Well its official. The Sigma Press Release is here.
With its decent macro performance it does actually look quite useful and I may well be tempted.
Some strange comments on the Foveon sensor in general yesterday though. There still seems to be an attitude that somehow Sigma are magically going to have to come up with a camera in the future that works well at high ISO's, is faster, and needs less power. i.e. They will, or should be coming up with something that functions like a "normal" digital camera.
However I don't think this is going to happen. I suspect that the Foveon technology is always going to have to be like this. Because of taking the data from three different 14MP sensor and combining them together, there are always going to be problems in getting these cameras to work in ways similar to those using Bayer sensors. I had an SD14 a few years ago and the high ISO output from my DP2 Merrill is hardly any better.
The Sigma Foveons are what they are, and I think thats pretty much how they are going to be in the future. We may get another update in a few years time and it may be possible to get the file size bigger, but better high ISO? I doubt it. Faster operation? - I doubt it. Bigger and more powerful batteries however could aid the power drain and I gather the SD1 is better in this regard. Personally I've always thought an add-on battery grip for the DPM's would be a useful thing to have.
It is difficult to see these cameras as such a different kind of camera, with very limited options and virtually no versatility at all. But thats how I think we have to see them. And if they offer something that we want, i.e. the amazing image quality then we're probably going to have to put up with their "faults".
I'm pretty much resigned to that. I'd like it to be different but I don't think its going to be. Despite my reservations I suspect I may end up with all three DPM's and I'm checking where I can get a 75mm optical viewfinder.
I won't use them for everything, but when I've got nice blue skies and a scenic location they are pretty much the cameras that I'll want to be carrying with me. And yes I've have a pocket full of batteries, but that strikes me as a small price to pay for the pictures I'll get.
N.B. to see more on the cameras and lenses featured in this post click on the relevant labels (tags and keywords) below.
All original material on this blog is © Soundimageplus
Join the Soundimageplus Blog Readers Group at Google+
All original material on this blog is © Soundimageplus
Join the Soundimageplus Blog Readers Group at Google+
For comment and discussion - join me over at Google+