Latest sigma foveon cameras

DanF

DanF

DanF

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Joined
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Have you guys been keeping an eye on the foveon tech cameras? they always looked like an interesting tech not needing a AA filter to operate. The latest ones are giving out amazingly detailed images, by the looks of it you'd need a 30+mp ccd sensor to keep up :eek:

The 3 newish ones
sigma dp1 merrill (19mm/2.8 - 28mm eqv)
sigma dp2 merrill (30mm/2.8 - 45mm eqv)
sigma dp3 merrill (50mm/2.8 - 75mm eqv)

Here's the galleries for them
DP1Merrill samplephoto
DP2Merrill samplephoto
DP3Merrill samplephoto

By the looks of it the AF is only ok in good light after firmware updates, they really need to be kept to 400 or less on ISO and only the dodgy sigma software supports them right now (workflow is convert raw to tiff in sigma software then import to something else). But if you could live with that then the image quality for the price is just crazy. From comparisons it's more detailed than the Sony RX1 24mp FF camera and only just looses out to D800e with high end prime lenses. There's some comparisons to MF backs as well where it holds up very well but ultimately can't compete (as you'd expect).

And some reviews, some of these where done with the original firmware so AF is better now.
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/sigma_dp2m_review.shtml
http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/2012/...-gorgeous-image-quality-but-slow-and-squeaky/
http://www.ephotozine.com/article/sigma-dp2-merrill-camera-review-19831

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=69796.0
 
Yeah basically they are pretty much sharp at a pixel level and need no extra sharpening. I've never seen anything like this from current crop sensors and maybe only some very high MP shots I've ever downloaded. Apparently they print very well and can easily be doubled in res and still look good so I guess fairly large prints.
 
Ksanti said:
I don't know about only just losing out to the D800e... I haven't looked at the full on tests as I'm busy but those samples just look like any other APS-C sensor with a decent lens in front of it.
Click to expand...

Yeah you really need to check out the sample images yourself to see what they are all about. Hard to believe you can basically buy a full working camera for less than the cost of a prime lens you'd need to mount on a D800e to get a similar level of quality.

Basically if all you shot was static well lit images or used a tripod you could get all three cameras for the price of one D800e body before you've even added on lenses :p I'm in now way saying this is the correct thing to do here though as the cameras have many limitations and quirks.
 
Yeah I guess it could take a lot of R&D investment, CCD tech has so much money chucked at it by all the big players it'd be hard to compete head on.
 
Yeah it's still better than the x-pro1 and other Fuji cameras, actually it looks like Fuji have put in a patent for Foveon style sensor tech for some future cameras, could be interesting.
 
wow that was a good article read on dx0mark benchmarks and some good comments. Ther where some posts on the luminous-landscape forum showing that the 3 colour channels did have different noise levels I guess due to the way light filters through it, also they where recommending to over expose as the Merrills where better at recovering highlights than pulling up shadows due to noise.

So to summaries what your saying is if you want a Foveon camera do it sooner than later before there's no point :p
 
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