civilized ku # 969 ~ huh?

Nursery ~ Jay, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenThe (serious) picture making world is all a-twitter and aghast at the recent intro of the new Sigma SD1 camera.

A-twitter, because the promise of a truly hi-res Foveon sensor is quite alluring, even to me. The unique Foveon sensor really does produce a very analog-like, aka:film-like, color / tonal palette with very high native sharpness (no anti-alias filter required). While I am relatively happy with the Olympus Bayer-pattern sensor based color and tonality, and as much as I try to process the results to mimic traditional color neg based color and tonality output, the results, to my eye and sensibility, still look "digital".

That fact has caused me to look longingly at my 8×10 view camera (mounted, with focusing cloth, on a tripod in my office) but the current hassle of using film - availability, mail-way processing, expense, and the like - is a real deal killer for me. I live in the middle of nowhere, after all. So, the idea of a camera that reinvents the digital capture ball game is very attractive.

However, there is also the aghast thing re: the Sigma SD1 to consider - the price of a ticket to the new ball park is an astonishingly crazy $9,700USD. That's crazy because, well, #1 - it's a Sigma camera, not exactly a premium brand, #2 - its feature set is comparable to cameras in the mid-level ($1-2K) DSLR segment, and #3 - it comes with a Sigma lens mount so, if you don't already have any Sigma lens (with Sigma lens mounts), you are crap outa luck and even more $$$$$.

Strangely (and incongruously) enough, Sigma is offering the camera with various lens combos for prices well below the price of the body alone. Me, I would go for the SD1 + 30mm f1.4 combo - $7,359USD - and call it a day. Although, I would also want their battery grip as well. However, all this is only a figment of my wildest imaginings because I ain't spending that much $$$$ on camera - not now, not ever.

Now, that said, if they put the new Foveon sensor in a tidy little mirrorless camera body and got the price somewhere near the norm for mirrorless cameras ..... well, that's a ball game for which I might actually buy a ticket.

I'll leave it for time and others to tell whether or not Sigma has screwed the pooch (as some have already claimed) on this marketing venture. That said, my bet is you won't be seeing the SD1 hanging on the neck / in the hands of too many picture makers anytime soon.

Comments

[Sven W]

Sigma SD1: I'm no expert but you have to wonder if the enterprise is designed to fail i.e they really don't have a camera to sell in the first place. With that price point there'll be no buyers, so problem solved.

Digital vs Film: Staying within the format (i.e 35mmm film vs 24MP full-frame digital) does film still give the best look? Can digital be made to look like film with enough PP? Or is digital a better look but are people are incorrectly using film as the reference? I don't have the equipment nor experience to do the comparison but others (such as Ctein via TOP) believe digital is now ahead of film (with only a few exceptions e.g long exposures).