Professionals View: Sigma SD14 and the Foveon X3 sensor
Filed under: Digital Cameras, Electronics | By: Daniel
Posted on: June 20, 2007 | 13 Comments
This is a comment from a professional photographer named Lin Evans, he left a comment on the post about the sigma sd14 14.1 megapixel dslr and it was such a good comment we thought we would feature it as a post on a Professionals View of the Sigma SD14 and the Foveon X3 sensor.
Comment by Lin Evans:
I too have been perplexed by what I’ve read in the Popular Photography and a few other reviews about the Sigma SD14 dSLR.
As a professional with extensive hands-on experience with Canon, Nikon, Kodak and Sigma dSLR’s my take is that there is either an industry-wide bias against this new technology (the Foveon X3 sensor) or some basic incompetence on the part of some reviewers. Perhaps a rush to judgment based on preconceptions might account for the wide disparity in reviews of the SD14 ranging from wildly enthusiastic to condemnation.
Make no mistake, the Sigma SD14 like its predecessors the SD9 and SD10 is an instrument capable of producing superior images. Walls full of huge, beautiful prints from the SD14 at the Sigma booth at PMA in Las Vegas, Nevada this year are testimony to that undeniable fact! Does it have its faults? Of course - I’ve yet to own a dSLR which doesn’t. But the basic premise of Sigma and Foveon, the designer of the unique electronic sensor, is that this innovation represents fundamentally superior technology.
What does this then mean? Essentially it means that this camera and sensor can produce unparalleled image quality. Of this I’m firmly convinced when I compare my prints from the SD14 with those from my numerous professional level Canon, Nikon and Kodak counterparts. The pixel level sharpness and color resolution from this camera virtually stand apart from the crowd, and after all this is what fundamentally better technology in the relevant sense is all about.
The purpose of a camera is to produce images which impact our senses and provide a means of sharing experiences, a slice of time as it was, with others. This purpose is well served by the Sigma SD14. If the user is willing to take the time to learn to get the very best from this camera, they won’t be disappointed. The SD14 will refresh one’s education in photography. It doesn’t tolerate photographic fools lightly whether that be the user or the reviewer. It will force the photographer to rethink the basics and rigidly adhere to sound photographic principles and for that effort reward them with vastly superior results.
Is it a camera for everyone? Perhaps not. It’s a tool for the dedicated photographer who is willing to do what it takes to get the best results possible within the range of possibilities for the tool being used.
It’s also the camera I most frequently reach for when I want the ultimate quality print.
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“Here we go again.”
This camera was also voted “most unique”.
Pangea: does it ever cross your mind, that perhaps this camera is indeed so unique, that even experienced users, who are nevertheless not familiar with Foveon technology, have a hard time, at first try, to get the best images out of the Sigma? Many news SD14 users have initial trouble.
This is also my frustration: I am an avid SD10 user: the camera is capable of extremely good images, but the SD14 would be an entirely new learning curve for me, and hence, despite the price drop, I am still sitting on the fence. I am ready for the initial frustrations, the learning involved? The trials and errors?
BTW, the price drop has been instigated, not because it is a bad camera, but because its price point was too high and thus unrealistic in today’s market, and so, a much needed adjustment was made.
I honestly do believe that this camera can “fool” even the best reviewers, because even many new SD14 users are having a hard time getting to learn its hidden strengths. Also, most importantly for this camera, is its processing software, and this where all SD14 users want desperately to see some major improvements. The camera is much better than the software can bring out.
Even the SD9 and SD10 images have has benefited tremendously from the new software, but it needs to go several significant steps further in this development. Thus, many of the image problems cannot be blamed on the camera, but on the software. Keep that in mind.
Once these issues are resolved, SD14 users will be amazed to see what their camera can do. But do take a look at the good SD14 images posted on http://www.pbase.com, and then when you see a good image, know what the camera is capable of.
If you look only at bad images, then every digital camera in the world is a horrible failed piece of equipment, because of every camera you see plenty of horrible images posted on pbase. Most all of them operator and processing errors.
Again, the SD14 is indeed so unique that, honestly saying, it can and will fool the operator in initially. This is a thinker’s camera. But those who have learned how to use it best, are getting stunning images with it.
