Well, I was hoping to learn more about what the update accomplishes since Sigma's description is so vague. I've searched so many different terms it's ridiculous. I can't find anything else, just some people on forums saying they've been waiting for a month or more. Seems like this entire issue just fell through the cracks.
I spoke with B&H. They have no idea if the lenses in stock have V1 or V2 firmware, and they won't make any effort to find out. He said it's on Sigma, they should be recalling the lenses within the serial # range and updating them. I agreed that would be the best way to go, but also pointed out that B&H has a responsibility to their customers to make sure they aren't selling new product with obsolete firmware that must be returned to the manufacturer for correction at the customers expense. Seems to me they'd contact Sigma and ask which of their stock needs to be updated.
I called the store once they opened. They agreed these are hoops one shouldn't have to jump through. He also pointed out that it'd be tough to tell which lens you have, since the warehouses and manufacturer's don't rotate stock. It's highly probable an older one could get shipped recently if stock is low.
They don't have any more in stock nor do they have one in their rental system, so they offered 2 solutions:
- Full refund
- They will send the lens to Sigma so I don't have to deal with it. Problem with that is we don't know how long it will take.
Since we know that there's a local service center, he's going to call them tomorrow to try and figure out turnaround time. He's also going to check to see if they can do it while someone waits, since if it's truly a firmware update it should only take 10 minutes.
Interestingly, both he and the guy from B&H believe that since it must be returned for the update and it's taking a month or more for people to get them back, they're probably changing something physically in the lens. Early reports were that people were getting them back quickly, so this could be a chip swap with a supply chain issue.
Rats.