Clearly, or at least it appears to me that, Google is getting cheap with their image-viewing options on Blogger.  Probably I should link to my images on Flickr, but they have all kinds of weird hoops to go through to look up close at images...

SOOOOOOO

Lets see how that works.  I might start sharing full sized images on google drive which has a simple zoom function.  in the toolbar above the images.

Not that anyone has read this blog in a dogs age, but still.

HOWABOUTTHISOONE

flies

SIGMA QUATTRO DP2 Resolutions : 2X VERSUS S-HI RESOLUTION

There have been times my fellow foveista, that I've pondered the quality losses of saving X3F files @ double resolution.

Now there is another choice, S-Hi.  Presumably this takes the data and produces as large an image as possible without quality loss.

The first image is @ double resolution 10.8K X 7.2K pixels!  Yes.  That's big.  

The second is @ S-Hi. 7.7k X 5.1k.  sooo 1.5X actual size, an also a fairly whopping size.

call me quazy but i think blogger resized them a little so here are full sized crops.  First 2x.  For this I used mac Preview, so that program may have messed with the files a little, too.

and now for S-hi:

clearly this source image has problems, but I think double and s-hi are fairly similar.  next time I'll do a still life.

self with gasmask

WHAT ABOUT VIDEO?

Oh wow, sorry for the all-caps jazz.

So this is from the Foveon website.  Keep in mind, Junior, that this is from way back in the dark ages, like 2007.  The 5D MII was a still gestating, the 7D a madman's sordid dream.  Sorry, I was just reading some Hamlet and got kinda Elizabethan there:

X3 TECHNOLOGY VPS

Foveon X3® direct image sensors not only lead to better pictures, but better cameras too, as a result of their powerful full-color variable pixel size (VPS) capability. VPS opens the door to an entirely new breed of camera, one that can switch seamlessly between still photography and digital video, without sacrificing the quality of either. The VPS capability allows signals from adjacent pixels to be combined into groups and read as one larger pixel. For example, a 2300 x 1500 image sensor contains more than 3.4 million pixel locations. But if the VPS capability were used to group those pixel locations into 4x4 blocks, the image sensor would appear to have 575 x 375 pixel locations, each of them 16 times larger than the originals. The size and configuration of a pixel group are variable—2x2, 4x4, 1x2, etc.—and are controlled through sophisticated circuitry integrated into Foveon X3 direct image sensors. Because Foveon X3 image sensors capture full color at every pixel location, pixels that are grouped together form full-color "super pixels." No other image sensor can do this. Click here for an interactive demonstration of VPS The grouping of pixel locations increases the signal-to-noise ratio, allowing the camera to take full-color pictures in low-light conditions with reduced noise. Using the VPS capability to increase pixel size and reduce the resolution also allows the image sensor to run at higher frame rates, accelerating the speed at which images can be captured. This makes it possible to shoot high-quality digital video, enabling the development of the first cameras with true dual-mode functionality. Without Foveon X3 technology, cameras attempting to accommodate both still and video functions must sacrifice performance in one mode to do the other well. And since the sizing of pixels can be done in an instant, a Foveon X3 direct image sensor can capture a high—resolution still photo in the midst of recording video—yet another first in digital photography.

So what does that mean?  Nothing that I can discern, but surely the question must still arise, "What about video?"  Boy, this is why I never blog, now I have to figure out this VPS crap to finish the post.  Wow.

The only place that has both "VPS" and "Sigma" on all the internets is that page up there.

I guess VPS was abandoned.  Clearly digital cameras use something like it today, or a 20 MP camera would take a 20 MP video.  But Sony's mid 2000's digital cameras had higher resolution images than video, without VPS, I assume.

Welcome to the EPICENTER OF ALL IGNORANCE.

Clearly I know nothing about video, sensors or otherwise, but still I know that the video produced by my DP3 Merrill is the poopiest crap that ever emerged from a bowel, identical in everyway to the video produced by my DP1 circa 2008.  So there.

BUT IS THAT TRUE?  I dunno, I haven't even tried it.  let's find out right now!!!!

Scattzville Vanderplops.

I shot a few seconds of video with my Sigma DP3 Merrill and the red button is still bleeping.  It killed my camera, rendering it unusable for the time being.

While those 240 frames write to the memory card, let us imagine a world where Sigma had the R and D budget of Sony.   Wouldn't you enjoy a DP2 with 4k video?  I would.  It is still writing.  I am no speed typist, either, I am possibly the slowest typing person in the world.

Holy God in a knapsack.

I am a Sigma user, and as such am accustomed to long write times, but this is dumbcrazysick.  I'm going to pop out the battery, pop the sd card in my computer and post the video in a sec, no matter what state it is in.

It wasn't so bad, the power button worked at least.  AVI format is what this is shot it.

now blogger is taking a long time.

THE FILE WAS UNREADABLE

The counter freezes up after 008 seconds.  Here, let me try a shorter video.  

FAIL.

I'm going to try some weird crap and see if any of it works.

What you need to do to shoot video with your Sigma DP3 Merrill:

1. Switch the video mode from NSTS to PAL
2. Processing video takes Forever, regardless, make some tea.
3. The Foveon Sensor's video capabilities are limited to what they need to run the electronic Viewfinder.
4. Processing video takes Forever.
5. Use a 95mbps sdhc card, for a few seconds of the worst video on earth.
6. I will try again, the fast SDHC card may be the key.

COOL!  I MADE A SHORT (very short) FILM! only 4 scenes.

I call it, "The Scarlet Phenomenology of Jude the Passionate.  "

This epic was shot in PAL mode using a 95mbps SDHC card.

not exactly Christopher Doyle material.

Let's compare it to the detail of a still. haha

Now lets compare it to a jpeg from the X3F file... hahahhaahahhaa

article comparing the 3 dp cameras.

http://digital-photography-school.com/sigmas-dp-merrill-cameras-compared-world-beating-image-quality-in-compact-bodies

sigma dp1

get on the mic

books are heavy