outdated firmware for sigma lenses

hi, i bought a sigma 28mm 1.8 for a minolta maxxum7d from b&h photo only to

find out the lens has old firmware. i ordered another from them before i found

this out from sigma, who tell me chances are i will recieve the same old lens

from b&h. b&h is totally unwilling to check before shipping 2nd lens telling

me they ship what the manufacture sends them. I have a wedding shoot this

saturday any suggestions or know of a honest dealer i could find a lens at?

thanks! vicky

B&H is honest. If you want to open the box, put it on your camera, and test the firmware, buy from a local dealer. Or buy a Konica-Minolta (Sony) brand lens. Sigma, like all third-party lens makers, reverse-engineers their lenses, and sometimes the camera manufacturers change specs and leave Sigma, Tokina, or Tamron hanging. Part of the joy of buying 3rd-party lenses.

I'm sorry you're in a spot, but I would have to say that the lack of planning on your part is not B&H's fault. How were they to know what the firmware level of the lens was, or what camera you were putting it on, or what potential discrepancies between firmware and camera might exist?

<i>"... i found this out from sigma, who tell me chances are i will receive the same old lens from b&h.</i><P>

Which suggests to me that <b>Sigma</b> is well aware the incompatibility exists, is well aware there is <b>brand new</b> stock of this lens on retailer's shelves, but is unwilling to issue a blanket recall via their distributors (Sigma Corporation of America in this instance) to repair/upgrade the <b>defective</b> firmware. Instead, they rely on unfortunate / unsuspecting retail customers, who have to go to the trouble of sending a brand new yet unusable lens back to the factory to fix something that should work out of the box in the first place.<p>

Quite often people jump to the defense of B&H Photo a little too quickly here (they <b>do</b> make mistakes), but in this instance Wigwam is absolutely right. Your beef should be with <b>Sigma</b> for distributing a lens that doesn't work properly for all advertised applications. Not with B&H, who had no idea for which camera you were going to use this lens, and probably don't have the means to verify the firmware version of their existing stock and compatibility with different bodies. That's <b>Sigma's</b> job!