Sigma 30 1.4 D80 D70 problems
InsuredDisaster
Registered Users Posts: 1,132 Major grins
I wanted to let others know about my experience with the Sigma 30 1.4 (for nikon) and the D300, D70, D80, and D40 camera bodies. I own the first two bodies listed. I also have experience with the ONE Sigma 30 copy. I may have had a bad copy, or it may indicate problems for all of them.
I purchased the Sigma 30 and tried it on my D300 in the store. It suffered from front focusing, which I corrected using the D300's AF fine tune option. I found it to be pretty good. If you have a D300, check for front and back focusing problems if you buy this lens.
A couple of days after buying the lens, I put it on my D70. It seemed to work ok, but much of the time, it "twiched" back and forth a bit around the focus point. It often would not lock focus. It tended to do in situations that I felt it should have any any trouble. So many photos were taken during the twitching and not in focus. This happened at even small apertures. I decided to bring it back to the store.
We thought it might have been my D70 and the manager tested the Sigma 30 on a D80. It showed the same behavior. He took it back to the "factory" as he put it, but I'm not sure if this was a Sigma factory, or a warehouse or something. His english is pretty good, but there may have been some mistakes for word choices.
Regardless, he called me and said that the Sigma people told him that their lens had problems with the D70 and D80 bodies. I called BS but went back in.
We tested the lens on the D40 next, since it could only work with the HSM and AFS motors. While I can't comment on how good the focus accuracy was, it locked focus every time, though it was a bit slow, at least compared to the D300. It appeared that the focus was pretty good too.
However, I find that my D70 attached to the screw drive Nikkor 50 1.4 or 35 2.0 was actually faster to focus than the Sigma 30 on the D40. I guess the D40 must be a slow focuser?
I ended up trading for the the Nikkor 35mm F2 lens. While a bit slower, and not quite as wide, it works on the D70.
So to sum up, if you have a D80 or D70, make sure you can return the lens if you buy it online. If you use the D70 or D80 as a second body, make sure you test the sigma 30 on those bodies, and not just your main body (if say, you have a D300.
Otherwise, the lense appeared pretty good. If I only had the D300, I would have been very happy with the lens. I just want my lenses to work on all of my cameras.
I purchased the Sigma 30 and tried it on my D300 in the store. It suffered from front focusing, which I corrected using the D300's AF fine tune option. I found it to be pretty good. If you have a D300, check for front and back focusing problems if you buy this lens.
A couple of days after buying the lens, I put it on my D70. It seemed to work ok, but much of the time, it "twiched" back and forth a bit around the focus point. It often would not lock focus. It tended to do in situations that I felt it should have any any trouble. So many photos were taken during the twitching and not in focus. This happened at even small apertures. I decided to bring it back to the store.
We thought it might have been my D70 and the manager tested the Sigma 30 on a D80. It showed the same behavior. He took it back to the "factory" as he put it, but I'm not sure if this was a Sigma factory, or a warehouse or something. His english is pretty good, but there may have been some mistakes for word choices.
Regardless, he called me and said that the Sigma people told him that their lens had problems with the D70 and D80 bodies. I called BS but went back in.
We tested the lens on the D40 next, since it could only work with the HSM and AFS motors. While I can't comment on how good the focus accuracy was, it locked focus every time, though it was a bit slow, at least compared to the D300. It appeared that the focus was pretty good too.
However, I find that my D70 attached to the screw drive Nikkor 50 1.4 or 35 2.0 was actually faster to focus than the Sigma 30 on the D40. I guess the D40 must be a slow focuser?
I ended up trading for the the Nikkor 35mm F2 lens. While a bit slower, and not quite as wide, it works on the D70.
So to sum up, if you have a D80 or D70, make sure you can return the lens if you buy it online. If you use the D70 or D80 as a second body, make sure you test the sigma 30 on those bodies, and not just your main body (if say, you have a D300.
Otherwise, the lense appeared pretty good. If I only had the D300, I would have been very happy with the lens. I just want my lenses to work on all of my cameras.
0
Comments
Was this behavior consistent in any light and with any focus mode?
Thanks,
Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
It was in AF-S or AF-C for the D70. It was indoors but not particularly dark, In fact, I'd say pretty reasonably bright for indoors. But it went downhill in the dark as well. The problem was that the Nikkor screw driver lenses were working flawlessly in any light, while the Sigma 30 was not. Actually, all of my lenses, both Nikkor and Sigma were working perfectly fine with the D70, except for the Sigma 30.
And of course, in the same light, the D40 worked.