Sigma lens on 20D = really soft focus?

I do plan on getting some better lenses down the road (I don't want a huge collection, though)... I've considered eventually looking into the 17-40mm L from Canon for landscape shots... I may go for the Tamron 28-75, though, to save some money, and plus I don't see a dire need for the extra wideness of 17mm.
I'll also be looking for a better zoom lens later (the Sigma 100-300mm I also have seems to work quite well, though I can see it's not the sharpest one out there.

Sigma's EX series lenses are pretty good, but my experience with their consumer grade lenses is that they are all garbage. I haven't seen one consumer grade sigma which has given me sharp pictures, among other things. There have been focus problems, camera lockup problems and numerous others. Your pictures indicate that the lens is rotten Get rid of it.

Ok, so I updated the firmware over the weekend but didn't really have time to sit there and try it out.

I took some pictures earlier and took a couple just now, and WOW, after the firmware upgrade, the quality of these pictures actually seems to have improved A LOT.

For both pictures, click on them to get a larger size

Here's a crop of a landscape type shot of a building:

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Spider witha 20d and 18-125 DC lens

Not all Sigma lenses are bad. I have the SIGMA dc 18-125 and it does this (warning 3mb file) .... View it at 100% to see the detail. No post processing done at all.

http://homepage.ntlwor​ld.com …arkey/photos/IM​G_0211.JPG

I focussed on the 2nd leg of the spider. Note the small DOF but the focus point was exactly where I aimed (using the centre focus point only)

I have the 1.0.2 firmware - do I need 1.0.5 ?

Alan

Alan, that freaked me out. I hate spiders.
Elbirth, those pictures look MUCH better.
And since you aren't the only one to notice an improvement with sigma lenses on the 20D with firmware 1.0.5, I don't think it is a coincidence.

Well I was having a little soft issue with my 20D and 70-200mm f2.8 L lens and I updated my firmware to the latest and it seems to have helped. But I am still new to this all so ic could be user related. But here is a shot I took with the 70-200mm Sunday and it seems sharp. This was hand held too.

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Ouch!
I cut my finger on that picture!

Thats much better and the zebra is an awsome picture.

Everybody thought I was nuts when I said that the issue was not only lock up but focus. The incompatabilty with lenses effected it, when I saw my sigma become sharper with the up grade I new there was a comunication problem, but Canon did not tell us that.

Drisey did you order the Tokina 19-24 yet, I am interested in your opinion.

Oh well, I've upgraded to 1.0.5 anyway. Sorry about the spider - but I did warn you.....

Alan

Yeah, I saw you mention that before in one of the lockup threads... guess there really was something to it as you were suggesting.
Thanks for the idea to upgrade the firmware, I probably wouldn't have tried it otherwise... I'm glad I did

Checking the Exif on that first shot, it was taken at 1/3 of a second and looking at the detail most of the problem is motion blur, not focus. The later outdoor shot is sharp because the shutter speed is higher.

That lens is not one of Sigma's better lenses to be sure, but taking a shot hand-held in low light at slow shutter speeds isn't how it should be evaluated. I don't think this has been a firmware issue at all.

You must have misunderstood or not seen my comment above the first picture. In the picture with the chair, I had the camera sitting on the table and used my other hand to put pressure on it to keep it in place in an attempt to not let the shutter jar it.
It wasn't handheld- the last batch, though, WAS handheld, and looks better than the one that wasn't.

Besides, nearly all of my pictures before looked a lot like the first picture, and not very few are like that. I haven't altered the way I take pictures or anything.