Tamron lenses won't work with rebel xti

Glenn NK wrote in post #2331546
Is that harsh or true?

I suspect the latter.

If you put aftermarket equipment on your vehicle, it often will affect the warranty. Wonder if that applies to cameras?

It would be a shame to turn a thread on advice about a lens that doesn't work into bashing of 3rd party products, and some of the naive brand loyalty that goes with it.

But;

Car manufacturers are tough on warranties and aftermarket parts for 2 very simple reasons.
1, They would rather your bought their own products because they can make more money out of you.

2, A slightly smaller problem, cars are considerably more complex than cameras, they are also considerably more popular and the list of available aftermarket parts is enormous. Some are good, and will not harm the car at all, some might improve it, and a small number might damage it in ways that are not easy to prove.

There are hundreds of members on this forum all useing non-Canon lenses, flashes, lights, bags, batteries, straps, etc, etc.
There are thousands and thousands more photographers out there who are not members, all happily useing non Canon gear on their Canon bodies and not having any problems.

I just bought a XTi to replace my Rebel 300D.

I have one Tamron lens (28-75mm XR Di) and works good on the XTi.

Maybe is a specific problem with the 18-200 or meaybe with the Di II.

Most 3rd party lenses are reveresed engineered and not licensed (4:3 system is an exception) so they can only design the lens to work with the cameras already out, no promise is made of the lens working on a future body.

That said if you are the original owner of the lens, you can usually have the lens "re-chipped" or "re-programmed" to work with the newer DSLR's.

You simply need to contact the mfg. of the lens or an autherized repair center for that lens. You should have little trouble with Tamron USA, call them during business hours. The web site should list the info if your literature does not.

dorsetpete wrote in post #2331282
When will you all learn...
Aftermarket lenses are just that!
They are made cheaply by companies who spend very little in R&D and a vast sums on advertising.
And they are stockesd by retailers because the companies, or their distributors, offer enormous profit margins compared to OE lenses.
And they are reviewed in magazines in who's pages you will see very expensive full page adverts for that very same product.
Well fancy that!
Yup - an old cynic (?) but I am also a retailer who knows how it all works
Happy snapping

You must work at Ritz

MrChad wrote in post #2331673
That said if you are the original owner of the lens, you can usually have the lens "re-chipped" or "re-programmed" to work with the newer DSLR's.

You simply need to contact the mfg. of the lens or an autherized repair center for that lens. You should have little trouble with Tamron USA, call them during business hours. The web site should list the info if your literature does not.

You need not be the original owner. I just bought a Sigma 135-400 APO on ebay that would cause an error 99 on my 30d whenever the lens was called to stop down. I contacted Sigma, shipped them the lens and sent them return shipping costs ($10) and bingo, in less than a week I had the lens back and it works great. I am very impressed with the customer service of Sigma. If they have the parts to re-chip your lens, they will do it. There are some older lenses that are unsupported but most recent Sigma lenses can be made to work.

I like my sigma lenses, I own three, I will probably buy another someday.

captainbk wrote in post #2333268
I like my sigma lenses, I own three, I will probably buy another someday.

Ditto

jaspertrout wrote in post #2331092
I too have this problem. I have a Sigma 70-300 lens and the the 'error 99' message when I put it on. This really sucks as the lens compatability was a major factor in my buying this camera. Does anyone have a contact at Canon that can explain this issue to us?

The issue in this case is that Canon didn't release the EF lens communications protocol. Sigma had to reverse-engineer it, and their first effort, while adequate for the features implemented at the time, failed to completely handle all the designed-in capabilities (witness that the problem happens with older Sigmas, not older Canons) of the system. This is a widely-known issue; Sigma offers/ed, while the supply of updated chips lasts, a re-chipping of these older lenses to allow them to function properly. Canon won't be able to help. It's like taking your car back to the Chevy dealer when the radio you got at Best Buy fails; it's not their product, so they won't warrant it, and aren't equipped to service it. What was the issue? I don't know. Sigma hasn't, to the best of my knowledge, said what they had to change. Perhaps Canon designed their lens motors to only need a minimum of 1.5V and the early cameras supplied 3 V. A Sigma lens relying on 3 V to stop down the aperture wouldn't work with only 1.5 V from a newer camera with better power management, resulting in an Err99 when the lens couldn't stop down.

ERR99 is nothing more than Microsoft's BSOD. Clean up, reboot, and keep pluggin away.

