Is it me, or is Nikon having some inconsistencies in their QC testing of their lenses?
I hate to talk about almost anything in a negative way, but if I do it's usually just to get the hairs of my test in frustration and loss in shipping and insurance costs due to returns.
It did start out with my 50 f/1.8G, which exhibited misalignment in the elements that cause asymmetrical distortion, imagine a rectangle in the viewfinder of a perfect lens with an imaginary vertical (or horizontal or both) center line through the middle.
Well my copy had it better on the left side when shooting a test chart, but on the right side it was heavily skewed down towards the top right corner and resulting in even more blurriness in that particular region.
Now I have just received my brand new copy of the Nikon 24-120mm f/4G VR, and does something similar, but to a lesser degree mostly in the wider region. Again being the asymmetry.
I don't know from others experience, but I hate the idea that I have to shop for a good copy of anything. I have owned Nikon gear in the past, in fact I was fairly heavily invested, before selling it all off, because I had two systems but decided to stay with my Canon system for some subjective reasons. In the past, I never felt I had to shop for items as described. In fact I great samples from Canon and Nikon. Only company I had to keep returning, and not for exchanges but for full refunds was Sigma, I now own the Canon mount Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG A1 lens, which I believe I got right in one shot! I love the lens
However, today, I am trying to buy back into Nikon, but feel somewhat challenged
The main reason I do the shots with test charts, is because anything off is instantly recognizable, instead of isolated portraiture with blurred bokeh backgrounds, believe me, I wished I never had to shoot these test images.
-Rant End-