After 29 days of waiting, 3 out of 5pcs of Carclo lens order arrived with tool marks today. Very disappointed because I am already late for my builds. To my surprise, vendor told me that it seem to be a common issue and there are more lenses having the same problem out there.
Have this been discussed before? Do you think it is acceptable standard for such a big company? How come these flawed lenses are not scrapped during QC?
Almost 1.5mm in length.
The general appearance of those lenses looks very poor… A lot of minor scratches in addition to the ones you pointed out.
Curious about your vendor… The Carlco lenses I’ve received from Mountain have been perfectly clean and scratch free. The condition of yours makes me think they may be factory seconds/rejects? Or possibly handled improperly by the vendor?
How were they packaged? Maybe the damage is from poor packaging in transit?
Tool/ machining mark pattern is consistent for all 3 pieces. It is not due to packaging as vendor has already acknowledged that it is factory problem.
It won't hurt the beam pattern, although it can be seen. Not a machine mark, as these are molded parts. It is a flaw in the molding process and there is no quality control any more in most processes. It's up to the production people to QC their own stuff, (cost savings for the Mfg, meaning more money for the boss), but usually the workers don't have the time to do any of their own checks, because they are overloaded with work. Typical of modern manufacturing. Most likely, since it does not affect the beam, the bosses would have decided to let them go anyhow, since they are only a visual defect and that's not an important thing in most applications of these optics.
All of the ones I have marks of some kind similar to those. It bothers me too.
Contact the manufacturer directly and email your pic to their CS rep. I doubt these are production flaws. Given all of the marks and scratches, it looks well used by someone lacking any skills and then returned.
Hmm I’ve never gotten one with defects like that. looks like a scratch on the outside of the cone to me.
I always get my carclos from led supply; US based and free shipping on tiny items.
With marks like that, I would doubt they are genuine Carclo. Maybe change supplier for your next order?
Understood, not machine marks. I am not sure about current manufacturing process, we have triple checks on all our development processes in my ex-company factory.
My impression of optics company packed with meticulous workers.
Of course, those are lenses cost a whole lot more.
It is rather annoying. These lenses do not deserve a place for my new build.
My Mountain batch was perfect in the past.
I’d guess these came from a lowest-price China source?
(based on your saying you got only part of your order after a month).
I haven’t had any issues out of the ones from Mountain Electronics. Look like small flaws to me from the molding process, or literally the bottom of the barrel… It obviously bothers you, but would not bug me.
It is a known store in here. I don't want to mention their name but it is not hard to guess. All my orders have arrived.
Yup, I bought from Mountain last year and they were great. I think I will go back to them for my replacement.
If they have been honest and stated it a flawed product, I would have avoided it in the first place as I need perfect copies. However, I don't mind getting them for own use if they slash the price for the defects.
Where did you buy it from? So that I can avoid it because I am also planning to buy that carclo lens for my triple build. Can you pm me the store if you don’t want to mention it here. Thanks.
“Honest” and “flawed” suffer in translation, as do many other words. Have you seen the place that advertises some, not all, of their items as “100 percent Authentic ……”?
Usually the big Chinese sellers have no idea what they are selling, never see it, and wouldn’t know if they did get one.
The few times I’ve actually gotten a customer rep to get hold of a flashlight, the next message says they’re not allowed to take it apart to see what’s inside it to answer my question.
They publish descriptions from their sources, they advertise, they take orders, they send money somewhere else and someone buys or builds something sort of like what was ordered and drop-ships it.
Each step of the way, someone has the chance to save a penny by cutting a corner.
Look up mentions of the book “Poorly Made in China” here and at Amazon reviews, for the pattern.
Welcome to the lottery.
It has been their way of doing business in China for the past decade or so. No one is denying it.
This vendor is trusted seller in here, and most of us have been buying from them for pretty long time. Since I have already received my refund, I think it is time to move on.
Thread will serve as a record for bad copies of Carclo 3-up lenses.