I decided to take advantage of the substantial GFX savings like many others and ordered a Fujinon GF 110mm f/2 R LM WR from B&H Photo on the last day of the sale. When I received the package everything was normal until I unboxed the lens. At first, I thought my new lens was cracked because there was a 2-inch black plastic filing stuck on the glass that looked like a crack, but I was able to brush it off (wish I took a photo). Then when I took a closer look the lens was covered in fuzz like someone rolled it in lint.
After cleaning the lens I looked through the glass and it appeared relatively clear at first until I shined a light through the lens then I noticed the same fuzz throughout the elements along with some larger specks. I did my best to photograph the fuzz inside the lens along with the specks, but most of it is very light and the Fujinon XF 60mm f/2.4 R Macro isn’t great for this kind of capture.
The previous copy of this lens that I had for a few months was an absolutely perfect copy and all of my other GFX lenses came perfectly clean and are holding up well. Further, I am an FPS member so I could get this lens cleaned for free faster than exchanging it, which B&H Photo agreed to do without an issue, but there is more. The lens hood came with a rather large crack in it and the hood is very thick.
I know there have been some reports of a speck here or there, but I have never seen a lens this bad from Fujifilm, nor have I ever purchased a lens that came in this shape. There was no damage to the shipping container or box and these lenses come very well packaged, so I have to presume this damage occurred entirely at Fujifilm. The lint coating had to have happened at the factory because the lens comes tightly wrapped in plastic and the plastic and inside of the box were clean. The cracked hood also likely occurred at the factory before packaging and went unnoticed while packaging.
I reached out to a few of my contacts to see if I can learn more about what might have happened and if this is an outlier or if Fujifilm is having some difficulties with production. Some sites are downplaying incidents like these when they pop up, but when you spend this kind of money on a lens it should come with no more than maybe a spec in the lens that doesn’t affect the image in the worst case. Thankfully quality retailers will exchange these lenses without an issue, but it is very inconvenient.
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