Hello from Malaysia

[kelvinyam]

I guess I'm 15 months late in joining this forum
I had just spent some time going through some very interesting post in Lens Lore. I know I'm going to enjoy my stay here, so I registered and post this very first post.

[Dr. Harout]

Hi and welcome Kelvinyam. I'm sure you'll enjoy this forum and you're not late.
And what's your equipment?

[kelvinyam]

Hi Dr. Harout, I'm using A300. I'm still keeping the 18-70mm kit lens although I'm not happy with it (the PF is driving me nuts). I have the Sigma APO 70-300mm which I love most, but its gear stripped last month. It was under warranty and it's fixed now. I have the Cosina 100mm macro lens, which is also known as the Plastic Fantastic. I just bought a lens last week and it's on the way, it's the Cosina 28-108mm F2.8/3.8 (about USD100). I hope this lens is good enough to replace the kit lens as walk-around lens. And lastly a newly bought Benro Tripod A300EX (approx USD90), not something to be compared with Manfrotto, but it's a good tripod for the gear I'm having now. It supports up to 4kg load.

If you are aware, these are all very budget stuff, but I guess I'm pushing the limit. I like the challenge of shooting the best photo I can with the cheapest gear I have

[David Kilpatrick]

Welcome Kelvin! Pity you weren't around last week when Don (Sonolta) threw a massive fit after arguing for post after post that the Sigma is fine and the gear's don't strip, claiming that it has only happened to one or two people on dPreview and no-one else. Sonolta has gone quiet right now, but would no doubt have been interested to learn about your Sigma repair. I wonder if he's gone quiet because his own Sigma just went down?

David

[KevinBarrett]

Hello, and welcome! You aren't late at all! These are exciting times for Minolta/Sony users as our first full-frame digital SLR is making its debut shortly. We look forward to hearing from you!

[kelvinyam]

Oh DK, I didn't miss that post, I read that right before I decided to register. You didn't delete that post yet, did you?
As for the Sigma, I never thought this could happen to me, besides, I was only using A200 (that time) and not A700, which claimed to be having a strong focus motor. When my A200 was damaged (that's another story), the Sigma was still OK with the A300. Few weeks later when I mount the Sigma to the damaged A200 to test its functionality, it stripped as soon as I switch on the A200. Now I'm really confused if this is caused by A200 or A300. Since I believe that this is not caused by a sudden, A200 shall be causing it in long run.

[Javelin]

You know in a lot of the accounts of this lens stripping that gear theres quite a few where it happened as soon as the camera was turned on, I wonder if the gear is geting jammed somehow while it's not mounted and then finally when it's attached to the camera it just explodes?

[kelvinyam]

Javelin, I do think otherwise. This looks like a wear and tear situation. Both my A200 and A300 has the lens focus set to infinity every time the camera is switched on, even I have the focus switched to manual. So this creates an impact to gear stopper. On a day out shooting, I tends to switch my camera on and off frequently to conserve battery because hanging the camera under my neck and having eye-start-focus enabled always causes the camera to focus and wasting battery power.

One guy at Dpreview has posted a tip to minimize the damage to the gear on this Sigma, which is to set the Sigma focus to infinity before switching off the camera or have the focus ring turn to infinity before mounting it on the camera. Theoretically this reduces the momentum to the gear stopper. I have about 6 months left before the warranty expired, so I have to keep reminding myself about this Best Practice. One day if this Sigma fail again after the warranty expired, I'll either get a Tamron 70-300mm or the Minolta 100-300mm.

[xzulx]

hi kelvinyam,

welcome guess i'm not the only one from Malaysia here, i'm facing the same prob as your are with the Sigma, 1st time the focusing ring got stuck then i've send for reapair, after a few month then again the same prob plus now the motor is making a weird sound when you turn on to AF. I've been using this lens for almost 6month (bought second from my friend) i found out this lens is to soft for me. Now i'm aiming either Sigma 175-400, Minolta 100-300 APO or Minolta 100-400 APO.

[Javelin]

Thought I might be able to try one of these lenses at a shop but nobodu here stocks much Sigma at least they don't list them on their web sites.

[kelvinyam]

hi kelvinyam,

welcome guess i'm not the only one from Malaysia here, i'm facing the same prob as your are with the Sigma, 1st time the focusing ring got stuck then i've send for reapair, after a few month then again the same prob plus now the motor is making a weird sound when you turn on to AF. I've been using this lens for almost 6month (bought second from my friend) i found out this lens is to soft for me. Now i'm aiming either Sigma 175-400, Minolta 100-300 APO or Minolta 100-400 APO.

Hi xzulx, are you sure that the motor is making weird sound? Or do you mean that the gear is having weird sound?
The Sigma APO 70-300mm could be a cheap lens, but I do find it pretty sharp under 2 conditions: Use a tripod and stop down to F8. Although Alpha body comes with SSS but it only compensate both Z-axis and Y-axis. X-axis movement (front-back) always causes OOF especially when you are using it under macro mode, so a tripod with 2 sec self time definitely helps. You will notice significant image improvement when you start shooting at F8, even when you have to increase to ISO400. I'd say stoping down is a must when you want to use this lens as a birding lens, where usually 50% crop or more is common.
If you have some cash to spare, I'd recommend Tamron 200-500mm. This is a popular birding lens which is available at about RM2850~RM3792 (depends on gray or local warranty). Of course the ultimate birding lens will be a prime 300mm with TC, but that will easily cost more than an arm + a leg

[kysham]

Hi Kelvin, nice to see you in here....