Sigma f5.6 400mm APO Lens

I'm thinking of buying a used Sigma f5.6 400mm APO lens. Has anyone any comments or experience of this lens?

I guess it's a fairly old lens as you don't see it on any of the Sigma websites any more, will it work OK with my D60?

Make sure thelens will AF and also that the aperture will stop down before you hand the cash over.

This lens is old, and old Sigma's often need re-chipping to work on canon DSLR's - if Sigma can actually peform the upgrade.

Indeed the chances are very bad that it will work at all with your camera,. I'd avoid it I'm afraid.

Beware try it on the camera before you purchase, my old Sigma 400 5.6 APO would not work on my 300D, I contacted Sigma and asked if it could be Re-Chipped, there answer was sorry but no, we have stoped making updated Chip's for that lens. Quadphoto

I also contacted Sigma on same issue as these lenses are commonly available at cheap prices on ebay and I can confirm what quadphoto says above.

I also tried an older 500mm Sigma today and got error99. I guess that's why they're so cheap these days ...

Sigma made a series of 400/5.6 APO lenses. I had one of the earlier series and used it for several years. I eventually sold it when I got the Sigma 50-500 because it was not as sharp and had much slower autofocus. The guy I sold it to used it for a while, the got an Elan 7 film camera. The lens would not work on that camera and Sigma was not able to upgrade the chip. I doubt that it would work on the current crop of digital cameras and don't know whether Sigma has devised a chip replacement. Considering the age of the lens, I doubt it.

Subsequent 400/5.6 APO lenses from Sigma were named "Macro" and "Macro HSM". I would be surprised if the HSM version would not function on the current Canon digital cameras. I believe Sigma has been more fortunate with all their HSM series lenses.

People I have talked to who had the HSM version of the lens were very happy with it.

Scott