New Lens Dead On Arrival

As I mentioned in a few previous blog entries, I sent an old Panasonic camera in for service to be converted to infrared sensitivity.  This will allow this particular camera to capture only monochrome infrared images rather than color images in visible light.  

Once I get the camera back, I'll be able to show some good examples of monochrome infrared images and more easily explain how this differs from typical black and white photography in visible light.  In the meantime, I ordered a tiny pancake lens (on the camera in this lead photo) which is supposed to be good in infrared light so it would be the perfect lens for this newly converted infrared camera.  

Some (or perhaps most) lenses are poor for infrared photography.  This particular one I ordered is reported by many photographers to be good in infrared light.  Another plus is that it is a tiny lens and I wanted a small lens for this small camera that I had converted to infrared.  Another plus is that it is a wider than average zoom lens.  Lenses with a wider view are always good for landscape photography.  So, there were many very good reasons for choosing this particular lens.

Well, I tried this lens yesterday.  The lens wouldn't even "turn-on".  It is sort of a weird lens that needs the zoom ring to be rotated to turn it on.  If you don't turn this lens on, then you can't see anything.

After spending about an hour trying to get it to work...  rotating the zoom ring which is the way to "turn it on"...  cleaning the contacts on the lens...  the lens simply would not turn on and the camera continued to show "Please rotate the zoom ring to extend lens".  After trying to get this lens to work for an hour or so, I gave up and started the return process. 

I boxed it up immediately with all the return paperwork and it is already at the Post Office.  Although eBay approved the return and sent all the appropriate authorizations, postage and mailing label, the seller was giving me a hard time this morning stating that I must not know how to use the lens.  I wrote him immediately and stated that I'm very familiar with this camera system and I am well aware of how this lens is supposed to operate.  I again explained everything that I had explained in my original correspondence to him yesterday and pointed out that the lens was indeed dead on arrival and it is already in the hands of the Post Office.  He can go pound sand.  After PayPal returns my money, he'll be getting very bad feedback from me on eBay.  

This morning after dealing with this annoying seller again, I decided I would order another lens.  I was so frustrated with the experience with this lens yesterday that I decided to sleep on it rather than immediately purchasing the same lens again from someone else.  I slept on it before making a decision on which way to go in replacing this lens and, this morning, I had originally decided that maybe this was a sign that I should order a different and better lens.  

Instead of the Panasonic 12-32mm pancake lens that I had originally chosen, I put an Olympus 9-18mm lens in my cart.  The Olympus lens is a better lens although, honestly, I do not like Olympus (actually, I may like Olympus even less than Nikon and Canon...  and that is saying something).  As this Olympus lens was in my cart and before I paid for it, I decided to do a little more research.  Admittedly, it was the fact that I was contemplating purchasing a lens manufactured by Olympus that was making me second guess my decision.  

There was no doubt that the Olympus lens was a better lens...  better build quality...  probably sharper...  it is even wider which would come in handy for landscape photography...  but, it was about double the price (on the used market) and perhaps more importantly, the lens itself was about double the size of the Panasonic lens.  In this particular case, size is a priority for me.  I really want a small...  as in tiny...  lens for this infrared purpose.  I want this tiny Panasonic camera to still be the smallest package even with a lens mounted on it.  This meant that I really would prefer the Panasonic 12-32mm lens.

So, I removed the Olympus lens from my cart and I ended up ordering another Panasonic 12-32mm lens on Amazon directly from Panasonic in Japan.  This lens should work properly unlike the used lens I purchased on eBay and returned yesterday.  The only thing that I find a bit frustrating is that I'll have to wait longer for this lens to arrive because it is coming here from Japan.  

The market for electronics, scientific, and optical equipment has dried up significantly here in the United States.  International trade was crippled by the previous administration, quietly, but abruptly and severely.  Now it is quite difficult to purchase many things that interest me.  It will take upwards of 20 years to fix what has been purposely dismantled and destroyed.  

I'm not too happy with a few of my most recent purchases on eBay lately so I might stop ordering through eBay.  I don't want to get into it now but, at the moment and after this defective lens debacle, I am very wary of purchasing anything on eBay again.  This is compounded by the fact that it really sucks that it is so difficult finding scientific and optical products now.  There are so few sources for retail purchases already so cutting out eBay will have a significant impact.  

I am, however, looking forward to getting this new lens from Panasonic in Japan.