sigma lens aperture sticking

Bountyphotographer

Final question before I send it back ( again) to the repair shop.

Anyone has experience with a sticky aperture?
Ive been struggling with my 24-70 2.8 Sigma lens for the past 8 months, I had it for the over 5 years now and I love that lens it has been very good to me.
Sometimes I shoot 40 shots everything is fine and other time 2 shots and the aperture get stuck.
I sent it to Sigma New York but they could not see anything wrong, they sent it back to me and the lens was fine for a couple months. Now the viewfinder get dark after 2-5 shots.
All I have to do is to barely unscrew the lens then screw it back and voila clear viewfind ready to shoot 1-3 shots:scratch:scratch:scratch:scratch. I cleaned up the contact, but didnt do much

I know I know its time to send it back to the repair shop but anyone has similar experience???

Thanks

jaggy

same thing here
I have the Sigma 17-35 f2.8 (82mm filter size) and the exact thing just started happening!
I think I have to agree that it is a sticky aperture. My auto focus just rotates from side to side, unable to lock on anything when it acts up, and the viewfinder gets very dark light someone turned out the lights... sometimes I can simply remove the lens and put it back, and it works for 3 or 4 more shots. sometimes just powering off and on will do it, most of the time it requires a lot of cussing and yelling at it to get it working again,
No Idea how much to repair something like this yet, and I have not found a solid solution yet, but I am working diligently on it...

jaggy

this worked for me (so far)
After much more research, I have at least diagnosed the problem, It is definately a sticky apeture. I can look through the lens (un-attached from the camera) and see when it is supposed to be wide open, it is almost completely closed. I attached it to the camera, set it to f/4,(for some reason, that is open as it would go) and very gently tapped on the body of the lens with my fingers, and it popped right open! it has given me about 40 pictures so far, and has not stuck closed again yet, and it is stopping all the way to 2.8 again...
Appearently, it just needs to be cleaned at the blade level.
I'll post if it messes up again, or I take it in for repair...

ntotrr

Did you send your lens to Sigma USA in Ronkonkoma, NY or to Chandler, AZ? The company in AZ is under contract with Sigma and perhaps you'd have better success with Sigma directly in NY. I've brought a few items in personally and they always take care of my problems.

ntotrr

ntotrr wrote: »

Did you send your lens to Sigma USA in Ronkonkoma, NY or to Chandler, AZ? The company in AZ is under contract with Sigma and perhaps you'd have better success with Sigma directly in NY. I've brought a few items in personally and they always take care of my problems.

Sorry, I see you did send in to NY.

jdroest

Got exact same problem with same lens! Sigma f2.8 24-70 EX DG etc. Has worked fine for 5 years since I got it, casual use as I found it a difficult range in the end but still love the lens, but have it here in Italy with me and after 10,000 shots in the last week, not only has the focus failed (it prevents focusing below 5feet), but the aperture has become incredibly sticky to the point that it's now stuck closed at around f6.3ish.

Very annoyed and a Canon 15-85 is on it's way out here to replace it!

ziggy53

jdroest wrote: »

Got exact same problem with same lens! Sigma f2.8 24-70 EX DG etc. Has worked fine for 5 years since I got it, casual use as I found it a difficult range in the end but still love the lens, but have it here in Italy with me and after 10,000 shots in the last week, not only has the focus failed (it prevents focusing below 5feet), but the aperture has become incredibly sticky to the point that it's now stuck closed at around f6.3ish.

Very annoyed and a Canon 15-85 is on it's way out here to replace it!

Sorry to hear about the Sigma problems, but congratulations on the Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM UD.

In good light that 15-85mm zoom has some very nice properties.

jdroest

ziggy53 wrote: »

Sorry to hear about the Sigma problems, but congratulations on the Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM UD.

In good light that 15-85mm zoom has some very nice properties.

Obsessively checking the DHL tracking number now Really looking forward to the better focal range. Gonna miss f2.8 though, but i'm purely doing outside work so it should be ok.

Question is - what to do with the Sigma though. Repair and Ebay it?

jdroest

Absolutely love this 15-85! Got it last night and spent the day with it. Wish I had bought it sooner!

TPT

More problems...
I know this thread is quite old but I thought I would open it up again as i am having these issues with my Sigma 24-70 f2.8 also. Did anyone find a solution?

Seems that it is not uncommon for this lens to experience this.

T

Peterdphotos

Sigma Lens Aperture issues

Bountyphotographer wrote: »

Final question before I send it back ( again) to the repair shop.

Anyone has experience with a sticky aperture?
Ive been struggling with my 24-70 2.8 Sigma lens for the past 8 months, I had it for the over 5 years now and I love that lens it has been very good to me.
Sometimes I shoot 40 shots everything is fine and other time 2 shots and the aperture get stuck.
I sent it to Sigma New York but they could not see anything wrong, they sent it back to me and the lens was fine for a couple months. Now the viewfinder get dark after 2-5 shots.
All I have to do is to barely unscrew the lens then screw it back and voila clear viewfind ready to shoot 1-3 shotsscratchscratch. I cleaned up the contact, but didnt do much

I know I know its time to send it back to the repair shop but anyone has similar experience???