And that Tamron isn't an old lens. It probably just needs cleaned up like others said. Being a Di-II it was made for digital, so it almost certainly wouldn't need rechipping.

Glenn NK wrote in post #2331546
Is that harsh or true?

I suspect the latter.

If you put aftermarket equipment on your vehicle, it often will affect the warranty. Wonder if that applies to cameras?

Did you read my whole post?

And the issue is NOT with the quality of the lens. It has to do with lens compatibility with newer cameras. If Microsoft were treated as Canon is in this case no one would ever know what goes on under the hood of Windows. One can not fault a manufacturer for keeping this kind of info secret. After all, they sell lenses too, and for the whole price range that Sigma and Tamron sell.

cdi-ink.com wrote in post #2334289
ERR99 is nothing more than Microsoft's BSOD. Clean up, reboot, and keep pluggin away.

Not really. In the case of my 135-400, lens would work only when no stopping down was called for. If the camera went into error 99 you could reset it by turning off and on but the next time the camera tried to stop down the error would return.

If you look at the lenses that can be rechipped (and i really don't know what upgrade they do to them), they tend to be the ones that have the same physical design as their current lenses. It is a guess on my part but it seems logical that they are producing the electronics to have compatibility with the new lnses and they will fit provided the basic design of the lens is the same.

BTW: Does anyone know if sigma lenses have rearward compatibility problems with other brands of DSLRs or is it just a Canon phenomenum?

captainbk wrote in post #2334330
Not really. In the case of my 135-400, lens would work only when no stopping down was called for. If the camera went into error 99 you could reset it by turning off and on but the next time the camera tried to stop down the error would return.

If you look at the lenses that can be rechipped (and i really don't know what upgrade they do to them), they tend to be the ones that have the same physical design as their current lenses. It is a guess on my part but it seems logical that they are producing the electronics to have compatibility with the new lnses and they will fit provided the basic design of the lens is the same.

BTW: Does anyone know if sigma lenses have rearward compatibility problems with other brands of DSLRs or is it just a Canon phenomenum?

I should have clarified my statement. I had the OP's lens in mind when I said that. That lens is modern enough to not have chip issues. I would be VERY surprised if it needed an update, considering the model that it is, and the fact that it works on the 10D. Usually it's a case of the lens working on FILM EOS but not on DIGITAL bodies. This particular lens was made specifically for digital bodies, hence the Di-II designation.

A friend of mine had one of the 18-200 lenses which worked fine on her 10D, but when she upgraded to the 20D it stopped working. Needed factory service. I honestly can't reemember whether it was the Tamron or the Sigma, but IIRC she also had the Sigma 28-300 for her Elan, so probably also a Sigma. Some of the Sigmas, IIRC, did work on earlier EOS digitals, but stopped working on the 300D and later.

Jon wrote in post #2334346
A friend of mine had one of the 18-200 lenses which worked fine on her 10D, but when she upgraded to the 20D it stopped working. Needed factory service. I honestly can't reemember whether it was the Tamron or the Sigma, but IIRC she also had the Sigma 28-300 for her Elan, so probably also a Sigma. Some of the Sigmas, IIRC, did work on earlier EOS digitals, but stopped working on the 300D and later.

That's weird then. I can't think of any mount-related improvements that were made. AF communication maybe? But then the 300D shared the 10D's AF didn't it?

dorsetpete wrote in post #2331282
When will you all learn...
Aftermarket lenses are just that!
They are made cheaply by companies who spend very little in R&D and a vast sums on advertising.
And they are stockesd by retailers because the companies, or their distributors, offer enormous profit margins compared to OE lenses.
And they are reviewed in magazines in who's pages you will see very expensive full page adverts for that very same product.
Well fancy that!
Yup - an old cynic (?) but I am also a retailer who knows how it all works
Happy snapping

What a load of rubbish !

cdi-ink.com wrote in post #2334358
That's weird then. I can't think of any mount-related improvements that were made. AF communication maybe? But then the 300D shared the 10D's AF didn't it?

Dunno - it was early 2005 and she lives in Arkansas, so I don't know the details, just that she did have a problem, had to send it back, and it was only with the 20D, not the 10D. Maybe the distance-reporting as implemented in E-TTL 2? I know distance reporting was available before, but maybe there was another layer of protocol for the E-TTL 2 part (like the max. aperture reporting on the Bigma - where it says f/5.6 to the AF and f/6.3 for the metering).