The Photography Thread 2

[MartyG]

Thanks all.

I'm trying not to make big spends at the moment, just in case, but I do find this camera quite tempting.

https://www.mpb.com/en-uk/used-equipment/used-photo-and-video/used-compact-system-cameras/sigma-sd-quattro/sku-983338/

Mind, I haven't looked up lens costs or availability yet.

[speedlolita]

I had no idea Sigma made bodies!

[Anpanman]

You know you want to Marty!

Those Foveon sensors are supposed to be good so output should be fine. Like you say it's the lenses bit that could be the sticky part.

[MartyG]

Seems the lenses are reasonably easy to get - they're just Sigma's line of lenses with the SA mount. You can even get the newer ART line lenses for the camera.

That said, you'd be looking at £500+ with a 30mm ART which I'm not sure is a sensible spend at the moment, but it's certainly an interesting camera.

[MartyG]

So it turns out it's a bit of a beast



Edit, so are the raws, the DNGs are over 100MB each (by omparison, Nikon D800 NEFs are around 40-42MB).

There does seem to be a little bit of purple fringing with the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 ART on high contrast edges, but Lightroom has a profile for the lens which seems to clean it up, but even wide open it seems to be pretty sharp. Hopefully I'll have chance to have a proper play this evening's sunset.



(This is a crop to about 200%, you can see there's a smidge of noise at ISO 100 when pixel peeping).

[MartyG]

Not sure about this camera tbh - it takes a lot of work to get something useable out of the camera and I ended up bracketing using manual exposure this evening (it has bracketting, but I couldn't work out how to turn it on in the field). It needs some rather obnoxious dust spots cleaning too.

It definitely doesn't do well with highlights, the dynamic range doesn't seem to be there, the battery is in the Sony W league (if not worse) and having taken about 85 shots, that was nearly 9GB of files.

This is a single exposure



These are HDR from three images







This is HDR from two images



Maybe I just need more time with the camera, but I can't say I was particualrly happy with these shots.

[Anpanman]

Thanks Marty, for me it's probably the dynamic range that's lacking, I didn't really know what to expect apart from to be wowed by the sensor but yes there seems to be something missing from the shots, which you certainly would normally see in the others you take.

[MartyG]

It's strange, I wouldn't expect to be getting better shots from the ancient Minotla A2. Perhaps it's a DNG thing, not used them a lot in lightroom so maybe lightroom isn't great at dealing with them. Trouble is, LR won't import the native raws, so that leaves you with JPGs otherwise (or Sigma's RAW processing software which I haven't installed).

Edit

DNG is the internal format for Camera Raw/Lightroom

Well, that's me flummoxed then, I'd expect it to be dazzling me with the ability to work with them.

Also, the dust spots, I was hoping maybe they were on either the back of the lens or the removable IR cut filter. It seems not. Trouble is I can't see any dust at all on the top of the sensor, which means the dirt must be on layers underneath which are simply not possible to remove without stripping it down (which I'm not about to do).

It's possible to clone them out post-process, but there are couple that are really quite annoying when the lens is stopped down. I know which camera will be the first to go should I want to trade something in now, but the thing that does interest me is the easy ability the do some IR photography with the cam, simply be removing the IR cut filter from the front.

[MartyG]

Sometimes if the light is just right and the subject is just right, you can get a shot that's alright



On the back of the camera the B&W looked good, but back on the 4K screen most had poor contrast. Thought I'd try the JPGs but Sigma's colour science needs a lot of work. It'd put me off buying the FP tbh.

But sometimes the tones look nice.



I think if you get this cam, you should expect your keeper rate to be very low.

[MartyG]

Fancy trying a Canon EOS R out? Canon are doing free two day hires with included postage

https://www.canon.co.uk/testdrive/

Wonder if they're struggling to shift them (and if they wash them when they get returned )

One caveat, you have to stump up a deposit of several hundred pounds.

Edit: Okay, I booked a free hire - comes the day before and collected the day after - you don't have to stump up the deposit today, it has to be covered 7 days before the hire date. Hire dates are getting booked up quite quickly though, I ended up booking an EOS R for two days at the end of July. £625 deposit which gets charged on dispatch and refunded once checked for damage after return (deposit on RP is £525).

[Anpanman]

Sounds really good if you are interested in jumping aboard the R Series, I really like them, think Canon has done a good job particularly with the lenses.

[MartyG]

I like the look of the R5, but rumours are it's going to be around £4K so that seems an unlikely purchase.

I guess they're hoping that these free rentals are going to bag them a few sales. If they can convert even a small percentage then it's probably worth the costs. I can't imagine it's a massive expenditure for Canon's budget, they already send out loaners to bloggers and the rest of the media.

I might be pursuaded. Possibly. The RP has dropped significantly in price, I'm interested to see how well the camera performs.

[Anpanman]

I've just watched the DPReview review and it looked like a very good machine, they had a bit of a moan that it was an old sensor but that wouldn't bother me personally - I use a D4 and sensor wise it's prehistoric.

I liked the design, the matt look is nice, grip looks good and the colours from the stills I've seen look great.

Agree about the R5, am salivating to see what it can do from a stills perspective as regards action. I really hope it's very good in which case it might force Nikon to show their hand and launch something more 'pro' in their Z line which I'm sure they have in development.

Oh and those lenses, 50mm and 85mm f1.2!

[Super Grover]

Olympus is moving out of the camera business...

https://www.engadget.com/olympus-selling-consumer-camera-business-093750446.html?guccounter=1

[Anpanman]

Olympus are selling the business as a going concern according to DPR;

https://www.dpreview.com/news/6607157941/olympus-in-agreement-to-sell-imaging-business-by-the-end-of-the-year