Re the clinking noise. I have just tried a da*200 lens in a camera shop and found that it made a similar sound. Panic over

Can anyone tell if hearing the sound of the elements clink when the lens reaches infinity or zero when I manually focus my da"200 is normal?

Re my focus adjustment. I have been using this focal length regularly for a year now and rarely have I used or felt I needed to us a tripod and I doubt I will use one much with this lens in the future. I now know that if I do use my lens on a tripod it will, adjustment being correct, focus accurately. In my normal use handheld I doubt an adjustment of +3 will make a noticeable difference. My technique is not that good. Now if it had been a + or- 10 that's a different kettle of fish.

Please if anyone can comment re the clinking ie if it is normal or not it would be much appreciated.

At last a fine day. I could do the test outside at 30m on a tripod with 2 sec timer with flat high contrast target. again using the dot-tune method. This time got consistent results refocusing several times. -2 to +9 when refocused from infinity and -4 to +8 when refocused the other way which gives about a plus 3.

I am assuming that the different results when refocusing from different directions is due to mechanical tolerances in the focus mechanism and the fact that I can hear, in a quiet room, a clinking sound when the elements reach the focus stops at infinity and Zero is normal. What do you think?

Thanks for your reply. That makes complete sense but I would have thought that in focus would be in focus as long its within minimum and infinity. Then again if you are saying that a lenses focus drifts depending on aperture or distance to subject then after having read several threads it seems that checking the lens at a variety of distances and taking an average is best or at the distance at which the lens is used most often.

I have had my da*200 for a 6 months now. Recently the images have seemed a little soft so I thought maybe I should adjust focus. Using a printed focus chart, tripod , 2 sec timer, shot at 45 degrees I found that +7 was needed and it seemed better. Then I read this post and realized that when I did the test I had been much too close to the target. 8 feet. So I did it again.

My set up basically the same but 90 degrees, at a distance of 17 feet and the target was my laptop screen diplaying a focus target at 100%. I tried the dot-tune method @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zE50jCUPhM. First attempt I found the hexagon focus indicator stayed lit in the range of -4 to + 9

This gives about a +3.5 but after rechecking several times alternating focusing from out of focus at infinity to focused and out of focus at minimum focus distance to focused I found a large variation in results eg -7 to +7, -8 to +4, -6 to +10 etc.

I rechecked the Dot-tune method and apparently the above method is not very accurate because it does not take into account mechanical tolerances of the lens.

So could this be the reason for the variable results or does the lens have a fault?

Also why does the lens have to be tested at a mimimum of 25x focal length?
I would like to test it again but at a greater distance which would mean outdoors but unfortunately the weather has been terrible of late.

I realise this is off topic but about this dust. I posted about there being dust in my brand spanking new da*200 lens. I all a got was that all lenses have dust even new ones anyway it does affect image quality.

Can there be some consensus on this. Is it dust visible to the naked eye that is a problem or only if a strong light is shone through the lens because as far as my da"200 is concerned if I shine a light into it we are not talking about a few specs but a galaxy of dust. This lens has a known weakness where flare is concerned and internal dust will only compound this problem.

Thanks for taking the time to look. Sorry. There are no comparison shots just some shots taken with my very first copy which and others with my most recent copy. My mistake I forget that if I haven't used a rock solid tripod with 2 second timer with both lenses at the same settings on the same k30 body photographing the exact same subject in the exact same lighting conditions then it is impossible to make any kind of judgement. Sorry I wasted my time and yours.

I am replying to my own post. 2nd sign of madness as the first is talking to oneself

I have a suspicion that my first copy of the Da*200 bought on 211212 was actually operating at a smaller aperture than f2.8 even though I set the camera to f2.8 and the exif says f2.8.

I suspect this because the images taken seem to have more depth of field and seem too good for wide open. To me they look better, contrast, colour, and sharpness wise.than any other copy of the da* 200 I have used. I returned that lens because there were what appeared to be several spots of oil on one of the internal elements. This was confirmed at the shop.

There are other examples of images taken with the lens at my link

What do you think?

Eee bi gum. Absolutely. At the shop I exchanged it they asked how much I was offered by the other shop - 36000 yen, 102000 new, they assured me that they would have given me 50,000yen and regarding the dust I have a 77ltd which has a galaxy of dust inside and it does not seem to affect the images. What really bothered me was the affect on resale value.

You must have been lucky because I have just returned the lens to the shop. No refund allowed and they let me choose from 3 copies. Gave me a pen light and let me check for dust. Each copy several specks of dust. Having read the web page on the lens tip site about dust and how every lens even new has dust then I was not surprised to see it. So I took a few shots with each and picked what I thought had the best image quality.

On returning home I tried the lens and nothing happened. I pressed the shutter button and the lens did not respond. Unbelievable I thought. So to check it was not the camera body I tried my 43ltd screw drive. That worked. When I replaced the da*200 on the camera it started working again. I hope fingers crossed that it was just a bit of dirt on the contacts! I will give it a thorough test tomorrow afternoon.