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Hey guys

I was planning on purchasing the Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 EX DG Macro and Sigma APO 80-400mm F4.5-5.6 EX OS from Discount Digital Photographics but was told they are not compatible with the Canon 10D. However I've looked at review sites with people claiming they have use the lenses on their 10D. So who is right and who is wrong as these lenses seems to be a good alternative from Canon L series?

I can't help specifically with the 10D and the lenses you talk about. But to my understanding it has to do with a chip on the lens being older than the camera, hence some may not be compatible. But you can also send these back to Sigma to be "re-chipped" or upgraded and should work fine. All depends on the age of the lens to my understanding.

Please let us know how you find the 24-70, I'm currently looking at purchasing this lens also.

A mate has a Nikon version of the 24-70 ( for his D100 ) and he says it's bloody sharp and nice.

Cheers,

Some Sigma lenses older than the EOS 30/33 (these were film bodies which introduced a new 7-point AF engine) needed to be re-chipped to work with them. The EOS 10D was the first digital body to use this AF engine, and suddenly a large new audience of users was exposed to the problem. But any lens that worked with the 30/33 also worked with the 10D.
I'm not sure at what point Sigma fixed the problem, but in general if the lens was introduced after the camera, it's going to work without having to get Sigma to re-chip it.

Of course, because Sigma has to reverse-engineer the EF mount (Canon doesn't tell anyone about the protocols used in it) it's possible for new EOS bodies to use features that Sigma doesn't know about. When this happens (I think it's happened at least once since the 10D, but the 10D introduction was the big one that garnered a lot of attention) Sigma generally works out a solution then updates lenses at no charge.

Note that if a lens does require re-chipping, I think CR Kennedys (the Sigma agents in Oz) will not re-chip the lens for free if you bought it from D-D. Don't quote me on that though: check with CR Kennedys if you need clarification. I know they're very picky about discouraging companies like D-D who "grey-import" Sigma products.

As for the 24-70mm F2.8 EX DG Macro, I'd expect it would work with the 10D as-is (I think the "DG" designation was added after the 10D came out). As for the 80-400mm OS lens, it may be cheaper than the EF 100-400mm IS lens, but it is missing at least one major feature: it does not have an HSM focussing motor. Thus its focus is a lot slower, and doesn't have full-time manual focus override available. So for me it is not "a good alternative from Canon L series", but YMMV. The same applies to the 24-70mm/2.8...

The 80-400 does have full time manual overide, which works brilliantly. but yes it is not as fast at focus as the 100-400, neither is it a push pull action either.. I use this lens on a 300D and 30D with no problems.