Originally posted by Class A Roger Cicala is just someone who sees many lenses a day, observes the faults they develop, repairs them, and gains experience with service centres. I certainly would value the opinion of someone with these kind of privileges higher than that of an individual who makes singular experiences that may or may not have any relevance for anyone else.
Experience counts for a lot, I'm not denying that. However the Global vision lens line up has only been around for a few years and that really isn't enough time to figure out accurate reliability figures for these lenses. I'm
cautiously optimistic when buying sigma lenses* But sigma has a long way to go to improve up the image they cane in the photographic community.
I also have a considerable number of lenses, ones that I work with commercially and personally. Some of the off brand lenses I work with are made by sigma, some are made by Tokina and Tamron. I see many of the brand name lenses have fewer problems than their third party counterparts, and in a professional environment I value reliability, optical quality, and a decent repair/maintenance network - cost is of least concern. My customers have to pay a bit more if I have to buy a lens for a project, I have to recoup my expenses somehow.
* FYI - My mother (who is an extremely good photographer herself) she doesn't like sigma lenses at all, she remembers the disasters they came out with in the 70's and 80's. In fact once she told me to never buy a sigma lens ever again.