Lens Rentals published their data for defects and repairs across the kit they own. Some interesting nuggets in here. Sigma’s 120-300 f2/8 stands out as a serious lemon with 3 times more failures than the next worst offender. This would certainly make me think twice about this lens but in general Canon and Nikon also feature heavily in the top 15 so I don’t think it means avoid Sigma in general.
Adorama, BandH and others are offering instant rebates when purchasing a popular selection of lenses with most camera bodies. Just go to their websites and the saves are applied directly.
18-200mm – $250 instant rebate. This is a great first lens (its what I started with and still what I keep on my camera most of the time) giving you maximum flexibility without having to carry a lot of gear. I wish this offer had been available when I got my first body/lens!
I’m not a big fan of ‘marketing fluff’ naming. Give me a nice logical set of numbers and letters any day. Cars are a good example. In a rush to conjure up some lifestyle association, too many manufactures put ridiculous names on their cars. Naming your latest 4×4 after a Lake (Chevy Tahoe) or even more confusingly, the capital of an ex-French colony (Porsche Cayenne) undoubtedly makes sense in a marketing meeting. What annoys me, is deep down I know it probably works in the real world too otherwise the practice would have died out. Ditto for the ‘lifestyle’ car ad which shows a pair of models driving through a beautiful place with giant grins and ‘we’re better because we drive this car’ expressions but tells you nothing about the car.
One imagines that setting the price of a camera involves a lot of time and effort on the part of the manufacturer. A team of people would weight up competitive offerings, cost of manufacture, exchange rates, target audience and so on. Countless meetings, phone calls, PowerPoint slides and spreadsheets would be required.