my second ever picture!

Okay this is a much more lugubrious treatment of the neighborhood, despite the lush colors, but you can see right away how amazing the DP1 is.  Man, it makes me want to go out and take some picky wicks!  Here's a link, go buy one... hee hee.

my first picture with the DP1

I didn't really know what I had when I took my first picture with the DP1. Later, when I looked at the image on the computer, the colors and the quality of the photo really took my breath away. This is a JPG, processed through picasa, so it's hardly an accurate representation, but in the original, I could see people around the pond behind the Glessner museum, and the empty units in the new construction.

It was really amazing. What's more, is I felt that it captured what I had come to despise about the south loop. The ersatz bank of prefab townhomes flanked on all sides by ugly new construction and rehabbed warehouses typifies the Disney-esque bleakness of my original Chicago neighborhood.


I paid 400 for mine on Ebay, and it had a nasty dent on it, which I hate.

Dogs

Here are some boys I love, taken with my trusty DP1s

Please buy me this for my birthday

i don't get it.  I wrote a whole screed on how I fetishized old cameras... even old digital cameras.  It all just disappeared, like I never wrote it.  Well fuck.

somewhat surprising results SD14 vs EOS 5D Mark II

No time to write but here are images for your perusal, I will explain the results later, but for now I can honestly say I am somewhat baffled at how well the Sigma SD14 did, and maybe I can get advice on how to get more than I did from the canon.

I think I understand why DPreview hasn't reviewed the SD14 or 15, it's difficult to understand.

Okay I figured it out!  Still have no time to discuss, but it seems like a pretty close race...  Please Tune in this week to have these images explained!

Click this Guy to see 33.33% size Jpeg @ 100% Quality - RAW2 EOS 5D Mark II  cropped from below

Canon EOS 5D Mark II Raw Original image- Click for 33.33% reduced Jpeg Vi

Click this Guy to see 33.33% size Jpeg @ 100% Quality - RAW EOS 5D Mark II

Click to see Original size SD14 Jpeg reduced to 33.33%

Click to see 2X image (Through Sigma Photo Pro) @ 33.33%  

Well double Fudge trubs for me.

Sorry to flake on the side-by-side comparison.  Something very unexpected happened.  Actually a number of unexpected things.

First, I switched CF cards, which both had the Latest Sigma and Kodak firmware updates on them.  That basically bricked both of my digital SLR.  :)  Who knew?  I didn't try to update either camera, which made it all the more strange.  Second thing that happened was that a buddy of mine swapped a few of my old cameras for his two week old Canon EOS 5d Mark II.

I'm having trouble using any other camera at this time.  But I have a blog, and with a blog comes certain responsibilities.  So today I will fix my Sigma SD14 by reinstalling the correct firmware, and then I will compare it with the 5D Mark ii.  Even though it will be a grossly unfair comparison, since the Canon boasts 2 times the Sigma's pixel approximation, I can at least keep the Blog show alive.

Maybe I will use RAW 2 format with the Canon, which should be a lot closer in size and quality.

I could really use an SD1 right about now.  Too bad I'll have to wait another few years to use one, since they haven't been released yet.

What I really need is a Pentax 645d, which has been finally made available to the American market.  I know what you are thinking now, you're thinking we all need a canon 5d and a Pentax 645d, and jeez why do you need it, so you can brick it with  the wrong firmware?

I say I need it, because I am thinking of a specific project, which is to photograph my thousands of miniature sculptures.  I will include some recent experiments here now.

Top: Jefferson and the Stars, 2002, 1.3"x.5", nickel alloy
Below: By the Rod of Hypocrites, 2009, .3' x 4.6" , copper

There we go!  can you see that?  Okay.  I would like to tell you the history of these sculptures, but I am out of time for today.  My goal is to make giant enlargements and 3D renditions of this work for galleries and possibly for virtual digital environments. The top image was taken with my Sigma.  The image below (dig the misaligned stitching?)  was made using a Lumix point and shoot.

Alrighty then... I'll be back later with the images.

Sigma SD1 with the competitive sensor and the annoying press release.

46 megapixels, announces the new press release for the upcoming Sigma SD1.


I nearly got up and did a jig.  Holy crow... oh wait.  The press release is written in Sigma-ese, so it's actually a 15.36 megapixel sensor that they want to sell at a 46 megapixel Price!  Shucks.  

But, wait.  What is it really, 46 or 15?  Only here will you find the truth, my friend. 

In September of 2009, the highly reputable DPreview compared the raw files of the DP2 with those of the Olympus E-P1.


Olympus' 12 megapixel image couldn't compete.



"for those with clicking phobias, here's the punchline;

...the level of detail being rendered is clearly very high and not dissimilar to that of a well-processed image from a camera with a 12mp conventional sensor such as the E-P1. 

Per-pixel sharpness on the DP2 is way ahead of the E-P1 and even in a large print it seems ulikely that the extra pixels on the Olympus sensor would give you any advantage.

"

So here's the thing, even though the Olympus creates a raw image that is nearly twice the size of the DP2, the DP2 contains greater detail, enough detail to enlarge the image to the 12mp size without losing detail, theoretically.



"BUT IT HAS A 4.9 Megapixel Sensor!!!" Cries the terrified public,  "or rather, it has 4900000 pixel spaces." says one slightly less terrified man.

A woman stands up and says,  "If each pixel site reports a red, blue, and green signal of some sort, and a bayer pixel only reports one, that's 3 times the pixels, right?"  GET OUT OF HERE!

Sorry, I don't know where all those people came from.

 With a 12 megapixel sensor, the sensor only reports if it is activated by it's frequency, either red blue or green. 

A typical sensor uses a Bayer filter array, and each sensor reports only one of the colors.  The image a typical 12 mp camera produces is interpolated to make a 

This really really cheeses people off.  They are used to a Bayer sensor array, 12 million little squares that are either red green or blue, or red green blue and emerald (sony).  

Also, when somebody says a camera is 14 megapixels, that means you can print out a 30X30" poster without any problem.  



I have to admit, I have had trouble making enlargements of a XRF (Sigma's Raw File) files,  but I haven't really given it my all yet.  I've only messed around a little, and felt like it was too much trouble.

But what kind of Foveist would I be if I didn't try?  

A crappo one.  So, to settle this issue, this week I will make large prints from my Sigma SD14 and my Kodak DCS 14n, and we can compare them.  Okay?  Okay!

Sigma DP1s SUPER CHEAP!

Okay well I thought this was a shocking and revelatory bargain, but seeing as the DP1s is now the #19 seller in electronics, it appears that word has, indeed gotten out.

 It is the best deal in the world so I thought I'd share it with the world.  The DP2 has a better, and faster lens, but it's also twice the money, so I'd say you should ease into it with the DP1s.

I know I know, we all hate sigma...

Hey.

I love the foveon sensor.

I like how, even in a photo with subdued coloration like the one above, the colors interact.  I feel there is an alchemical element to the images that one does not see in typical Bayer RGB pixel sensors.