sigma 18-250mm DC OS HSM issue with D5K


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Wurdelak

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i went to funan this morning to buy a lens, am choosing between the tamron 18-270mm VC and the sigma 18-250... went to allan photo and ask the salesman if i could test both lenses. i tried the tamron first, focusing was not bad as i've read on the reviews, and sharpness is remarkable (tried several shots with it...), macro function is also ok, no lens creep either... then i tried the sigma 18-250 DC OS HSM, when the salesman mounted it on my D5K, F-- appeared on the LCD... i dunno what that means, but anyways, i tried to shoot with the lens, but it cant autofocus, so i tried doing manual, but still can't find the focus... the salesman got another copy and mounted it on my cam, same thing appeared on the LCD F-- (what does that mean anyway?), the salesman, quite embarassed, took out a D5K from their stocks and mounted the lens on it... still the same thing appear, and the lens can't work... i tried the sigma 18-200mm OS HSM, and it worked... but am not convinced in it's performance in terms of focusing speed and sharpness (am not anti sigma... in fact, am using the sigma 70-300mm). i end up getting the tamron. anybody experienced the same with the sigma 18-250mm DC OS HSM? any explanation about why this happened? what does F-- in the lcd mean? hope some experts here could enlighten me about this... would like to share this experience for bros contemplating about getting this lens as well... maybe this is an isolated case, but i hope this helps... thanks!
 

As I cannot read text without formatting, I have tidy up the original text to make it more readable. Thanks for sharing your experience.

So you are saying the second Sigma 18-250mm lens works on your camera and not on the one from Alan Photo's sales counter?

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[... Re-formatted the original text for easier reading]

I went to Funan this morning to buy a lens; choosing between the Tamron 18-270mm VC and the Sigma 18-250mm. I went to Allan Photo and asked the salesman if I could test both lenses. I tried the Tamron first, focusing was not bad as I've read in the reviews and sharpness is remarkable (tried several shots with it...); macro function is also ok; no lens creep either.

Then I tried the Sigma 18-250mm DC OS HSM. When the salesman mounted it on my D5K, the F-- appeared on the LCD. I dunno what that means but anyways, I tried to shoot with the lens but it can't autofocus. I tried doing manual, still it can't find the focus. The salesman got another copy of the lens and mounted it on my camera, same thing appeared on the LCD F-- (what does that mean anyway?).

The salesman, quite embarassed, took out another D5K from their stocks and mounted the lens on it with the same thing appearing and the lens can't work. I tried the Sigma 18-200mm OS HSM and it worked. I am not convinced with it's performance in terms of focusing speed and sharpness (am not anti Sigma, in fact am using the sigma 70-300mm). I end up getting the Tamron.

Anybody experienced the same issue with the Sigma 18-250mm DC OS HSM? Is there any explanation about why this happened? What does F-- in the lcd mean? Hope some experts here could enlighten me about this. I would like to share this experience for bros contemplating about getting this lens as well. Perhaps this is an isolated case but i hope this helps... Thanks!
 

"So you are saying the second Sigma 18-250mm lens works on your camera and not on the one from Alan Photo's sales counter?"

the 2nd 18-250mm sigma also did'nt work as well, in my cam and the salesperson's cam too... only the 18-200mm worked.
 

For my sony, sometimes i get that problem as well. It's due to not mounting the lenses properly. The camera cannot detect the lens. Sometimes change lens too fast it didnt lock in
 

For my sony, sometimes i get that problem as well. It's due to not mounting the lenses properly. The camera cannot detect the lens. Sometimes change lens too fast it didnt lock in

that's something sigma has to address... i would've taken the sigma 18-250 that day if that thing did'nt happen...
 

i went to funan this morning to buy a lens, am choosing between the tamron 18-270mm VC and the sigma 18-250... went to allan photo and ask the salesman if i could test both lenses. i tried the tamron first, focusing was not bad as i've read on the reviews, and sharpness is remarkable (tried several shots with it...), macro function is also ok, no lens creep either... then i tried the sigma 18-250 DC OS HSM, when the salesman mounted it on my D5K, F-- appeared on the LCD... i dunno what that means, but anyways, i tried to shoot with the lens, but it cant autofocus, so i tried doing manual, but still can't find the focus... the salesman got another copy and mounted it on my cam, same thing appeared on the LCD F-- (what does that mean anyway?), the salesman, quite embarassed, took out a D5K from their stocks and mounted the lens on it... still the same thing appear, and the lens can't work... i tried the sigma 18-200mm OS HSM, and it worked... but am not convinced in it's performance in terms of focusing speed and sharpness (am not anti sigma... in fact, am using the sigma 70-300mm). i end up getting the tamron. anybody experienced the same with the sigma 18-250mm DC OS HSM? any explanation about why this happened? what does F-- in the lcd mean? hope some experts here could enlighten me about this... would like to share this experience for bros contemplating about getting this lens as well... maybe this is an isolated case, but i hope this helps... thanks!

It simply means that Sigma didn't do a good job in reverse engineering the communication signals between the camera body and lens. The thing about 3rd party lenses, eg Tamron, Sigma, Tokina etc is that they derive the communication signals between the body and lens by observing the signals that is going on (reverse engineering). Nikon, Canon, Sony, (except the 4/3 consortium) etc do not provide them with their proprietary protocol. So sometimes, they 'guessed' correct, sometimes don't. So it may work on an older body but may not behave properly with a newer body.
 

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