The other day Court and I are shooting my cousins baby pictures when Court says to me “Hey hunny is that a crack in our 24-70?” I can feel my heart sink as she hands me the lens to confirm. To be honest my wife is somewhat of a goof ball so I knew there was a 50/50 shot it could be dog hair or something, this is the same girl that did not know what an eggplant was when I met her ¯\_(ツ) _/¯. I take a look at the lens and of course it is cracked! We have the worst luck, it flooded among other things on our wedding day! I am adding up the cost before I even tell her it is cracked. I am thinking this has to cost us at least four-hundred dollars for a new front element and the lens is only around nine-hundred dollars new, so is it even worth it? I am sure my wife will attest that when something like this happens it is all I can think about not to mention the fact that I am now enrolled to be permanently researching what to do on my phone until this crisis is adverted or we at least reach a satisfactory resolution. So the next day I end up contacting Tamron, our lens manufacturer, about our little situation. I tell them that we had never abused or dropped the lens but that there is a small crack in the front element. I reluctantly ask them how much a new front element would cost for our 24-70 g2 lens. At this point I am fully expecting some astronomical number that will ruin my day. To my surprise the Tamron representative tells me that if it is only the front element it should cost about sixty dollars to replace. Did I just hear her right? Only sixty dollars? I graciously thank her and provide my email information for the shipping procedure information. At this point I just wanted to hurry up and send this lens back the next day before Tamron changes their mind and gives me the real price! I will be writing another blog in the near future about how I package lenses for shipping. I package the lens and after a couple days I get an email from Tamron with a service quote. It quotes me $264.00 for the repair. I immediately contact Tamron on the phone and explain that I was told that my repair was quoted at sixty dollars fully expecting them to shut me down. Again to my surprise the Tamron representative tells me that it is no problem and that they will comp the parts that were not reused. I immediately call Court and give her the good news. Tamron made the repair and my lens was returned to me two days later. I definitely want to give a shout out to Tamron for their excellent customer service. To my surprise they even updated my lens so that it will work with my new Nikon Z6! So a few take homes for all of my fellow photogs out there. First of all and most importantly, I would recommend investing in extra thick zipper cases for your lenses. Second, if the unthinkable happens and you do crack a lens: spend the time to contact the manufacturer and get an actual quote for lens repair because they just might surprise you. Finally if the repair is higher than expected I would spend the time to ask why. If it is still expensive I would look into a reputable camera repair shop. My dad was in the newspaper business for years and used a local shop in Lancaster, Pa for lens repairs and had nothing but good things to say about them. Let me know if anyone has any questions on this subject and I would be happy to help you out!