D750 and the Sigma 150-500mm - more firmware nonsense

My 150-500mm tends to live on my D7100, but circumstances this weekend caused me to slip it only my D750 for the first time and, wouldn't you know it, the image stabilization refuses to engage on the body (I get it to engage once out of every 10-20 focus locks). Just to be sure that it wasn't the lens, when I was done shooting I put it on every other Nikon at home (that's four others - D7000, D7100, D610, D800) and it works perfectly.

I will be reaching out to Sigma today to see what the deal is. As I posted a couple weeks ago, they've acknowledged the need to upgrade firmware in many of their Nikon compatible lenses as new models come out (the D7200 will not work with the Sigma 70-300mm macro). I am fairly certain my 105mm macro, 15mm fisheye and 24-70mm f2.8 all have worked fine with the D750, but I'll check again.

And we all know Nikon's position on these things, "We do not recommend using 3rd party lenses on your Nikon camera. We have a variety of lenses..."

Anyone with both of these care to let me know if they're experiencing the same issue?

I did find this, so it seems to be a thing, including with the D7200.

D750 with Sigma 150-500 f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM APO: Nikon FX SLR (DF, D1-D4, D600-D800) Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review

They also mentioned issues with the D750 and the 105mm macro, and searching my LR catalog it seems like I've yet to put those two together. At least I only have to ship once.

Guess it's another reason to be glad I sold my Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 with OS. My Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 doesn't have any image stabilization. Bummer to hear this though as it will affect a lot of people.

The thing is, it's not just OS, it's just something and only on some lenses, and only with some cameras. With the 70-300mm it was the camera not even recognizing the lens. With this it's the OS. With the D7100 some lenses would lock image review on for a minute after taking a shot. The variety of "glitches" make me wonder what level of deliberateness there is with the issues. My inner demons say there's a room full of engineers trying to figure out what they can do to specific combinations that will render the combination useless, but make it seem like it's not a Nikon problem. The engineer in me says that there's always somewhere the code can go wrong when you introduce new/unexpected data. That it seems to happen more with Sigma than other lens manufacturers (probably the one with the best optics) leads me to believe it's intentional. Thankfully they update for free, and as you move into Art/Contemporary/Sport lenses you can do it yourself with the dock. And then they'll convert them to the new mount when you finally ditch Nikon.

Slightly off topic but my Tamron 150-600 would not work on my V2 via the FT-1 adapter.

Just got off the phone with Sigma. OS doesn't work on either the 150-500mm or the 105mm macro, so they're headed off. I asked if he knew anything about any other issues with their lenses and the D750, listing the ones I had and saying that the others seemed to be performing OK.

"Is the 24-70mm an HSM lens? Try it in LiveView - it won't focus."

Sure enough. What a PITA. Thanks, Sigma, for at least being willing to fix them for free. That's gonna be one heavy box to ship. Thank God it's only the next state over.

I'm curious if Tamron lenses suffer the same issue. From what I read, Tamron purchases licenses from Nikon, Sigma does not and reverse engineers. That could explain the issue.

If it "explains" anything it's would be Nikon's (potential) sabotaging of Sigma products in new releases and not calling into question Sigma's engineering.

J-see said:

I'm curious if Tamron lenses suffer the same issue. From what I read, Tamron purchases licenses from Nikon, Sigma does not and reverse engineers. That could explain the issue.

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That's true, and it's not Sigma's fault. It would be better for consumers if Nikon, Canon, etc. have the "open code" practice so that all the lens manufacturers can freely compete without having to do the reverse engineering. That's also the reason why Zeiss only produces manual focus lenses, except for Sony cameras.

TieuNgao said:

That's true, and it's not Sigma's fault. It would be better for consumers if Nikon, Canon, etc. have the "open code" practice so that all the lens manufacturers can freely compete without having to do the reverse engineering. That's also the reason why Zeiss only produces manual focus lenses, except for Sony cameras.

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I don't have Sigma but two Tamron which is why I'm curious if they also can be subject to incompatibility issues. The rest of my third party is manual only which won't be affected.

