Harrison Cameras - Any Experience with Customer Service ? (Faulty Lens)

gothgirl

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Harrison Cameras - Any Experience with Customer Service ?

I bought a used lens earlier in the year , that I'm not totally happy with , and I have emailed them about it today

Just wondering what's likely to happen, has anyone had any problems or returns with them

I bought a sigma 2.8 earlier in the year , but it keeps letting me down and is very inconsistant.
Occasionally I get a craking shot from it, but a lot of the time its missing foucs or being very slow to focus and when I do get a shot its not as sharp as it should be, it's also very slow / sluggish compared to my other lenses.
It's gotten to the point where I use my 18-55 more than this as it's more consistant
 
Exactly which Sigma lens?

TBH if you bought it "earlier in the year" to which I assume means more than a month ago then I wouldn't get your hopes up beyond a "we can get it serviced for you", I wouldn't expect a refund.

I don't know exactly which lens you have but some lenses are just a bit crap, that's by design and not a fault per-se. Actually, to say crap by design is probably a bit harsh but there is a reason for the price differences between cheap and expensive lenses and that isn't just basic sharpness, slow focus might just be a feature of the design.

Do you have any examples of where you're not happy?

edit: also, if you're shooting close subjects in the 70-200 range at f/2.8 the the DoF will be small and getting focus bang on might be difficult.
 
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It's the AF 18-50mm F2.8 EX DC

Originally I was very happy with it , and produced some great shots.

But the more I use it the more it seems to be "missing / inconsistant"...

It's become very sluggish , very slow to focus and often when it does the resulting pic just isn't that good , I bought it used in January and it seems the more I use it the worse it gets and it's also very stiff to zoom , and I'm worried it might eventually lock.

It will focus but takes a really long time, compared to the kit lens and prime lenses that I have.

The whole point of getting a 2.8 was to have a faster lens, which is a bit of a moot point when it takes 3x as long to focus on something as the kit lens does , by then my subject has moved / gone !
 
I'll have to try and find some examples, but I don't really have any saved as they all tend to end up on my reject pile !
 
They should send it to sigma on your behalf for inspection then repairs if the issue is manufacture related.
 
I've always found their customer service to be excellent. You get 12m warranty on all used items so I'd expect them to send it away to be fixed without any fuss.
 
Harrison cameras have a 12 month guarantee on their lenses so I'd just tell the what is wrong with it and I'm sure they'll arrange for it to be sorted out.

Have you tried the lens on another camera just to make sure it is the same on another body? If it is the same then it makes it much easier for it to be the lens that is the problem.

Does it focus in bright light quickly or slowly?
 
srichards said:
Harrison cameras have a 12 month guarantee on their lenses so I'd just tell the what is wrong with it and I'm sure they'll arrange for it to be sorted out.

Have you tried the lens on another camera just to make sure it is the same on another body? If it is the same then it makes it much easier for it to be the lens that is the problem.

Does it focus in bright light quickly or slowly?
Click to expand...

Does focus quicker in bright light then low light , (How handy for a 2.8 bought for speed and low light capabillities !) but it is literally not comparing to my 18-55 in terms of image quality, speed and reliabillity.

I'm bought the 2.8 as a walkabout , to save me swapping between my 18-55 & 50mm 1.8 all the time.

But it's just.... it's so hard to put into words its just bad .

It's slow, sluggish and the images aren't great , I mean yes I do make a lot of mistakes myself and I know that an under / over exposed image , or DOF issue is my fault and not the lenses

But I also know when I get the focus dead on where I want it , on my 60D the resulting pic should be pin sharp where I want it to be , and it is... If I use the 18-55, 50 1.8 or 55-250... but the sigma never is , it's always soft , get some great Bokeh from it but the part that should be sharp just never is as sharp as it is on the other lenses !

At the end of the day, it's not the most expensive glass in the world , think it was on sale when I bought it about £120 preowned... I'm not expecting L glass quality from it, but it should be a big step up from the platic fantastic kit lenses I have already , but it's just so clumsy and awkward and slow.
 
gothgirl said:
Does focus quicker in bright light then low light , (How handy for a 2.8 bought for speed and low light capabillities !) but it is literally not comparing to my 18-55 in terms of image quality, speed and reliabillity.

I'm bought the 2.8 as a walkabout , to save me swapping between my 18-55 & 50mm 1.8 all the time.

But it's just.... it's so hard to put into words its just bad .

It's slow, sluggish and the images aren't great , I mean yes I do make a lot of mistakes myself and I know that an under / over exposed image , or DOF issue is my fault and not the lenses

But I also know when I get the focus dead on where I want it , on my 60D the resulting pic should be pin sharp where I want it to be , and it is... If I use the 18-55, 50 1.8 or 55-250... but the sigma never is , it's always soft , get some great Bokeh from it but the part that should be sharp just never is as sharp as it is on the other lenses !

At the end of the day, it's not the most expensive glass in the world , think it was on sale when I bought it about £120 preowned... I'm not expecting L glass quality from it, but it should be a big step up from the platic fantastic kit lenses I have already , but it's just so clumsy and awkward and slow.
Click to expand...

Its pretty simple really, take a shot of a cereal box/similar with camera on tripod in decent light, post the result.
 
Well I had another go with the lens, this time using flash.

It is definetly better with flash , not perfect but better...

So low light is definetly an issue with the lens , but then again I used it in bright sunlight the other day at the zoo , and it was still very very slow compared to the 18-55

It still takes a long time to focus compared to other lenses.

Harrisons said I can send it back to them for them to look at
 
Here's an example.

This was just a quick one, took with flash.
Better than it is without flash , but I don't know , to me this still looks soft , and the focus was bang on the snake where it should be.

Done at

1/250 , ISO 400, F3.5
On a Canon 60D
 

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