Sigma lens on 20D = really soft focus?

I was wondering if anyone else uses a Sigma 28-80mm lens at all? In particular, on the 20D.

The package I bought with my 20D included this lens, and so far the results with it have been less than astounding, to say the least. So far VERY few pictures I've taken have been very sharp. I've tried full auto, and full manual and nothing I've been able to do has been able to get this lens to focus more sharply. My friend who owns a 300D let me borrow his kit lens and WOW... the difference in sharpness is amazing. He tried my Sigma lens on his camera as well, and the same thing... extremely soft focusing.


I'm wondering if it's this lens model that isn't very sharp? I would hope not, but I don't know. I called 47th Street Photo in NY (where I ordered the camera from) and they first of all started giving me all this really technical information about macro mode and then tried to tell me it was because wearing glasses can cause this and I should mess with the diopter adjustment (I don't wear glasses) and then finally that it's just the view finder that's grainy... when I finally got the guy to calm down with his technical babble and get him to realize I was talking about viewing the picture on my computer screen, he acted like he had no clue and suggested I call Sigma and request an exchange of lens.

My questions are, has anyone used this lens? What kind of results have you seen with it? Has anyone had to RMA a lens with Sigma? If so, how good are they to work with?

Thanks....

No but I had three Sigma lenses and my 28 to 105 wad always out of focus. I had to buy the Tamron 28 to 75 F2.8 and then sent the Sigmas back to them. They rechipped them and Canon came out with a firm ware update and it works fine now.

Do you mean the 1.0.5 firmwware update for the 20D? I haven't upgraded my camera, mainly because I haven't had the lockup problem and have just been wary of the problems people had with the 1.0.4 upgrade of it killing their cameras.

If it won't make a difference for me, I don't really want to upgrade... but if it will, I'll go on and go for it (and pray my camera doesn't die).

If you follow directions to the tee it wont die on you.

There are three things you have to make sure of.
1- You connect to the ac adaptor or have a fully charged battery.
2-make sure ther mode dial is in P program.
3- do not turn Camera off or remove media Card.
4- and most important. REMOVE all lenses from the camera.

When you down load the file to your computer, set up a seperate file for the 20D.

Put your cf card in the camera and format it.
Next put it in your card reader and delete all the folders.
Now unzip you firmware down load directly into the card in the card reader. If you do not do that it can't find the firmware up date.

I never did it before and fumbled around but it easy, I had no problems except I tried to do it without removing the folders.

Canon says that if your camera is ok for now you might have a problem in the future and they reccomend doing it. your choice.

I may give it a shot later today.... I got my 50mm f/1.8 lens yesterday, and there's a HUGE difference in the sharpness of pictures, even if I just hold the camera in my hand, let it focus and snap the picture randomly...
Maybe somehow the firmware upgrade will make the Sigma lens perform better, I don't know... I dread having to go through the trouble of trying to get them to fix/replace it.

Well...honestly the sigma is a sh*ty lens.
But it shouldn't be that bad .
It does sound like a comunication problem between the camera and the lens.Have you tried manually focusing?Take a bunch of shots of the same thing with manual focus,then take several with autofocus.
Be sure to switch the camera to center focus point only and make sure there is something consistant to focus on.

The AF pics should all be in focus
The manually focused ones will likely be all over the place when viewed full size but the best pic should be little or no better than any of the AF pics

I've tried both manual and autofocus, but the quality of focus is just horrible... I'll go try to take some sample shots and post for comparison so you can see how bad it is.

Here is a pic of my sister with my 20D and a Sigma EX 24-70 f2.8

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AzzKicker, that's a really good picture... my 28-80mm just doesn't seem to be up to par with that....

This first shot I took 3-4 days ago in a restaurant... I had it sitting on the table, and the AF point was focused on the top rounded bar of the chair

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focus, what focus?

that's about the worst i've seen anywhere. If this is not the camera (and you shoud test that first) then..

Get rid of that lens as fast as you can!!

I had the same problem with my sigma 28 to 105 lens. I sent it to Sigma on wed and had it back friday fixed, The 20 D has issues with certain lenses including some Canon. I found that with the new update they operated better or it was my imagination. In any event I bought a Tamron 28 to 75 F2.8 and my pictures are awsome.

yeah, seriously.... I tried the Canon kit lens on my 20D and it works a lot better. I also got my friend, who has a 300D, to try my lens on his camera, and he got very similar results with the almost blurry "focus".

I actually went ahead and updated the firmware on my 20D (thank God it didn't kill it ) and like phili1, I'm not sure if it's just my imagination, but it does seem to perform slightly better... still nowhere near where I'd like it to be though...
I think I'm going to call Sigma and see what they'll do. I've had the lens a week and a day as of today.

they are pretty good like I said I sent three lenses back on a wed. they fixed 2 and had then at my door by friday. no charge for the return freight. They make a good product but everyonce in a while like everyone else a bad one gets thru.

Elbirth if you want a super lens for a great price then get the Tamron 28 to 75 F 2.8. I like it because it is also a close focus lens.. Here is a shot from it at F4. the price is around $399.

http://www.pbase.com/p​hili1/image/34856769

That looks like a good lens, thanks for the suggestion.

For now I think I'm going to just try to find out what Sigma will do about this lens I've got and see where I can go with it. If it'll end up working out well, then I'll be good for a while... otherwise I may look into that one.

Ok,it's a dud lens for sure.
There's nothing in focus anywhere!!

Sigma will replace it for sure
...and if they don't,let us know

Once you get a good example of this lens you will be quite happy with it i'm sure.It is a cheap model and won't be as good as azzkickers EX model sigma but you should be getting pics equal to the canon kit lens

...and if you do want to spend more on a great lens one day,the tamron phili1 suggests is *the* pick of em all