Lens Defect Survey

I've setup a survey on my LensPlay website to try to find out just how many lenses slip though quality control with defects.

On many web forums there are complaints about brand new lenses being defective when taken out of the box, but it' shard to get a real measure of just what fraction of lenses are defective since I'm sure that 99% of those getting a good lens don't bother to post a message, but a large fraction of those getting a defective lens do post a complaint. That's just human nature.

I'm hoping that both those who have received good lenses and those who have received defective lenses will post their experiences in the survey which can be found here on the LensPlay Website

Note that the reason it's not posted on this website is that the LensPlay site is backed with a database whereas this website (BobAtkins.com) is a flat file (non-database) system. Surveys are much easier to run and the results are much easier to analyze when the data is stored in a database.

UPDATE - 12/20/06 - As promised earlier, now that data on a significant number of lenses has been received I'm fairly comfortable in publishing some initial results which are summarized in the bar chart below which shows the relative probability of getting a good or defective lens according to the survey data. The number in white is the number of lens reports received for each manufacturer listed.

As you can see, for every manufacturer, you are far more likely to receive a good lens than one which you consider to be in some way defective, but a small fraction of lenses from all sources arrive with defects, ranging from small focus problems to more serious defects.

The survey results come with the usual caveat that surveys only survey those users who chose to participate (a self selected sample) and so may not be an accurate reflection of a truly random sample of lens purchases. It's also possible some people didn't provide accurate data. However as more survey results are added, the results get more statistically significant and the influence of any one report diminishes. I'll revise the plot when more data has come in, maybe in a week or two.

You can participate in the survey and read more details on the Lens Defect Survey page