Don Ellis
Member
(Now that's the kind of subject line I usually avoid... 
)
I’ve been a customer of Photo Scientific in Hong Kong for thirteen years and they’ve been around for over twenty. The first thing I do when I buy any camera from them – Nikon F90X, Canon G1, G2, G5, Pro 1, and now the Sigma DP2 – is to photograph the man who sold it to me, Mr. Poon, in every case. So here’s my first shot with the DP2.
One of the reasons I bought this camera – and immediately fell in love with it – is that after eight years of small-sensor, compact cameras, I finally have some depth-of-field control back in my life. The film boxes are about three feet behind Mr. Poon.
Click on the image for a full-size photo – no cropping.
ISO200, 1/30th, f/2.8, AWB under fluorescent lights. RAW file was converted in SPP 3.5 and run through Photoshop (where Auto-Color made him a little less fluorescent and a lot more alive). Choosing Fluorescent in SSP before conversion looked awful; AWB (as shot) was closer to reality, but still needed help in Photoshop. Oh, yes... I got him while he was talking. Sorry, Mr. Poon.
On a personal note
I seem to have one of the first, if not the first, legitimate DP2s in Hong Kong. Apparently the Hong Kong distributor was sending the entire first shipment to China, but when I told Mr. Poon how much I wanted one, he convinced the distributor to pull one, plus two extra batteries and a lens hood, out of the shipment and send it over. I was standing at the counter when the courier delivered those four items. (He convinced the distributor by saying that if they didn't give me one, I "would cry." The man obviously knows me.)
Thanks to Bill
I would like to thank Bill (fordfanjan) for answering the PMed questions of a complete stranger and helping me make the decision to buy this camera with his sage advice and beautiful photos – very generous.
Full disclosure
This was actually my second DP2 shot. The first one was a JPG of Mr. Poon. After realizing I was shooting JPG, I figured out how to set the camera to RAW, which is where it will stay forevermore.
Unexpected benefit
For image viewing, I have used ACDSee for many years. Although I have the latest Pro 2 version, I still use the Classic version 2.43 most often. One of the nice things I discovered is that even the classic version views X3F files as quickly as if they were JPGs, so I have a full-size image to help me make the “live or die” decision for each image – very convenient.
Sharpening
You may have to forgive the sharpening on this image because I work on a 1920x1200-pixel monitor and it's quite different for me to see small variations on files this size. The full-size image (click above) should be better. One thing that I have learned is that PhotoKit Sharpener, which does a superb job on my G-series images, isn't doing well at all on Foveon images. I will have to find out why... but in the meantime, I'm finding that basic old Unsharp Mask in Photoshop is working quite well.
Cheers,
Don
P.S. Did you notice how I got the yellow piping on his sleeve just perfect on the right-hand side? Good. Total accident.
)I’ve been a customer of Photo Scientific in Hong Kong for thirteen years and they’ve been around for over twenty. The first thing I do when I buy any camera from them – Nikon F90X, Canon G1, G2, G5, Pro 1, and now the Sigma DP2 – is to photograph the man who sold it to me, Mr. Poon, in every case. So here’s my first shot with the DP2.
One of the reasons I bought this camera – and immediately fell in love with it – is that after eight years of small-sensor, compact cameras, I finally have some depth-of-field control back in my life. The film boxes are about three feet behind Mr. Poon.
Click on the image for a full-size photo – no cropping.
ISO200, 1/30th, f/2.8, AWB under fluorescent lights. RAW file was converted in SPP 3.5 and run through Photoshop (where Auto-Color made him a little less fluorescent and a lot more alive). Choosing Fluorescent in SSP before conversion looked awful; AWB (as shot) was closer to reality, but still needed help in Photoshop. Oh, yes... I got him while he was talking. Sorry, Mr. Poon.
On a personal note
I seem to have one of the first, if not the first, legitimate DP2s in Hong Kong. Apparently the Hong Kong distributor was sending the entire first shipment to China, but when I told Mr. Poon how much I wanted one, he convinced the distributor to pull one, plus two extra batteries and a lens hood, out of the shipment and send it over. I was standing at the counter when the courier delivered those four items. (He convinced the distributor by saying that if they didn't give me one, I "would cry." The man obviously knows me.)
Thanks to Bill
I would like to thank Bill (fordfanjan) for answering the PMed questions of a complete stranger and helping me make the decision to buy this camera with his sage advice and beautiful photos – very generous.
Full disclosure
This was actually my second DP2 shot. The first one was a JPG of Mr. Poon. After realizing I was shooting JPG, I figured out how to set the camera to RAW, which is where it will stay forevermore.
Unexpected benefit
For image viewing, I have used ACDSee for many years. Although I have the latest Pro 2 version, I still use the Classic version 2.43 most often. One of the nice things I discovered is that even the classic version views X3F files as quickly as if they were JPGs, so I have a full-size image to help me make the “live or die” decision for each image – very convenient.
Sharpening
You may have to forgive the sharpening on this image because I work on a 1920x1200-pixel monitor and it's quite different for me to see small variations on files this size. The full-size image (click above) should be better. One thing that I have learned is that PhotoKit Sharpener, which does a superb job on my G-series images, isn't doing well at all on Foveon images. I will have to find out why... but in the meantime, I'm finding that basic old Unsharp Mask in Photoshop is working quite well.
Cheers,
Don
P.S. Did you notice how I got the yellow piping on his sleeve just perfect on the right-hand side? Good. Total accident.
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