Friday, June 19, 2009

DP1 and Nikon compare



As the DP1 was a new concept in cameras I started this blog in hopes that my experiences might be of some use to others. I am flattered to have received several e-mails from folks finding my experiences of use. Now that the DP1 is over a year old and the DP2 is available there is less use for this blog.

Lately I've noticed discussions image comparisons between Foveon and Bayer sensored cameras. The problem I see with comparisons is that they are tests which must be run...who wants to do that?? Not me.

I offer these 3 examples from a trip to Utah / Arizona last fall. I brought 3 cameras with me, the DP1, my xPan and my Nikon with wide angle lenses (12mm and 10.5mm fisheye), I'm a big time wide lens fan. I primarily used the Nikon when the DP1's lens wasn't wide enough, like at Horseshoe bend. I tried to get images with the same settings. What I found is that in every case I preferred the Foveon image. They are better all around, color, detail, "Snap"...whatever.

There are 3 sets of 2 images each, in each case the Nikon images are the wider lens.

3 comments:

frankweir said...

Wow...look at the tree grain detail in the DP-1 shot. That is amazing to me. I just acquired a DP-1 since the price is about half lately what it was last year. I think I'm really going to like it. I am shocked at the negative reactions of many to the camera that I have read. I am almost 60 and I have the sense that people's expectations have been greatly changed since the advent of digital. I love the manual focus and exposure on this and it seems people want everything done for them with today's cameras. In my younger days, experimenting and trial and error were a good part of the fun! THANKS for posting this and for your info on the sb 30 flash. I want to see if my cheap radio transmitters might work on the SP-1. frankweir@yahoo.com

Charles Maclauchlan said...

Hi Frank. I feel confident you will really enjoy your DP1. I was also (and still am) quite surprised by the anger this little camera brings out in folks, oh well. I like this camera so much that I use it almost exclusively, and the more I use it the more I discover that I like it. You mentioned manual focus, I tend to shoot manual focus probably 80% of the time or more. It's quite responsive that way and I'm getting better at judging distances.

If you do get your radio transmitters to work there will be many many people interested in your experiences / advice, including me.

Good Luck
Charles

obakesan said...

Charles

nice images there too. I agree that comparisons between bayer vs foveon are just fraught with difficulty. People often have so little basis to make comparisons. I was stunned some time ago when doing a comparison with RAW files produced with an S3 Fuji and my Canon 10D. The head room afforded by the SuperCCD was just amazing with there being data fully into the 14 bits.

Especially in the Red channel it was just amazing with Autum leaves

I think that the DP1 shares similar perception problems. People dismiss it as "not having enough magapixels" or being this or that when they have never even made substantial prints with it.

Perhaps its that people really can't tell one thing from another.

I don't know.

But if I had time and some spare bucks I'd like to check one out myself.

Thanks for your pages allowing me a closer look ... its nearly as good