The GetDPI Photography Forum

Great to see you here. Join our insightful photographic forum today and start tapping into a huge wealth of photographic knowledge. Completing our simple registration process will allow you to gain access to exclusive content, add your own topics and posts, share your work and connect with other members through your own private inbox! And don’t forget to say hi!

Sigma SD1: Foveon returns from the dead???

otumay

New member
And what a return! Let us hope that SD1 becomes available much sooner than it took SD15 to.
Osman
 

Will

New member
That new sensor should stir things up a bit!
Dare I hope that it will turn up in the DP1-2 cameras before to long.
 

pgmj

Member
Very interesting indeed. I was glad to see that it wasn't the old 4,7mpix sensor any more... And the sensor seems to be a bit bigger too.
 

Jorgen Udvang

Subscriber Member
Oh... and a real viewfinder. 0.98% coverage and 0.95x magnification. Can I have this with F-mount please? Pretty please??
 

ptomsu

Workshop Member
Seems to be great news!

I do hope this sensor will find entry in the DP1 and DP2 series.

I also do hope that Sigma will finally be able to produce a real FF sensor (36x24) - at least a dream :eek:
 

Jorgen Udvang

Subscriber Member
I must admit that I'm rather fascinated (and very surprised) by this launch. I've always liked the output from the Foveon sensor, but too little resolution, mediocre camera bodies and the Sigma mount have stopped med from following my lust. With the two first obstacles out of the way, this may be an option again, with a couple of good lenses. I'm really looking forward to the reviews of this one.

Another side of this is obviously that Sigma shows that they are not giving up on this. They must have invested a considerable amount in the new sensor and in the new body, so they are probably going to stay in this game for at least a few more years.

PS. Oh, and the two new stabilised lenses. Both of them among the best Sigma has to offer. More temptations :p
 

Kofronj

New member
Huge news! A new generation of a sensor, in less than 2 years since Sigma acquired Foveon. They've beat my expectations with regards to delivery (assuming that they're close to doing a production run). The sensor has a 5 um pitch, so it's comparable to all the other Bayer sensors out there. It'll be interested to see if the sensor supports binning (the SD10 and SD14 did, but the True processor cameras don't). Speaking of True processors, they're jamming in 2 of these in the camera, and they're leveraging parallel processing (Foveon has a patent on that).

It would be interesting to imagine this chip in the compact series. It might not fit (especially with the two True II chips), so perhaps they'd scale it back to a 1.7 crop (4200 x 2800 x 3). And if this camera sells, I see no reason why they wouldn't go with a fuller frame option (either FF or 1.2 crop). Rumored price is 7D territory ($1700 for body?), and this should outperform every APS-C camera out there with regards to image quality.

And for those who thought the SD14/15 doesn't have enough resolution, I've never had any issues printing 12 x 18" from my files. This camera is a huge jump (1.5x linear resolution), so I'm going to need a bigger printer...
 

Terry

New member
Could be great. I hope they can make a camera that is worthy....along with software that doesn't choke.
 

ptomsu

Workshop Member
My experience with Foveon chips is from the DP2s, which produced very good resolution definitely comparable to a D700, although "only "3x5Mpixels".

So the resulting resolution from the Sigma SW was around 18MP. If this is somehow true also for the new chip, then the effective resolution resulting should be at least about 50MP. Which is more than one would expect from such a small APS-C chip.

The issues so far with Foveon is the limited RAW support. If C1 would support that files then it would become a real killer (or at least more than serious competitor) in terms of IQ.
 

Kofronj

New member
The DP2S is a 3x4.7MP design. In general, that sensor is thought to be roughly equivalent to a 8-12 MP CFA (depending on the glass, the AA filter in front of the sensor, etc).

A reasonable guess for resolution (as in resolving line pairs) is that this camera will compare favorably with 30-36 MP CFA cameras. In an APS-C body, that's pretty darn good. With regards to RAW support, the current version of SPP is pretty good (and fast). If there is more acceptance of the X3 cameras, perhaps we'll see Apple and Microsoft support the format in their OS (that's what C1 depends on, I believe).
 

ptomsu

Workshop Member
The DP2S is a 3x4.7MP design. In general, that sensor is thought to be roughly equivalent to a 8-12 MP CFA (depending on the glass, the AA filter in front of the sensor, etc).

A reasonable guess for resolution (as in resolving line pairs) is that this camera will compare favorably with 30-36 MP CFA cameras. In an APS-C body, that's pretty darn good. With regards to RAW support, the current version of SPP is pretty good (and fast). If there is more acceptance of the X3 cameras, perhaps we'll see Apple and Microsoft support the format in their OS (that's what C1 depends on, I believe).
Thanks for the clarification WRT resolution. Pretty intriguing what Foveon currently can offer (will offer).

If Apple supports the X§ RAWs then you will be able to use Aperture and Phocus (Hasselblad) for RAW processing, but unfortunately NOT C1. And Windows does not support RAWs as Aplle does, so Phocus on Windows does not support any 3rd party RAWs and Aperture runs only on Apple.

Lightroom is an alternative, but I hate LR and will not use it anymore. Got so much used to the others SW packages.
 

Kofronj

New member
Oh, I was having a discussion with the Phase One folks around their acquisition of Expression Media (the DAM formerly known as iView Multimedia Pro), and they indicated that the issue with support for the x3f was based around the OS not supporting the RAW.

Lightroom has too many sliders for me. I've never used Aperture because of the issues with the raw. I stick with Sigma Photo Pro for RAWs, and then Lightzone if I need to finish for printing.
 

otumay

New member
Thank you for sharing this link, Carl. The best news for me was that it could hit the market early next year!
Osman
 
Top