Digital SLR And Lens Buy High Quality Digital SLR and Lens at discount price

1. 

   Gordon
   March 21st, 2010 - 14:43

   Sigma 24mm f/1.8 EX DG Aspherical Macro Large Aperture Wide Angle Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

   I have tested this lens on 3 different Canon bodies (two 20d, one xti). Lens front focus a lot. Period.

   I am currently returning this lens to amazon for an exchange. I will not return a lens to factory to have it re-calibrated. I have heard people returning it to factory 2 or 3 times and lens still come back bad. It is sad and I am just furious over Sigma’s QA. How is it possible they miss such bad copy?? Do they not test lens anymore? Why can’t they create a department specifically dedicated to testing every single lens that gets shipped? (read below regarding condom testing). Is this difficult to implement? No. Will Sigma win more customers if they do? Yes. Here’s the plan: Setup a few workstations, mount the camera on a fixed post in such a way that it’s not ever movable, tether camera to computer, shoot in jpg, and view image either via AI / MTF score so there’s a threshold to either reject or accept.

   What are these lens CEO thinking??? This comment goes out to all lens manufacturers. I can’t wait until there’s a lens manufacturer that will implement the above test and take the industry by storm. In fact, scribe the employee id onto the parts on the product line so that they figure out who is the culprit and dispense disciplinary action. I paid 1 day over night DHL to have this lens rushed to me because of all the excitement, but boy was I disappointed. I can only hope the next copy will be up to factory spec.

   Also note that customers do zoom into the image. So testing must be done at 1:1 viewing. Whether I zoom in or out, the picture is just a low quality fuzz. I am a wedding photographer and I have many lens, canon and tamron, and I do know how to test lens. I think the MTF threshold idea is brilliant and the employee ID on the parts is critical to getting high quality products. Actually, Employee ID to whoever assemble that part / lens. Companies should form a division to accept returned lens, take apart, and find the culprit, and trace employee id. This is long over due… how is it acceptable to have such poor quality control?

   I’d like to know:
   
   a) Where are the QA managers?
   
   b) Do companies only care to mass produce and sample test once a while?

   c) *** How long does it take to build a lens compared to electronically test a lens? If every condom is tested electronically, then why can’t lens be tested. A quality condom is less than 1 dollar each!! Somebody got to be held responsible for these poor quality lens. If the above review is true that it’s sharp, then the lens design is sound, so the issue is QA.

   Update: I have purchased and exchanged at least 2 copies of this lens through Amazon. Read comments below.
   Rating: 1 / 5
2. 

   T. Senephansiri
   March 21st, 2010 - 16:22

   Sigma makes a good lens but this one seems to be a medium quality the focal point is very unforgiving you’ll ether have a bright back ground or dark back ground as you try to adjust the ISO, AP, SP to compensate the lack of depth.
   Rating: 3 / 5
3. 

   digital flower
   March 21st, 2010 - 16:32

   Bought this lens last year and love it. It is way better than I thought it was going to be. Does great on my D700 and D70s.
   Rating: 5 / 5
4. 

   Luving it
   March 21st, 2010 - 19:19

   Use it on Canon 5D.

   Pro:

   1. Build quality. Much better than the regular Canon primes. Similar to Sigma 20 1.8
   
   2. Smooth and accurate MF ring.
   
   3. Very quick AF speed. Not as assuring as USM but good enough in most situation including inside low light coffee shops.
   
   4. Very sharp, 2.8 and up, sharper than my Sigma 20/1.8. Nice color and contrast too.
   
   5. Great close focus distance and macro potential.
   
   6. Fantastic price – got an excellent 2nd hand copy from KEH for $250+.

   Neutral:

   No HSM on this EX lens, same as the other two of Sigma’s wide angle prime trio: 20/1.8 and 28/1.8.

   Con:

   Like the 20/1.8, wide oepn it’s dark and blurry, much worse than the Canon 50/1.4 at f1.4. Use only in emergency situation. But it’s great after 2.8.

   Bottom line:

   A fantastic wide prime from Sigma with great macro capacity at a extremely attractive price! 24mm is perfect for indoor close range shots and outdoor wide landscape shots. Based on my personal experience, primes are so much better than zooms, Canon L included. The primes are far more consistent, ligith weight, and better IQ (color, sharpness, contrast, much less distortion and light fall off). Most of the primes I have don’t even have those fancy special glasses in them, unlike my L zooms. And a lot cheaper too. Only if Sigma could produce cheap 300mm primes like they do in the wide end…

   Rating: 5 / 5
5. 

   Michael Catacutan
   March 21st, 2010 - 21:09

   This is by far one of my most favorite lenses. I use it over my L lenses when 24mm is what I need. Because it’s macro, I feel I’m not limited with the prime lens, thus I don’t miss the ability to zoom.

   The copy I have is VERY sharp and at f1.8, it’s not the sharpest, but it’s darn good. The lens is almost as sharp as my Canon 100mm f2.8

   Yes, the AF isn’t as quiet and fast as most, but really… on my 5dmkII, it doesn’t matter at all. I don’t even notice it. People who think that’s a deal breaker in a lens are less concerned with the art of photography.

   I’m 27 years old and grew up with digital photography, but have also taking courses in film. Processing your own film really puts things into perspective, so if a lens is gonna focus .5 seconds slower than another and sound slightly more noisy… and you think that’s awful, you need a reality check.

   This lens is top notch.
   Rating: 5 / 5

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