How to Modify / Jailbreak your Tamron / Sigma 70-300mm Macro lens

[gbenyov]

Köszönöm, az ötletedet. Én széjjel-szedtem a saját optikámat, persze nagyon óvatosan. Muszáj volt, mert a zoom-gyűrű továbbító belső eleme letörött.

A szétszerelés filmet, kérlek ne szerkeszd, ne vágd meg. Sok-sok részlet-műveletet nem mutattál be. Ez a film lehetne akár 15 perc hosszúságú is.

[gbenyov]

Thank you for your idea. I picked apart my own lens very carefully. I had to be dismantled because a zoom-ring transmission element was down broken.

Please do not edit, and cut this disassembly movie. Lots of detail-operation has not can be seen. This movie can be up to 15 minutes in length.

[Zaphodteo]

Good video.. You sounds like Mr Brown though.

[AbdulAziz348]

can you help me ? my zoom ring now doesn't work i have to pull the lens to zoom

[witonohalim]

@AbdulAziz348 becareful with the zoom element when you assemble. There maybe few positions that seem to fit each other, but there is only one which is correct. Look out for small stopper or catch when you want to put the parts together.

[emp29]

Did this to my Sigma lens and it's a bit different. Surgery went well and I can now "close focus" at 70mm. I guess manufacturers put the switch so you could fully retract the lens, because the lens has an inch or so exposed when it's at it's close focus range.

[Str1keZ3r0]

works like a charm! thanks for the guide!

[FlyerKV]

I don't know is my lens falulty or something, but what i do, i just zoom at 300, then click macro button, focus it on the macro field, and then zoom out. it just needs a little more force than usual, but it works, without damaging the lens.

[calex64]

I just did this. It works BUT it was really hard to put together. There is more than meets the eye. It was almost impossible to allign all the moving parts and it took me 3 hours to do it !!! I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS !!!! But if you decide to do this anyway, autofocus seems to work fine at the whole range and you can still use the macro button as a "limitter"if you want faster autofocus.

[timar03]

For everyone asking:

The macro mode limit button is for situations when you shoot sports or birds.

Imagine a lense that goes all the way to the macro part of the focus when in reality you want it to be close to infinity. Especially in low light cheap lenses tend to search very long, and with macro mode always enabled it would search all the way. i would say it helps by a good 0.5 -1 sec.

[Srabbel]

I just did this with my 70-300mm SIGMA MACRO. It worked just fine! had a few problems with reassambling... but no big deal. It's new focus range is AMAZING!

[martijnisdeshit]

i've just set my sigma on macro mode and then used a little force to zoom out, works perfectly! great vid thanks for the idea

[iAlessandroOriginal]

Omg this is so dangerous!

[rhykko77]

I think I would rather perform brain surgery on myself than do that ! lol

[jiffcia]

that is scary

[9322002898]

hi..

i am new to dslr photography eith nikon d3100... and i want to own this lens i mean tamron or sigma 70-300mm di ld or apo dg lens... will these autofocus on the nikon d3100??

thanks in advance.. :)

[FlyerKV]

@9322002898 it won't autofocus, it's not an AF-S lens.

[edwinchiu]

I've heard that I can just put my Tamron on 300mm to Macro Mode, then just use a little force to make it go below 200mm and crack the little metal plate so that I don't have to disassemble it, is it true?

[witonohalim]

@edwinchiu Yes you can do that to some batch of the lens. I had tried that in some older version, but Sigma/Tamron found the way to lock it tighter in some newer version.

[misterbronz]

I watched this video and made it work on my Sigma 70-300 DL super macro, and it worked out just fine.

It was a lot difficulter than the tamron, because you cannot disamble the circuitboard, and gears. its all stuck together.

[BlueLotusLtd]

Why do the manufacturers hide this? Whats the whole point with making an extra button and limit and stuff? Thats a lot of extra effort. It totally baffles me.

How is the quality of macro shots in modified range?

[witonohalim]

@BlueLotusLtd my best guess from understanding of how optics works is that this macro mode works like an extension tube to bring the whole element further away from the sensor, which result in shorter focus distance and increased depth of field, hope this answer your question on the quality. Therefore instead of making it by default, they added it as a 'feature' mode to add value to the lens.

[OYAJHUN]

can you please help me how to fix the gear of autofocus and manual focus because i dnt know how to arange it tnx

[witonohalim]

@OYAJHUN are you modifying your Tamron or Sigma? If its the gear cannot be put in, you might need to manually offset the gear so that the teeth can fit in.

[OYAJHUN]

@witonohalim my tamron lens,, i dont know how to fix it

[witonohalim]

@OYAJHUN if you are refering to the autofocus/manual button on the sigma, you need to switch it to manual first, then the 'catch' can be slot in.

[OYAJHUN]

ok you said that so i will trust your words and i will try that

[witonohalim]

@OYAJHUN disassemble at your own risk and good luck!

[witonohalim]

Additional information, this mod works best with extension tube, which gives you more flexibility to focus

[OYAJHUN]

that was crop

[witonohalim]

@OYAJHUN No the sample photos at 0:19 are not cropped. It was 70mm focus at 1.5, and modified 70mm focus at 0.95m. Behind the picture you will see how I twist the barrel from 70mm-300mm while I am on macro mode. The lens is capable to do that, and it was only that little metal that serves as a limiter.

[ragenumbers]

This is GREAT!