After spending some time with my lens (50mm 1.4) I came to the conclusion that it has some of the fabled focus issues. I called Sigma asking them how to send the lens in for calibration and the initial lady that answered the phone was either out to lunch mentally, or distracted by her cellular to the point that she wasn't even listening to my questions. She placed me on hold abruptly, and I was transferred to what I can only imagine was their Technical Support team. This was one of those, "Hi, can I help you?" me: "Uh...I ...uh, guess so?" him: "Well, what is it?" kind of conversations starting out... Though, this gent was only slightly better, but he actually went a bit into depth on some focus issues but basically was dismissive of the fact that I may in fact have a problem with my lens, which is WELL DOCUMENTED, I might add. He kind of leaned towards the fact that I didn't know what I was doing in a way. "Well, how far are you shooting from when this is an issue" kind of deal. I responded with, "Well it doesn't matter how far I am because the lens has a minimum focus distance. When I buy a lens, it should focus correctly from the minimal focus distance all the way out to infinity/wherever the lens stops grabbing focus. That's what I pay money for."
He invariably accepted that I send the body as well as the lens in for calibration, but when I asked him weather I need to send in a body as well as a lens when I upgrade to FF, he told me "of course, the lenses have to be calibrated to the body" in a very condescending way. He did offer up some information and told me the best way to calibrate it is to simply lay a yardstick on the floor, and shoot it from a height of around 2 meters about 2 meters away, straight on at 1.4. He told me to put something like a battery or anything, really that could be focused on on or near the ruler to dial in the focus. He claimed that this was the best way of dialing in the lens to the body.
It's great that he offered that advice, which I'll try before sending my gear in. But seriously, the condescending tone, the feeling that they just don't give a damn and the fact that the lens didn't come perfect out of box leads me to question weather this company is worth my dollars or time. I'll probably keep buying their stuff for at least another lens, because they do make good optics on the higher grade stuff. I just can't get over how lazy they sounded..
Thanks for listening to my rant. :crushed:
He invariably accepted that I send the body as well as the lens in for calibration, but when I asked him weather I need to send in a body as well as a lens when I upgrade to FF, he told me "of course, the lenses have to be calibrated to the body" in a very condescending way. He did offer up some information and told me the best way to calibrate it is to simply lay a yardstick on the floor, and shoot it from a height of around 2 meters about 2 meters away, straight on at 1.4. He told me to put something like a battery or anything, really that could be focused on on or near the ruler to dial in the focus. He claimed that this was the best way of dialing in the lens to the body.
It's great that he offered that advice, which I'll try before sending my gear in. But seriously, the condescending tone, the feeling that they just don't give a damn and the fact that the lens didn't come perfect out of box leads me to question weather this company is worth my dollars or time. I'll probably keep buying their stuff for at least another lens, because they do make good optics on the higher grade stuff. I just can't get over how lazy they sounded..
Thanks for listening to my rant. :crushed:
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