Ancient Tamrons v Modern Sigma. Sigma losses

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Jimbosyourman

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I have a canon 5d mark ii . I recently purchased a mint condition Sigma 80-400 EX DG to supplement my Canon 28-135 . Being in my 40's I have some old Tamron adaptable 2 lenses which were part of my old 35mm kit, a 60-300 (23A) f3.8-5.4 and an even older 200-500 (06A) f6.9 complete with a good vintage fungus. Anyway had afternoon to myself , not very nice out so got manfrotto tripod out and set up a scene indoors with some dried plants and waitrose reciept stashed in middle . Took pictures at 200, 300 and 400mm at f8, f11, f16, f,22. This is not a very scientific test and only really concerns centre sharpness at 100% crop. At 200 and 300mm the sigma could only beat the tamron 200-500 into third place almost irrespective of aperture . The 60-300 was considerably sharper than the other two. At 400 mm with only the ancient 200-500 to beat the sigma could at best only match the tamrons performance and at some aparatures was actually worse . The tamrons are obviously manual focus , however I allowed the sigma the luxury of focusing itself . All shots were taken in aperature priority, with a shutter delay to reduce shake. Oh and the image stabilizer was turned of on the sigma. Any ideas, has photographic lenses got worse?. Keen to hear other inputs and would be happy to forward my results to anyone who wants to have a look.
 
If your lens has fungus get it away from the rest of your kit pronto, fungus can spread!

You can try killing it off by leaving it out, uncapped in bright sunshine, ie on a window sill but on the only occasion I got a secondhand lens with fungus I binned it rather than risk it contaminating my kit or anyone elses.

As for the test, no surprises for me, I've never had a sharp Sigma, all that I've had over the years have been slightly soft, but I've never had a soft Tamron.
 
Sigma 80-400 has never had a reputation as sharp lens. Convenient and cheaper - yes. You get what you pay for.

If you were looking for a good 400mm lens, the one has 400mm f/5.6L USM written on it
 
Jimbosyourman said:
Thanks for the advice . Didn't realize that fungus can spread.
Click to expand...

It doesn't. It's a PITA myth that keeps getting perpetuated on the internet. The spores are in the air everywhere and will grow anywhere given the right conditions. (Should have seen the inside of my new car!)

Letting a Sigma focus itself could be it's undoing, at least give it a fair test by manually focussing it.
 
Alan Clogwyn said:
It doesn't. It's a PITA myth that keeps getting perpetuated on the internet. The spores are in the air everywhere and will grow anywhere given the right conditions. (Should have seen the inside of my new car!)

Letting a Sigma focus itself could be it's undoing, at least give it a fair test by manually focussing it.
Click to expand...

:lol:


It is not so simply with fungus, or any other pathogen in a broader sense. Yes, there are some spores at infinitely small concentrations and that means the infestation may as well take years at ordinary conditions. If a fungal lens is kept in the bag with the other ones, the exposure is a lot higher and inevitably spores get there a lot sooner. Then it just takes some damp air to get in and they flare up. It is like using a public transport where somebody has a bad infection - chances are they will pass it on to a few fellow passengers, and so on.
If that still doesn't convince you - I had quite a bit of dry food go bad in the cupboard just because a bag of beans started the mould infection :gag: Would this have happened if each was kept separately?

If spores are so truly everywhere in the house, you need to seriously clean everything and perhaps redo a couple walls. Fungi cause allergies and so on.
 
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daugirdas said:
:lol:


It is not so simply with fungus, or any other pathogen in a broader sense. Yes, there are some spores at infinitely small concentrations and that means the infestation may as well take years at ordinary conditions. If a fungal lens is kept in the bag with the other ones, the exposure is a lot higher and inevitably spores get there a lot sooner. Then it just takes some damp air to get in and they flare up. It is like using a public transport where somebody has a bad infection - chances are they will pass it on to a few fellow passengers, and so on.
If that still doesn't convince you - I had quite a bit of dry food go bad in the cupboard just because a bag of beans started the mould infection :gag: Would this have happened if each was kept separately?

If spores are so truly everywhere in the house, you need to seriously clean everything and perhaps redo a couple walls. Fungi cause allergies and so on.
Click to expand...

NO they don't the spores are out there/in the lens already. The fungus in the other lens is most probably already dead, Even if it wasn't it'd still need to get to the stage of ripe fruiting body to produce more spores in your kit bag to even slightly increase the chances of any other equipment being infected. Seriously.

Mouldy food is not even remotely relevant to lenses.
 
I agree with Alan - please don't bin the Tamron. If you're really worried about it then stick it up for sale in the Film classifieds with some pics of the fungus and chances are that one of us from the F&C section will happily buy it to clean it up and keep using it.

Alternatively, stick it in a plastic bag with some dried rice for a week or two to thoroughly dry it out, and then try not to let it get too damp again and just shoot away.

I've had plenty of second hand lenses with fungus, have cleaned them up and used them happily and none of my own lenses have ended up cross-contaminated.
 
Oh, and the Tamron 60-300mm is still a lovely lens. I've had one, used it on a modern DSLR and was very impressed with it. I sold it to fund a Sigma 100-300 f4 (a stunning, modern Sigma lens that definitely beat the Tamron) but slightly regret selling it now, since the Sigma is optically a better lens, but much heavier to take with me.
 
I scored a Tamron 60-300mm in excellent condition with original leather case and caps for $70 Australian (about 48 British pounds). Not a bad buy, I thought.

Especially considering it came with an Olympus OM-20,a Fujica ST-605N, 50mm lenses for each of them, a Cosina 28-70mm, two flashes, a couple of lens hoods and a hard case with high density foam to carry them all in. All in excellent condition.
 
The key here is to not keep your lenses tucked away in a warm, dark place as it really does add to the problem.

I'm no fungal expert but I had one set of lenses ruined many years ago by one bad one and storing as above, I wont touch anything with fungus at all.
If kept in a warm dark place, the fungus doesn't die off and does continue to grow, its like leaving mouldy cheese in your fridge, leave it long enough and it spreads.
 
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