lens problem

[edster]

hi i have just bought a sigma 70-300mm f4-5.6 apo macro lens off a well known auction site for my canon 350d, problem is when i fit the lens to the body and turn on the camera it comes up as error 99,ive looked in canon handbook found the error code and it tells me that this error may occur if you use a non canon lens and the camera or lens does not operate properly as a result.ive noticed that the camera was registered in 1998, is this lens not compatiable with the 350d then or is this lens broke.btw its in the gold colour box if that means anything
thanks edster

 

[stu.artd]

Do you mean that the lens was registered in 1998? The 350D wasn't available then

I think the lens will need to be sent to Sigma for rechipping.

 

[DizMatt]

if you didnt' get the DG lens then it's hit and miss I think
I bought a sigma lens that works fine on a non D- SLR and okay on my friends 20D but not much at all on my 350D
bah
have to sell it on..annoyingly the bloke who auctioned this knew it and didn't mention it on his add, but didn't lie either. (something I don't do on my auction)
should be a nice lens though really...seems pretty sturdy and well behaved on my friends cameras.

 

[Alex53]

It might need re-chipping. Sigma does this for free as far as I know.

Also, try cleaning the contacts on the lens mount, error 99 can also happen when these contacts are not clean. (Happened to me recently on a Canon lens and had me worried until someone suggested this, and cleaning fixed it).

 

[spell]

Contact Sigma, in most (but not all cases) they will re-chip the lens. The problem is that Sigma have to reverse-engineer all of the mounts that they support and as such, the reverse-engineering is imperfect. I know that this has happened with regards to the Minolta mount in the past as well.

 

[edster]

thanks for all your help ive emailed sigma just waiting for a reply next week now and i was so looking forward to having a play ,never mind
edster