We told you a little while back about an issue with the Nikon D5300  and Sigma lenses. Specifically lenses OS and AF would not work correctly without having the lens firmware updated, a process that for most lenses meant having to send it in to sigma. It also meant that some lenses that could not be updated would basically be worthless to D5300 owners.

Nikon-Df-silver-front

Well now it appears that Sigma lenses are not playing nicely with the new Nikon Df either. In a statement sent out my Sigma it appears that this will require a (free!) firmware update to fix the issue, and luckily it appears that the firmware needed is the same as the one needed to fix the D5300 issues so if for some reason you have a D5300 and a Df you will only need to update your lenses once.

These two bodies, the D5300 and Df, are Nikon’s newest camera bodies so I think it is safe to assume that Nikon has updated some sort of AF/OS software in their cameras and it does not play nice with the Sigma lenses. Now that it is apparent that these issues are happening and will continue to happen I would think that Sigma would update all future Nikon mount lenses with this firmware so people are not inconvenienced by having to send in their lenses.

Can’t we all just play nice? I mean to be fair this isn’t really Sigma’s fault here, Nikon changed something without giving a heads up. That said I don’t think that Nikon is blameless here, its rather shady in my opinion to update software that will break lenses without even mentioning it (and you can’t tell me Nikon didn’t know this would happen, with all the testing they do I find that highly unlikely). Could this be Nikon’s way of getting back at Sigma for all of Sigma’s recent success? Im not sure I would go that far, but that would make for an interesting discussion wouldn’t it.

What are your thoughts on this? Is Sigma handling the issues correctly? How about Nikon, what blame – if any – falls on them here? Share your thoughts in the comments below…