[Peter Zack]

Yes that's exactly what I wanted, a rigged poll. Actually I do stay up at night and worry/wonder what's in everyones bag. If they can afford the LBA and the rent at the same time this month.

Geez, I thought a little proactive push in Sigma's direction might help many, myself included, get this lens in the Pentax mount. Showing them some poll/petition that had a few choices and some real numbers might actually convince them that there is enough demand to consider making this in a Pentax version. Since every time one of these goes up for sale in the used market there are 30+ bidders and around 1000 Ebayers at least viewed the auction, I thought instead of sitting here wanting and waiting, I try to do something to make some of our voices heard.
I've emailed Sigma in the past and gotten good responses but no firm eta's. Maybe a bigger nudge would help.

What does surprise me is that, as of this writing 286 people have opened the thread (I know some may be coming back to check, but only 56 have actually voted. Guess I should have put the poll in the marketplace and put Sigma Blah Blah Blah EX++ $500.00 in the title. Then there'd be 2000 voters...

Interesting results though so far. 56 votes and 30.36 say yes and 19.64 say they might if they could afford it. So an even 50% at least have some interest in owning the lens.

[Peter Zack]

Hey, I'm going to bump this once in awhile to see how many votes we get to send to sigma

Hey, I'm going to bump this once in awhile to see how many votes we get to send to sigma

FYI: The used one on eBay - noted as "barely used" - just sold for $1009 plus S&H.

Sometimes eBay is not quite the barometer as it claims to be. But in this case, lets say that it was, a new one for $900 + tax + S&H would be about $1009

Nevertheless (one word or three?) I have seen items sell for more on ebay than can be gotten for at other online retailers, so while it can be used to determine fair market value it is not always as acurate as we would, but thanks because I was wondering about what it sold for myself.

[Peter Zack]

Yeah i saw that as well and the funny thing is the first bidders tried to save some money and passed on the $900 buy it now. Which I would guess had some effect on the final price as it was in the description. The last 3 of these to sell recently went for over $1150.00

[Peter Zack]

So it seems steady at about 55% that at least have some interest

[m8o]

I'm "for" the goal of this thread, and voted "yes". However, isn't the real issue here that Pentax hasn't been 'open' with their SDM interface, thus an HSM isn't possible? (unless they try to reverse engineer it, which can be considered a risky proposition as Pentax can decide to change something that may work with their own shipped lenses, but not the 'hacked' 3rd party lenses).

So until Pentax creates and supports a 3rd Party Interface Support Program for SDM, shouldn't we expect not to see this lens, in HSM/SDM? ...and isn't the place to 1st focus the efforts on in having Pentax open up the SDM system to 3rd parties?

[magnum1]

I know it's been said, but if was once again offered at $900, I would buy. I tried to find one but for some reason they stopped making the Pentax mount.

$1200 would be a resounding NO! That small amount of distance compared to my 50-135 would not be worth the extra $400.

That lens would never be worth $1200.

[FotoPete]

Tamrons probably the one to wait for on this one. So far they've maintained the stardard mechanical focusing mechanism whether it be in-lens motor or AF Screw driven. It may take Sigma sometime to dissect SDM communications. Sigma has never made a KAF2 mount lens in the past and so it maybe be a bit of a challenge (even though it is just two more pins).

then theres market share. When will Pentax grow enough to convince Sigma that its a viable economic pursuit to bring up K Mount supply. Only time will tell I guess.

But I agree that the prices so far are rather high. $1200 is alot consider that it is a thirdparty lens and it doesn't have in-lens Image Stabilization. In fact its a more than the Canon 70-200/2.8 L and alot more than the Nikon 80-200/2.8 ED.

[meyjo]

Ok, so it is my understanding that this particular lens will not fit on a Pentax????? Good thing I tuned in....I was in a camera shop recently getting some proofs done, and inquired about this very lens. The owner of the shop knows I own a Pentax K100D and never said a word. Is it possible he doesn't know, or is just trying to make a quick sale? And have any of you used or do any of you own a Sigma 50-500mm f/4-6.3?? How do you like it?

Meyjo

[Peter Zack]

Ok, so it is my understanding that this particular lens will not fit on a Pentax????? Good thing I tuned in....I was in a camera shop recently getting some proofs done, and inquired about this very lens. The owner of the shop knows I own a Pentax K100D and never said a word. Is it possible he doesn't know, or is just trying to make a quick sale? And have any of you used or do any of you own a Sigma 50-500mm f/4-6.3?? How do you like it?

Meyjo

The older version (non macro) will fit on a Pentax.If he has one on the shelf, then test it on your canera to make sure that the mount is OK. The version we're talking about here is the new offering from Sigma and has the macro feature but is basically the same as the previous model. So say the new model is not as sharp but since it's not available in a Pentax mount, I don't know where that info is coming from.

