> My personal opinion about Sigma lenses is that I've tried them on four > separate occasions and on all four occasions ended up returning them, > buying the manufacturers' lens instead. Sometimes after multiple > exchanges. For straightforward defects or poor performance optically: > their build quality is poor and variability between samples is high. So I > don't buy or use Sigma lenses anymore.
<personal_rant> I do have a fondness for some third-party lenses, notably some of the older Vivitar (especially VS1), Tokina (especially AT-X), and Tamron (especially SP) "cult classics", for example. However, I myself have never tried a Sigma that I liked enough to keep for very long (build quality being the usual main problem). Now, I will admit that I'm just an old photo dinosaur, and I don't have much experience with any of the newest crop of Sigma lenses at all, but I am just saying that my experience with Sigma lenses has not been encouraging in the past, and I would not now go out of my way to try any Sigma lenses in the present. I do understand that companies and product lines can change (even dramatically) over time, and maybe Sigma lenses are now the greatest thing since sliced bread - I really don't know. (As an example of changes over time, one has to look no further than the downhill slide in some of the products carrying the VS1 label over the last 10 or 15 years or so.) Maybe my attitude is being unfair to Sigma lenses. However, with so many good lenses out there to choose from (Pentax as well as third-party), why would I go out on a limb and try any lenses from a company that has not impressed me at all previously? </personal_rant> Fred
