Hy there all! I was thinking at getting the Sigma 18-35 to replace my kit lens (DA 18-55 WR) for wide and normal focal lengths (mainly landscapes), but after reading the Pentax Forums review [1,2] regarding the autofocus issues (admittedly only while using phase-detect) I completely changed my mind... (For that amount of money, the fact I don't use live-view, and that accurate manual focus is almost impossible on current DSLR's without live-view and focus peaking, it makes this lens unusable for me...)
However I thought to ask you guys, especially those that have used such a lens, if it truly has issues at focusing with phase-detect? (Perhaps you upgraded the firmware? Perhaps you have newer variants of this lens?) To be clear by "issues" I mean the outcome is mainly (and noticeably) back-/front-focused, while shot at large apertures or with close subjects, thus opposite to situations when large depth-of-field would mask such a problem. Regarding the review, the issues being reported don't seem to stem out of sample variation, as they tested about 7 of these on multiple K-3, a K-50 and a K-30, and the outcome was the same. Thanks, Ciprian. [1] http://www.pentaxforums.com/reviews/sigma-18-35mm-f18-dc-hsm-art/autofocus.html [2] http://www.pentaxforums.com/articles/review-news/sigma-18-35mm-autofocus-a-second-look.html P.S.: Playing "lens-roulette" (that is buying one, testing it, sending it back, and then possibly looping) is not an option for me... :) -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