I once owned the famed Hasselblad Superwide Biogon lens camera, and I couldn’t get razor sharp images with it. It was all my fault. I was ignorant of some major facts of how to use wide angle lenses, but once a friend of mine explained it to me, the results were consistently fantastic.
If this makes it a bad camera, because it requires too much work on the part of the photographer, then it says more about our spoiled, over-demanding, culture than about cameras. Today, we want everything handed to us perfectly. Is this the the new art of photography? It hasn’t been this way since the dawn of photography, when every photographer using film had to think twice before pushing the shutter button. I am sound old-fashioned, but it’s a good thing that Sigma is a company that still adheres to many of these old traditions. Amazingly, they do this with modern technology.
Do not be so hasty with judging and belittling, and truly, can you really trust all these reviews, which differ so widely? Ever heard of the grain of salt expression? Apply it!
I am a professional BW portrait photographer.
I have an old Calumet catalog form 1989. In it are all sorts of cameras. View cameras, Leica M systems, Canon slr, Hasselblads, Mamiya C330S system, ect… At that time we choose a sysstem upon subject matter and shooting style and never asked one system to behave like another. Why does this current climate of manufacturers and consumers ask the current crop of digital equipment to do so much? Now technology has to do everything perfectly.
Up until two months ago I was a dedicated film user in medium format - the negs being scanned on my Imacon scanner and worked up to large 24″ digital prints. Then I purchased a SD14 having never purchased a piece of Sigma gear previously. I had been intrigued by the SD 9 / Foveon idea when it first came out and just prior to purchasing the SD14 I had tested a Canon 5D. For whatever reason I hated the 5D and recommited myself to film. But now I was curious and remembered my earlier interest in Foveon. I had a look to see what Foveon was up to. This is when I learned about the SD14. I thought I’d have a look at the SD14 and perhaps purchase one for small jobs and the little bit of color I do. This I did.
(Immediately, I began to make BW images/portraits and abandoned the initial reasons for purchasing the SD14.)
Even though I am celebrating my 20th year as a professional, I initially found the SD14 perplexing. I had to completely re-evaluate how to make an exposure in order to optimize the signal to noise ratio needed in digital imaging. Once, I did this, I had to decide when to sharpen and resize in order to create the big, beautiful prints I sell.
After all this was done (with sensitivity), I have to honesty say that the SD14 produces prints, large prints, with an organic and lively character that simiply out shines the work I was producing with my film/Imacon combination. In my studio, I actually have the SD14 prints hanging side by side with my film work and the evidence is there for all to see.
I don’t ask this camera to do more than it was designed to do. Within these perameters, I (more than anyone) am shocked at the high quality of what I am producing. The 70/2.8 lens (which I shoot purposefully use between f2.8 - f4) I use for most or my protraits is outstanding. I have a 24″ print from a file shot w the 70/2.8 at f2.8 - it looks as if it was shot w an 8×10 camera! With every eye lash crisply focused. And too this is an image that I never could have produced w my Contax/Carl Zeiss equipment.
As for percentage of usagable images, my percent is way, way up.
I read these forums every so often. I am always struck by the bias people have. I was in my local professional supplier’s shop a month ago and asked a few questions about dslr’s and technology. I did not tell the person with whom I was speaking that I owned a SD14. He went on to talk about this and that and then came to Foveon. Told me about the sensor and then with a disappointed tonein his voice said that Sigma was making the camera in which it was housed. He had never shot a Sigma.
I was lucky. I came to the SD14 without any bias or expectation, a lot of photographic experience and a determination to optimize the possibilties. Look at http://www.paulthacker.com
Then go to portfolios/Artists Project.
All the 2007 images were shot w the SD14. The others were shot w Contact G2 and the 90/2.8 Sonnar. What do you see?
I am only a hobbyist, so am unable to comment on a lot of the points discussed here. However, I am about to move up from a Kodak bridge camera which has given me lots of pleasure, especially for its colour treatment, to a DSLR. Like most first-timers I first looked at Nikon and Canon models, and then the recent Olympus Evolt-E510 before curiosity led me to look at the Sigma SD14.
Initially I was rather skeptical about the camera, knowing full well that the Sigma website would be full of stunning professional shots, and secondly the first reviews were extremely mixed.
When I discovered pbase.com I spent several hours comparing the images for various models by Canon, Nikon, Olympus and Sigma, and for some reason the SD14 gallery outshines the rest. My choice is now made…