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New Sigma DP Merrill's?

R Jones

New member
Greetings
I'll let you know, but I'm guessing it will be better in the ISO range and noise areas.

R. Jones
 

Tim

Active member
I am considering a DP3m. Perhaps worth waiting for these or I could go a closeout price on the old model.

I can only hope there is some kind of IQ improvement.
 

biglouis

Well-known member
I hope it is true. I thought maybe they were abandoning the market with such extreme price drops (a new DP1M is down to £399 at one UK shop). They would have to improve IQ as I doubt demand would be increased just by new styling.

LouisB
 

Tim

Active member
Is it just me, or is it possible these images are fakes? If they are the faker has gone to the trouble to make up the Quattro name.

The design is fairly unusual, while it would not stop me buying one for the Sigma IQ, I'd prefer something more "standard" in design.

I can hope that they have sorted the DP2m colour issues in this version.
 

Hulyss Bowman

Active member
Will review it against DP2m and DP2x. Stay tuned in the next months, this beast will pop out a bit before summer.

Point is the major problems of the current foveon technology is fixed with this new chip.

- The files weight less.

- The processing time in camera is far quicker, New chip AND new sensor. It is designed to be quick and efficient.

- Battery autonomy.

- New SPP.

- 14 bits raw vs 12 bit.

- Better dynamic range, by far.

It is still a foveon chip, extremely optimized. The 4.5 mp RED and GREEN layers are what SIGMA thought would be essential for color capturing.

And for the design, you'll get used to it.

Now, this architecture might be very interesting because it merge speed and foveon advantages. It is probably now possible to go full frame.
 
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Rawfa

Active member
When I first glanced at it I thought it could maybe have a micro 4/3 mount but no such luck. It looks like I won´t be changing systems soon.
 

Hulyss Bowman

Active member
Over the world many ppl think that the new sensor is not a "true" Foveon anymore, and they are wrong.

It is still a full 3 layers sensor. Just look at the picture below :



The signal is captured on the 3 layers, as usual.

The thing is that the GREEN and RED layers have much bigger pixels, 4 pixels binned in one. That is done for the CAPTION part.

The signal after processing is pretty simple, without any interpolations as some said: This is division of the GREEN and RED layers in a certain %age, after the caption.

The whole trick is in the binning technology.

The RED and GREEN layers have the same surface as the Blue layer : 23.5×15.7mm

On top of that, we go from 15mP to 20mP, 30% more resolution.
 

Rawfa

Active member
Micro 4/3 could really benefit from a similar technology. I would really considered leaving the NEX sytem if they ever did adopt a technology like this.
 

peterb

Member
Over the world many ppl think that the new sensor is not a "true" Foveon anymore, and they are wrong.

It is still a full 3 layers sensor. Just look at the picture below :



The signal is captured on the 3 layers, as usual.

The thing is that the GREEN and RED layers have much bigger pixels, 4 pixels binned in one. That is done for the CAPTION part.

The signal after processing is pretty simple, without any interpolations as some said: This is division of the GREEN and RED layers in a certain %age, after the caption.

The whole trick is in the binning technology.

The RED and GREEN layers have the same surface as the Blue layer : 23.5×15.7mm

On top of that, we go from 15mP to 20mP, 30% more resolution.
Huyless,

From what I can tell it's actually a VERY clever approach to dealing with several issues that have confounded this technology. As I discovered fiddling with SPP monochrome files by using SPP's 'color wheel' to select only top layer information, the files were surprisingly clean and sharp at ISO's as high as ISO 4000. Sigma apparently concluded that it was more important to retain luminance cleanliness and compromise color (R & G) just a tad (and that may turn out to be not a tad at all). This way the Foveon sensor with 19.6 million photo sites on the top layer provide nearly 80% of the image information (and blue channel) and relegating the lower G and R channels for providing ONLY color information and no luminance.

By letting the top layer essentially 'draw' the image while providing the traditional 'blue' channel information and letting the lower 'vertically aligned' layers stacked directly below it to supply the ONLY the corresponding Red and Green information I can see how this might result in some impressive files never thought achievable before with a Foveon sensor at higher ISOs. Black and white, like with a Leica Monochrom, should remain impressive if not even moreso with the increase in surface resolution/pixel count.

In other areas, while many may be aghast with the, shall we say, 'unconventional' product design, I can see the ergonomic benefits (think Dvorak keyboards for computers). Again, only hands on experience will tell but I suspect Sigma's penchant for minimalist engineering will bear them out. Plus, in their own unique way (as always), it appears Sigma may have also addressed the underpowered battery issue by allowing for (1) a larger unit and (2) with the new sensor and processing approach that needs far less image information to process files that are smaller than previously, less power is needed per shot--another battery capacity extending improvement.

Now if only the AF would be a tad swifter in lower light. Progress...progress...

P
 
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