Sigma's 80-400 OS lens

Has anybody found out if Sigma's 80-400 OS lens has the HSM motor in

it?

An article in the December Shutterbug mag states it does not.

<a href=http://www.sigmaphoto.com/html/news/News.htm>http://www.sigmaphoto.com/html/news/News.htm</a>

Of course not, it would ambarass Nikon too much if it did.

Perhaps now we know who made the VR 80-400mm lens for Nikon...

Conny

Conny: I wouldn't be so quick to assume that. The Sigma lens has 20 elements, while Nikon's has only 11. Definitely not the same lens design.

The Sigma 80-400 has a Canon EOS version, in which they must put an AF motor for AF to work on a Canon body. If Sigma can put an AF motor (HSM or not) in the Canon version, why can't they put it in the Nikon version?

Probably because it has to undercut the cost Nikon's own 80-400, which does not have a AF-S.

I guess different people have different priorities, but the main (and perhaps only) reason I didn't get the Nikon 80-400 VR is that it doesn't have AF-S. IMO it would be very unwise for Sigma to not use HSM in the Nikon version of this lens.

Naji, the Nikon VR lens has 17 lenses in 11 groups. I'm not sure

about the Sigma, so you may be right that it has 20 lenses.

Nevertheless, Sigma might have adapted the formula in order to

adapt it for use on the other camera brands it has to work with, or

they simply changed the formula over time for cost or

performance reasons (the Nikon lens has been available for a

while now). The two lenses do look very similar don't they? And

it's not the only lens in the Nikon range that looks suspiciously

close to a Sigma here or a Tamron there... I would not be

surprised if Nikon concentrates on certain types of lenses and

outsources others, like they did for the FM-10 and FE-10 bodies.

Nikon is a fairly small company in comparison to f.ex. Canon and

they can't continue making everything themselves. Especially

since they have a hard time keeping up with with the C brand

technologically. Conny

My mistake. The Nikon does indeed have 17 lenses in 11 groups. According to the Sigma website, the Sigma has 20 elements in 14 groups. It's also quite a bit heavier and longer by nearly 2 cm. That could be due to different casing, tripod foot, or Canon AF motor. From this information alone, I have no idea whether Sigma does indeed make this or any other of Nikon's lenses, but I would not go simply by appearance. I would be interested if you had other information about this question.

although outsourcing of products to vendors can be common practice (and not a bad thing at all) I don't see any clue as to nikon vr lens is a sigma design. contrary, nikon vr is released a long time ago, which would lead me think whether the sigma is a nikon design. but from specs it doesn't look so.