A Waiting Game

[Mike Farley]

With Canon’s and Nikon’s recent announcements of their new mirrorless camera systems, complete with new mounts, adapted lenses are in vogue. It is the only solution which the two companies can offer to retain existing customers as they transition over the next few years. It is a journey I have recently started, although in my case I am adapting my EF lenses to a Sony A7 II. Not, I dare say, something which Canon had in mind.

The Sony A7 II is a recent acquisition, the main intention being to use it with my manual focus lenses, many of which are at least 30-40 years old. I do not intend to purchase any native Sony lenses but with a purely electronic interface between camera and lens, it is possible to mount EF lenses via an adapter. The one I chose is a Sigma MC-11 which seems to work reasonably well with my Canon lenses, even though officially it is only compatible with a specified selection of Sigma’s own offerings.

Many years ago, 1999 to be precise and when everyone was still shooting with film, I bought a Sigma 18-35 f/3.5-4.5 Aspherical zoom with a Canon EF mount. It was relatively modest price for such a lens. At the time, it was well regarded with a number of positive reviews. The shop I bought it from was Vic Odden’s at London Bridge, which closed in 2005. I have fond memories of Vic, who was a true gentleman and sold me the first camera I bought with my own money. His advice was always reliable and his sudden death a couple of years previously had saddened many.

In those days, Canon and Sigma were locked in a game of cat and mouse. Canon never released the specification of the EF mount and Sigma had reverse engineered it. For whatever reason, they had not implemented the interface between lens and camera in full. Possibly to avoid patent infringement, but I do not really know. At the time I had bought the lens, Canon had just released its EOS 3 camera and it was known that the two were incompatible. Sigma’s solution was to offer a new chip and, as a condition of sale, I had the lens upgraded.

Roll forward a few years and in 2004 I purchased my first DSLR, a Canon 300D. I had a number of Canon lenses which all worked, but not the Sigma. Canon had changed something and while Sigma had replacement chips for most of their lenses, there were none available for the 18-35. So I packed it up back into its box and put it away, vowing never to buy another Sigma lens. A win for Canon, certainly.

With my Sony A7 II now in hand and thinking about possibilities of shooting with a wide-angle, I remembered the long forgotten Sigma. It took a while to find and dig it out from the cubby hole where it had ended up, but there it was. A remarkably bulbous front element, 82 mm filter ring and surprisingly light, which suggests there is a lot of plastic in its construction. In other respects, the build is solid and it came with a lens hood and leather case. I even still had the 82 mm Skylight filter I purchased at the time tucked away in the bag.

The important question. Does it work? Yes, it does. This post would not have much point otherwise. I have taken a photo with the lens for the first time in 14 years. It was not possible to change the aperture on the 300D and I do not believe autofocus worked either. An early test shot pointing towards the sun revealed a propensity to veiling flare, but the centre is sharp with the edges a little way behind. Maybe contrast is a bit on the low side, but that can be changed in post. Used within its limitations and stopped down a bit, it is a useful lens.

The real question is what has changed? Why is the lens working again? At the time, I did not really understand why I could change the aperture on a lens which would focus automatically on a film camera but not a digital one. Was Canon playing games to deter people from buying Sigma lenses in preference to its own? Take Canon out of the equation and the answer becomes clearer. These days, it is possible to upgrade the firmware in Sigma’s lenses. Which is just as well, as it is not in anyone’s interest to go back to the way things were as the photography world migrates to the latest technology. Even if Canon and Nikon have waited ten years to get serious about full frame mirrorless cameras.

[Mike Farley]

I have posted an updated version of this article, replete with photos, on my blog.

https://lightintotheshadows.proimageblo ... surrected/