Even when an open practice would be good for us, I doubt it'll ever happen. This is how the business world operates. When I update my OS on either the Mac or Win, odds are some of my software will no longer work. There's even a chance some hardware will have issues and I will have to wait and install new drivers or new soft. It has always been like that with everything. Do you think Apply cares about third party on which they don't make a penny? Even when Adobe upgrades odds are plugins no longer work. They don't feel one bit responsible for that.

Third party lenses or other gear suffer exactly the same problem in the world of photography. It's only a giant PITA since you have to start sending them in to get new firmware.

J-see said:

I don't have Sigma but two Tamron which is why I'm curious if they also can be subject to incompatibility issues. The rest of my third party is manual only which won't be affected.

Even when an open practice would be good for us, I doubt it'll ever happen. This is how the business world operates. When I update my OS on either the Mac or Win, odds are some of my software will no longer work. There's even a chance some hardware will have issues and I will have to wait and install new drivers or new soft. It has always been like that with everything. Do you think Apply cares about third party on which they don't make a penny? Even when Adobe upgrades odds are plugins no longer work. They don't feel one bit responsible for that.

Third party lenses or other gear suffer exactly the same problem in the world of photography. It's only a giant PITA since you have to start sending them in to get new firmware.

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Absolutely right. Thats life you just have to live it!

BackdoorHippie said:

Just got off the phone with Sigma.

"Is the 24-70mm an HSM lens? Try it in LiveView - it won't focus."

Sure enough. What a PITA. Thanks, Sigma, for at least being willing to fix them for free. That's gonna be one heavy box to ship. Thank God it's only the next state over.

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Groan...didn't try LiveView with mine. :disillusionment: Thanks for the heads-up, Jake.

Brought my D750 home and tried the Sigma 50-500 i had on loan,you guessed no OS so have taken the lens back.

mikew said:

Brought my D750 home and tried the Sigma 50-500 i had on loan,you guessed no OS so have taken the lens back.

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If you liked the lens tell them to get it fixed. Free for them besides shipping. My trio went off to Sigma yesterday. Thankfully none of them are everyday lenses, but I should have them back by net weekend.

BackdoorHippie said:

If you liked the lens tell them to get it fixed. Free for them besides shipping. My trio went off to Sigma yesterday. Thankfully none of them are everyday lenses, but I should have them back by net weekend.

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The dealer did offer to get it done but i dont know i want the lens enough ,trying my best to go down a different road with FX, i may fail but trying hard.

There are two separate issues: backward compatibility and open code practice.
When a piece of software is updated/improved it's not always possible to make it backward compatible, even for the developers' own software, let alone the third party's ones. But whenever Nikon produces a new camera model with a new processor or new AF algorithms it has to make sure that all the Nikon old lenses will work with the new camera.
In the open code practice world, all the competitors' lenses will also work as smoothly as Nikon own lenses. The current practice in camera business is based on proprietary software.
Some of you may recall the cases of IBM OS/2 vs MS-DOS and Beta vs VHS in which the open code practice won!

TieuNgao said:

There are two separate issues: backward compatibility and open code practice.
When a piece of software is updated/improved it's not always possible to make it backward compatible, even for the developers' own software, let alone the third party's ones. But whenever Nikon produces a new camera model with a new processor or new AF algorithms it has to make sure that all the Nikon old lenses will work with the new camera.
In the open code practice world, all the competitors' lenses will also work as smoothly as Nikon own lenses. The current practice in camera business is based on proprietary software.
Some of you may recall the cases of IBM OS/2 vs MS-DOS and Beta vs VHS in which the open code practice won!

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From a business perspective it simply does not make sense to share anything with someone that is directly competing against you. If Nikon was also selling lenses for Sigma cameras it might make sense to share but as the situation is now, only Sigma would benefit of such.

J-see said:

From a business perspective it simply does not make sense to share anything with someone that is directly competing against you. If Nikon was also selling lenses for Sigma cameras it might make sense to share but as the situation is now, only Sigma would benefit of such.

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Yep. Nikon certainly isn't going to rush out and encourage you to buy a 3rd party lens from a competitor when they offer one themselves.

Sent from my HTC One M8 using Tapatalk

FYI, got my lenses back last week (one week turn-around including shipping - one day from here in NJ). Everything works fine now, and I'm convinced that the OS on the 105mm macro is quieter now than it was before.