I have just received my DA*16-50 and should have a stupid grin on my head, but the light is naff

Just having a play with it and I notice that if you start from 16mm and turn the zoom ring, it gets quite stiff at about 28mm.

Do other people's do this?

Have you tried Photome Peter?

Are we really sure about this? Sigma do have the know-how to build an SDM (HSM in their parlance) lens for a Pentax. Why they did not incorporate it into all of their Pentax fit lenses is another matter.

The reverse engineering thing is often quoted as the reason that Photome used to report the wrong lens with some Sigmas. This was not the case.

It used to report my 150-500 as a 70-200 IIRC. A short while after K20d firmware 1.03 came out, I noticed that it was now reporting the lens correctly and assumed it was the firmware update that had sorted it. Then It struck me - it was now reporting the correct lens on old pictures I had taken before the 1.03 update.

It was an update to Photome which had sorted the problem.

I can see the theory behind John's suggestion I think. Presumably it is better to have no light passing through that area rather than unregulated light.

I might try putting some small pieces of paper over the chips first and see if that makes me feel any braver.

It's my Sigma so it's not actually SMC coating.

Thanks for the advice.

The only thing I can think of is that I went to put the lens cap on with the hood still on (mea maxima culpa:blush and fumbled it.

Ooh er - putting paint on it sounds a bit scary!

Next time I'm out with it I'll try to provoke a flare.

I have just noticed that one of my lenses has a couple of chips the size of grains of rice (easy cook fortunately rather than long grain)out of the coating.

The lens still seems to produce reasonable pictures to my less than perfectly critical eye.

What sort of image degradation should I be looking for?

Nice picture. I like the way the bright coloured beak and feet stand out.

I think he is shoring you how big the one that got away was.

Following the reservations expressed about this lens and it's sharpness, I was feeling a bit cagey about it, so today it went to the seaside with K20d and I.

Whole picture-
[IMG]http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc222/Oggy3323/Crowa.jpg[/IMG]

Crop-
[IMG]http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc222/Oggy3323/Crow.jpg[/IMG]

800 pixels wide-
[IMG]http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc222/Oggy3323/Crowb.jpg[/IMG]



Whole picture-
[IMG]http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc222/Oggy3323/Seagulla.jpg[/IMG]

Crop-
[IMG]http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc222/Oggy3323/Seagull.jpg[/IMG]

800 pixels wide-
[IMG]http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc222/Oggy3323/Seagullb.jpg[/IMG]

I reckon that given that this lens is nowhere near DA* price, and rather versatile, it does not do a bad job.

Any thoughts?

Nice pictures Mike. I like the colours.

No3 looks a bit ominous. Aeroplanes do eat birds, but it gives them terrible (if not terminal) indigestion.

Have you reported it?

If not, go to the bottom left corner of any page and there is a "report problem/suggestion" option.