some more pics from that shoot out my window.

Throop at Dawn

Where the pigeons live

the final days of smokey the smokestack re-edit

This is taken directly from Dpreview.com with permission...

HELLO MY Die-Hard Fanbase of radical RGB Photophiles!  This is taken from a very excellent and fair review of the Sigma DP1, the camera that drove me insane.  

ReAd ThE wHoLe ReViEw ViA clickyclicks

Foveon X3 sensor background

Terminology

• Photodetector - A physical device used to capture a single color value (for a Bayer camera there is one of these per pixel location, the X3 sensor has three per pixel location)
• Pixel location - A location on the final image which contains full RGB color information

What's so good about the Foveon X3 sensor?

In the example below we are simplifying things by using a 130 x 130 sensor, thus a total of 16,900 pixel locations in the output image. Obviously the same rules apply no matter many pixel locations the final image has.

Traditional "Mosaic" sensors

Digital cameras have for years used what is essentially a monochromatic (b&w) image sensor with individual color filters over each photodetector (known as the Bayer pattern and normally in a GRGB pattern). This means that each photodetector can only detect one of either red, green or blue light. Note that the green channel has twice the number of photodetectors as red or blue (this is because the majority of luminance information is carried in the green channel). A demosaic algorithm then combines the color of neighboring pixels to reproduce the scene color at that pixel location.

Red 4,225 photodetectors	Green 8,450 photodetectors	Blue 4,225 photodetectors	Output 16,900 pixel locations

Foveon's X3 sensor

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.

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.