Thanks

This may not help you as it's been years but I found your post while searching for the same problem. In my case it was with both my 24-70 2.8 DG HSM & 12-24 DG HSM. They both worked for a couple years then one by one they began to work only some of the times. When I say work that is that I could not adjust the aperture. Although occasional at first it then became where they did not work hardly at all. Yes, contacts were cleaned many times on both lenses and bodies. Btw, the Sigma lens issue was with both my D300S & D700. Interestingly, for now at least the 24-70 seems to work fine on my D800. I sent them both to Sigma repair in NY at different times (I sent them there twice about 6months apart) and when I got them they were pretty much as bad as before I sent them. Sent back again ( Although the Service dept people were nice to deal with it amazed me that they kept no records of the first repair as a reference. Ok fast forward. I gave the 12-24 away to a friend but kept the 24-70 using it rarely and I'd say it worked about 20% of the time however with no consistency. Now the warranty was up and I thought about the whole thing. Paying almost 2k for those lines and getting about two years service at best! Thats when I contacted Sigma service, explained my ongoing issue and get this, reminding them that they published two of my photos on their website which remained there for 2 years.! Of course now I only had the 24-70 and they offered to fix it free even out of warranty so back again for the third time. Came back, worked fine. Took it on a photo shoot and guess what? yep, not working again!! It would occasionally work after repeated removals but it now makes a fair paper weight. Would I buy a Sigma lens? Never! Oh, I almost forgot. My I had also a 150-500mm which was sent to Sigma twice for AF issues. That they seem dot fix but I sold it while it still worked. The lady that bought it contacted me a year later and told me she sent it back to Sigma twice while still under a 3 year extended warranty but in her case they fixed it finally and was happy. Whew! I know this sounds incredible but sadly it is true.

Bountyphotographer

WOW BACK FORM THE PAST .
The lens is doing fine now after upgrading the software in my camera????
Not sure why but it now works fine..hopefully I wont jinx myself

Bountyphotographer

HowardT

> @Bountyphotographer said:
> Final question before I send it back ( again) to the repair shop.
>
> Anyone has experience with a sticky aperture?
> Ive been struggling with my 24-70 2.8 Sigma lens for the past 8 months, I had it for the over 5 years now and I love that lens it has been very good to me.
> Sometimes I shoot 40 shots everything is fine and other time 2 shots and the aperture get stuck.
> I sent it to Sigma New York but they could not see anything wrong, they sent it back to me and the lens was fine for a couple months. Now the viewfinder get dark after 2-5 shots.
> All I have to do is to barely unscrew the lens then screw it back and voila clear viewfind ready to shoot 1-3 shots:scratch:scratch:scratch:scratch. I cleaned up the contact, but didnt do much
>
> I know I know its time to send it back to the repair shop but anyone has similar experience???
>
> Thanks

HowardT

I have a new version Sigma 70-200 2.8 DC OS HSM that has in the past two days started sticking the aperture. The viewfinder is dimmed when it happens because the blades have not returned to full open. I can create the problem easily by using the manual stop-down button while looking through the viewfinder. When the error occurs, and the lens is removed from the camera, the blades are stuck in the previous f position. Here is what I did to eliminate the problem, at least for now. Starting at about f 5.6, and keep pressing the stop-down, keep choosing a higher number until the sticking blades become almost continual on every stop-down depression. Back up to the previous f-number, and continue to press the stop-down to exercise the blades until it no longer sticks. Now move to the next higher number and continue to do the same, until it no longer sticks. Continued this process up to and including f22, and until it would no longer stick. So far so good, all working fine. No more sticking at any f-number.

HowardT

I've been pressing stop-down button rapidly now for about 20 minutes with f22 and have not had a single aperture stick happen.

tomy2t0n

> @HowardT said:
> > @Bountyphotographer said:
> > Final question before I send it back ( again) to the repair shop.
> >
> > Anyone has experience with a sticky aperture?
> > Ive been struggling with my 24-70 2.8 Sigma lens for the past 8 months, I had it for the over 5 years now and I love that lens it has been very good to me.
> > Sometimes I shoot 40 shots everything is fine and other time 2 shots and the aperture get stuck.
> > I sent it to Sigma New York but they could not see anything wrong, they sent it back to me and the lens was fine for a couple months. Now the viewfinder get dark after 2-5 shots.
> > All I have to do is to barely unscrew the lens then screw it back and voila clear viewfind ready to shoot 1-3 shots:scratch:scratch:scratch:scratch. I cleaned up the contact, but didnt do much
> >
> > I know I know its time to send it back to the repair shop but anyone has similar experience???
> >
> > Thanks
>
>
Did you fix your issue? I also have a sigma 28-70 2.8 first version and I found out the hard way about a sticking aperture. Mine is very easily replicated shooting on high frame rates you can see that aperture sticking at different variations. Totally unreliable for now. Is it worth repairing? Mine appears to be the 17th model made by the serial if that's true.

thanks