gocolts wrote:
My 400DO/70-300L combo gives me very little concern- yet the miscellaneous failures on the Sigma 120-300 OS is partly why I sold it in favor of the 400 DO, I'd hate to take a flight somewhere and find I no longer have a useable lens because the lens banged around a little too much in my carry-on. I realize many have had nothing but great luck, but it's still a reasonable concern.
You are correct.
However, there are reasons to be also concerned with some canon lenses, yet people are not.
The 70-200 2.8 IS II also has a very high rate of failures, yet people do not talk about it and are not concerned about it as well, and don't take this fact into consideration while deciding to purchase the lens or not.
The previous version was also failure-prone, and so is nikon's version.
A few years ago (2005, give or take a year) I stumbled upon a thread where there was a FM member talking about failure of the IS system on his 70-200 2.8 IS (version I, of course).
A few others chimed in and referred to their experiences as well.
I was very surprised, since I visited the forum daily and never "heard" about these issues.
So I started a poll, asking about this specific issue.
I was AMAZED at the number of failures FM members had experienced!
The percentage was very, very high.
Yet there was no general previous talk about it....
All was forgiven, it's an L lens, it was in most professional photogs bags, etc etc...
When it happened to someone, they seemed to consider it bad luck and did not talk about the fact.
But a sigma lens fails and it's the end of the world...
I agree with you and say that I will be the first to admit that sigma's 120-300 OS does have a very high rate of failures.
But there are also canon/nikon professional lenses with similar (almost as) bad performances but people do seem to have double standards.
The sigma 120-300 OS is a fantastic lens and people should not choose to not buy it because of fear of mechanical failure just as they they should not do the same regarding, for example, any 70-200 with image/optical/vibration stabilization system.
BTW, here is something that people don't talk as well: v1 of all the IS versions of the big whites should be used with some frequency. Leaving them sit still for an extended period of time can cause a failure of the USM system.
P.S.
Just for reference, I own the 70-200 2.8 IS II and yes, I am somewhat concerned. But that did not stop me from buying it.
Or the 120-300 OS.
The way I've seen people use the 70-200 out in the field for real sports and PJ work, I'm not surprised that their are a lot of repair issues. Pros treat this lens as an extra dangling appendage hanging off their shoulder and banging around into everything at all times while they shoot their 2nd body and some other lens.
Interesting that Adobe LR 5.3 has added support for many lenses including the Tamron 150-600. Hopefully this means it'll be shipping rather soon as I 'd expect it means it's out of development phase for lens profiles to appear.
Pixel Perfect wrote:
Interesting that Adobe LR 5.3 has added support for many lenses including the Tamron 150-600. Hopefully this means it'll be shipping rather soon as I 'd expect it means it's out of development phase for lens profiles to appear.
Well yeah. What are you doing down under? Get up to speed:
Yeah, but that assumes I want to buy anything from B&H, which I don't. I can get far cheaper prices elsewhere and don't have to bend over and be raped on shipping charges.
Tamron just announced that the 150-600mm will be released in Japan for the Canon mount first on Dec 19th. We should start seeing some reviews soon. And pricing in Japan has been set at 140,000 yen ($1350 US).
December 13, 2013, Commack, N.Y. - Tamron Co., Ltd. (President & CEO: Morio Ono), a leading manufacturer of precision optics, has announced the release of an innovative ultra-telephoto zoom lens with a focal length range of 150mm to 600mm for full-frame and APS-C format DSLR cameras. The SP 150-600mm Di VC USD lens is priced at $1069 and will be available in the USA on January 17, 2014.
Karl Witt wrote:
December 13, 2013, Commack, N.Y. - Tamron Co., Ltd. (President & CEO: Morio Ono), a leading manufacturer of precision optics, has announced the release of an innovative ultra-telephoto zoom lens with a focal length range of 150mm to 600mm for full-frame and APS-C format DSLR cameras. The SP 150-600mm Di VC USD lens is priced at $1069 and will be available in the USA on January 17, 2014.
hoodlum90 wrote:
Do you have a link to the press release?
Sit tight, I have inside info that tells me it is officially being prepared at this moment for release..................................
Sweeeeet!
Karl
