wrote:

so while you can get it serviced, I might rather look at selling it and buying a prime (that you try out first before buying). I’m not sure that I believe in a sharp zoom lens, at least not among the Fuji’s.

Ever tried a 16-55? i don't think mine is exceptional or better than other ones out there, and it's tack sharp throughout its FL range. I realize that there are those with strong biases here towards shooting exclusively with prime lenses, and if that works well for your needs, great. However, from my experience at least, your statement is, at best, an over generalization. There are a host of examples that have been posted over the years that disprove it, along with my own experience, at least with respect to top quality zooms such as the 16-55.  For many other zooms, I wouldn't disagree.

Portion Control wrote:

I got an X-T2 with 18-55 with a Mack Warranty offered by my retailer. Had a similar issue with the lens and sent it in. I don’t know what service center they contract with but after getting it back once in even worse optical shape and sending in again, it was actually improved to the point that the obvious right side decentering (or whatever it was) had been eliminated.

I will caution though that it really seems like there’s only so much that can be done. It might be more than just element alignment that affects image quality across the zoom range. The glass pieces themselves can be affected by poor QC, and the design of a consumer zoom lens is never perfect, always “good enough”. After service My 18-55 lost its obvious detail smearing on one side but center sharpness was reduced.
I’ve shot with three different copies of the same Fuji 18-55 lens and none of them have been that sharp or that consistent in detail rendition left to right across the frame. The single 16-55 I’ve owned had all the same issues.

so while you can get it serviced, I might rather look at selling it and buying a prime (that you try out first before buying). I’m not sure that I believe in a sharp zoom lens, at least not among the Fuji’s.

I’ve wondered why so many people say the Fuji zooms are sharp when I’ve never seen an example of such a thing myself. Either there’s something different about how our brains and perception work or Fuji has shipped some huge batches of defective lenses to my region of the world.

You must have indeed gotten a dud 16-55, mine is very sharp across the frame throughout its focal range, especially so towards the wide end. There are certainly plenty of subpar 18-55s out there.

I had a decentered 18-55mm i bought used. Sent it to fuji for repairs it came back approx 30% better but still not to my liking, i didnt want the hassle to redo the repair as i assumed it was within specs. I sold the lens with a bunch of test pictures so buyer knew it still had a soft side. I am very hesitant to buy 18-55mm without options of returning the lens to store. My 16-55 has no issues whatsoever.