I have the Sigma 50-500mm ("Bigma") and it's a very good lens and quite versatile as it has such a long range. But at the long end it goes down to f6.3 so that makes it a bit slow for fast wildlife or sports shooting unless the light is very good or you want to turn up the ISO. But as for picture quality, it's excellent across the entire range. For some it may be a bit on the heavy side (hence the nickname) but all good, long glass is fairly heavy anyway. It comes with a very good and comfortable lens collar/hand grip where you can mount it to a tripod. I picked up a monopod to use with this lens and a few others I have. The combo works well. With the K10D and SR, I've shot this lens as low as 1/60th and gotten good results hand held. Below that with this focal length and weight, you mostly likely will have a hard time getting a sharp shot unless you use a tripod/monopod. For a big lens, it's pretty well balanced, een better if you have the grip for the camera.

I'd definitely recommend it to anyone. But if the shop you visited has the 70-200 Sigma in the older version and the price is reasonable, I'd buy it if it was me.

[distorted_vision]

Yes that was the question, but why do you think the question was asked in the first place?
To quote Peter, it is "like a petition of sorts"...
"We have almost 4400 active members here so that should say something to Sigma"....
and most importantly, "once this poll has run for 4 weeks or so I'll email the results from it to Sigma. Unless of course we only get 100-200 voters then that's not going to convince them it's worth the effort."

I don't believe the question is here because Peter woke up with a burning desire to know what everyone thinks about this lens being made, purely for the sake of knowing it. The intention is fairly obvious - to get a number, a list, of people who want the lens, so that we can persuade Sigma that there is a significant number of Pentax users who do want it, so that they will go to the effort of making it for us this time around.

And that is why I am surprised anyone would bother to post "No", "Don't care" etc.

i completely agree with you.

[ZaphodB]

Meyjo, the owner of the store probably just doesn't know that the lens isn't available for the Pentax mount. That was the case when I tried to order one... as far as they could tell there should be no problem getting the Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 for the Pentax... after all why should there be? It had been available for K-mount before... so they just assumed it would still be possible to order the (non-HSM) version, and went ahead and placed the order with Sigma for me. It was only much, much later that Sigma finally got back to them and told them this was not the case (by which time I'd found out myself. So I doubt he's trying to scam you; either he has one of the older model for K-mount (as Peter says), or he doesn't know you can't get it for that mount any more.

I don't understand the ongoing debate about the price... thought by now it was established that this was just the "Suggested Retail Price", which is usally much higher than actual street or online prices.

Btw Tamron may be the better bet. Especially since they at least announced their intention to make the lens for all mounts (except the Sigma mount... gee I wonder why... could it be that Sigma SLRs aren't all that popular either? ) ... whereas so far Sigma have already said that the new lens will be available for "Sigma AF, Canon AF and Nikon AF"... but still, I'd prefer not to put all my eggs in one basket. If Sigma can make the better lens then I'd rather have that (and how do we know Tamron won't change their minds?) so I still think it's worth trying to persuade them to make the lens for us.

Also call me cynical but I find it hard to believe Sigma is really having trouble working out how to make a lens that works on Pentax dSLRs. Seems to me more like a question of priorities... they've gone to the effort and expense of re-designing a very highly-regarded lens of which very few criticisms had been made (And why go to all this trouble? Simply for slightly better performance at close distances from the sounds of it)... and yet they may not willing to put time or money into making the lens for mounts that aren't Canon, Nikon or Sigma. This is fair enough; they're a business, and presumably believe that making the lens for us isn't worth the cost or isn't in their interest... which is why we should try to persuade them otherwise.

[Lowell Goudge]

You really need to add another reason behind NO,

Specifically that you already own an earlier version sigma 70-200 f/2.8 or perhaps another brand of similar focal length and speed.

Since this option was not listed I voted YES because I have a 70-200F/2.8 from sigma and am very pleased with it.

I paid about that price when it was new (in Canadian Dollars 4 years ago) and if I were in the market today for a lens of that type (i.e. I did not already own it) , I would buy one.

[Peter Zack]

Yes Lowell, you are right I put "Own it and highly recommend" assuming those owners would buy it again if they had to. I'm considering that and "yes" as the total positives.

But I should have added "No, have another similar length lens now" as a second No option. Too late to add that to the poll now, once posted they are locked.

[Peter Zack]

What I'd like to hear is the thoughts of the "no" voters. Easy to understand the yes ones but are the NO's not into shooting longer subjects, sports, wildlife or getting closer to a landscape that might take few hours to hike to? It would be interesting to hear the thoughts. Maybe this style of lens is too heavy/big or the speed doesn't make a difference.

Coming with that speed is also better sharpness and IQ. I like my old F SMC 70-210 and the IQ is pretty good but it's slow and not as good as the lens in this poll (I have a freind who owns the non macro version and I got to use it for a day-damn fine piece of glass).

So you NO voters, post your thoughts....