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paul a. roid

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Posts posted by paul a. roid

    Ouch! DPReview absolutely slams Sigma DP-1

    in Mirrorless Digital Cameras

    Posted

    <i>I do hope Sigma or somebody can produce a digital equivalent of a Canonet G-III

    QL17: big sensor, good fast lens, compact, full manual control, reasonably priced.

    Theoretically, the Foveon sensor appeals to me. But the DP-1 does not look like the

    real deal. Maximum aperture of f/4, bad noise above ISO 200, and that much

    money?!</i>

    <p>

    <i>I've recently found the formerly very reliable dpreviews reviews not to be of the

    caliber they used to be.</i>

    <p>

    they have slammed the GRD before and didn't consider it to what is is... a

    photographer's camera catering to the original GR with a tiny sensor...

    <p>

    all things considered, smallish camera designs need to compromise something,

    unfortunately... My main thing is street photography and I have used everything you

    guys can imagine, Leicas, Canon EOS Elan/10D/5D, or a Rolleiflex on occasion and

    the Ricoh GRD for a year and a half.

    <p>

    I also shot a Canonet QL17 for a while and not everything is candy, either. The

    aperture and shutter controls are cluttered around the lens and are way too finicky

    for serious work. The meter doesn't do more than ISO 800 (which doesn't matter to

    me, since I can ignore it) - while the lens is fast it, lacks in the contrast department,

    but I'm not bashing this sweet 30 year old cam from the yesteryears.

    <p>

     

    The GRD was a great deal to me, since it was the only small digital camera with

    dedicated controls, just like a "big" camera. I've taken great shots during the past

    1.5 years with it - mind you, I'm not a bokeh creeper nor a pixel peeper, even

    though the results count and I'm not excluding good post-processing. The GRD did

    good and I still have it.

    <p>

     

    Needless to say, I anticipated the DP1 ever since it was announced and finally got

    my hands on it by the end of April. f4? seems to suck initially, but working the

    streets I want to zone focus and f4 gives me sufficient depth-of-field for focusing

    error to begin with. check.

    <p>

     

    autofocus on the DP1 is yucky, maybe worse than on the Ricoh, so I don't use it

    with the DP1. The DP1's manual focus with its dedicated wheel beats Ricoh's snap

    mode and is still not on par with a manual lens (I also use a Leica, but hell I'm not

    spending 5k on a crippled M8) and I'm used to guessing the distance. The DP1 has

    a focus wheel with distance indicator. check.

    <p>

     

    DP1's lens is ace, sharp, virtually no distortion, vignetting at f4 is negligible <p>

     

    The DP1's image quality is outstanding at any given ISO in decent light - yes, I have

    to shoot RAW in order to achieve the best image quality and it slows the camera

    down. same with GRD. or shoot film. check.

    <p>

     

    In all honesty I used the GRD w/ jpg from day 2, since the RAW writing speeds were

    so slow. The truth is that the GRD sensor/processing barely benefits from RAW. jpg

    is faster here and I'm getting great results. period. check.

    <p>

     

    The ultimate gratitude -and grain of salt at the same time- is shooting the DP1 in

    RAW mode (even more so than with a Bayer sensor, believe me). the grain of salt:

    you'll need to process your images on your computer with Sigma Photo Pro, which

    is obviously perfected for the Foveon sensor, but will take it's sweet time, even on a

    fast computer (I'm using a 2x2.33GHz Mac), but the results will blow your mind.<p>

    At first, you'll see the thumbnails in SPP and be surprised - low ISO images look

    ace, but anything above 200 will make you ask "wtf!?" saturation sucks, sharpness

    sucks - but once the Sigma software pulls it plugs on the RAW files, gets in gear,

    and works its magic with your optional manual settings... the images don't look like

    anything I've seen before from a pocketable digital camera ever. this thing is on par

    with a crop DSLR from one generation ago (say EOS 10D). let alone scans from a

    Canonet. check for image quality. uncheck for worflow.

     

    <p>

    just my 2c from a street photographer's view

    Are You a Gearhead?

    in Leica and Rangefinders

    Posted

    read the confessions of a camera addict..

    <p>gearhead heaven... I think its a disease - I'm constantly selling gear to justify a new

    purchase...</p>

    <p>within the past few years I went trough two EOS 10D's and then caught the

    rangefinder fever.<br>

    After experimenting with a Bessa R I got an M6 TTL with a whole bunch of lenses

    from<br />

    15mm to 90mm. The highlight of geardom was a 90mm 'cron that I kept for 10 days

    only.</p>

    <p>I used the M6 with a 35 'cron and a 28 C/V the most, but felt that I need a medium

    format camera<br />

    and opted for a Rolleiflex, sure enough I upgraded it with a Beattie screen and

    eventually sold it<br />

    on ebay. The MF bug stuck with me for a while and I got a Mamiya 6 - it broke down

    within<br />

    two days and I rented a Mamiya 7 for a weekend - great cam, but its not for me. To

    fill the Lomo <br />

    spirit I used a Holga for a while, but ended up converting the lens for a digicam<br /

    >

    <br />

    back to the M6 and a couple of point-and-shoots (Epson Stylus Epic & Canon

    ML), I also used<br />

    (and still own) a Canon AE-1 and a Horizon 202.<br />

    <br />

    Finally an affordable full frame digital became available with the EOS 5D and I

    thought "I'm done" <br />

    and got rid of the M6 (duh). A few months in I "needed" a portable digital

    camera and invested in <br />

    a Ricoh GR-D, which is great....<br />

    <br />

    Just recently I acquired a beautiful M4. That's it. I'm done... for real. yeah right..

    PHOTOSHOP COMPETITION - And the winner is..........

    in Wedding & Event

    Posted

    the 511px jpg is not much to work with, but here ya go...<br>

    my attempt is always to <i>improve</i> not to <i>alter</i> the image<p>

    1.) Shadow/Higlight filter to reveal higlight detail<br>

    2.) Selective Color to push blacks<br>

    3.) Contrast curve / mask out whites<br>

    4.) lens blur on bg (mask out couple)<br>

    5.) fill highlight over couple & curve to adjust tones<br>

    6.) vignette image (curve &mask)<br>

    7.) slight contrast curve on couple<br>

    8.) highpass sharpen<br>

    9.) tone highlights towards yellow (using blue curve)<div>00JYzZ-34476384.jpg.a0be4207e1d587bb89317838841e409f.jpg</div>

    low light lens for Christmas

    in Canon EOS Mount

    Posted

    the 50 1.4 is good for tight portraits (~80mm on the 30D)<p>

    Sigma 24-70 2.8 is great, but huge & heavy and the AF motor is noisy/grinding - its the

    <br>most flexible lens of the bunch<p>

    I never used the Sigma 30 1.4, but the focal length is close to a normal 50mm - I'd go <br>

    for it for its speed, if I needed it

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