DP1 Meanderings

Customer service wherefore art thou?

2011-01-17T21:39:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry to report a very unsatisfactory experience with Sigma. I have had to return the DP1 for repair (replacement) twice. Once was because it seemed to leak dust, the second because I bumped it (not hard). The first was free, the second was expensive.

Understanding the fragility of this little camera I was crazy careful with it. Frankly since getting an iPhone the DP1 was hardly used at all. One day the lens refused to retract. I sent it in for repair and was shocked and disappointed with the response. The repair technician insinuated that this lovingly used camera was abused. Any slight rubbing of paint was pointed to as proof. Huh? Really? He then magnanimously offered to sell me a repaired replacement....and I was made to understand that he shouldn't even be doing that.

I contacted Sigma asking to whom I might appeal. So far zero response.

C'mon Sigma. You've made a great little imager in an eggshell fragile box. Take some pride...show some love to your early adopters...stand behind your stuff.

colors

2010-09-13T06:51:00.000-07:00

well my DP1 is broken again. After the last repair I've been using it very carefully and sparingly (the iPhone gets most of the work). A person whose blog I follow, Carl Rytterfalk has asked for examples of foveon color and so I sent him a few. Of course the task reminded me why I will once again pay to repair this camera...the colors...(and when they're removed the stunning B&W's).

xPan & iPhone.

2010-07-24T23:20:00.000-07:00

I love the idea behind the DP1. A pocket sized world class imager. I like it so much that I bought an even smaller camera, the Canon S90. This led to my present love of the iPhone. Small sensor with all kinds of creative software on board (Apps). Now it seems that I shoot the iPhone or the xPan film camera. Love using each of them for different reasons. Also, each camera capitalizes the second letter of it's name. Hmmm.

At any rate my daughter seems to have "Borrowed" my S90. Sure glad the DP1 fits into my pocket.

My recent blog posts are on iPhonemeanderings.blogspot.com.

Ground Zero Blues Club, Clarksdale MS

2009-12-16T21:22:00.000-08:00

the Front Porch

the Crapper

Global Scamming

2009-12-09T15:30:00.000-08:00

I believe that I understand the knee jerk reactions of group members when the group is suddenly cast into a bad light. The excuses come immediately, the feelings of being mis understood, the "Circle the Wagons" reaction. After a while however it starts to become evident to other group members that if this group truly has merit then the actions of a few, no matter how damning, must be overcome and the perpetrators must be exorcised.

I am speaking of Climategate. It has been recently disclosed that some who call themselves Scientists have been fudging the numbers. In the first instance to refer to oneself as a Climatologist infers a field of study that just does not yet exist. There are licensed Cosmetologists but not Climatologists. It is safe to say that this important field of study is in fact being developed which emphasizes just how brand new the field is.

As a species we expect much more from certain groups. Scientists are one such group. From scientists we expect truth even if it hurts, scientific method, peer review and an attempt to eschew politically motivated "Truths." From those who have perpetrated the Global Warming Scare we got none of those things, quite the opposite in fact. This is serious for many reasons but perhaps the biggest reason is that it's so darned important to us. Every craftsman knows you must trust your tools, if you can't, then replace them.

To the other true scientists in the world I say it's time to stand up. Take the beating coming to you. Punish the perpetrators of the hoax, fix the problems and get on with this important work. Otherwise the politicians will gleefully run with the crap that's been developed and create a world we do not want and do so in your name.

Memorial

2009-12-08T14:01:00.000-08:00

As I write this the Memorial Service for the slain Police Officers is starting in Tacoma WA. These 4 were gunned down at a local coffee shop while they caught up on reports and enjoyed a cup prior to starting work on a Sunday morning. Strangely the gunman spared the lives of the other customers and workers in the shop.

Two days later the gunman was on the losing end of a gunfight with Seattle Police and was found to have been severely wounded by one of the slain officers and to be in possession of one of their guns. Later it was reported that the gunman had told others that he was going to kill as many people as he could starting with cops and to also include schools.

The information paints this picture: the gunman entered the coffee shop and immediately shot the 4 people he saw that were armed. He then picked up a weapon from a fallen officer to perhaps (or probably) finish his murderous rampage with the others in the shop. As a final action one of the dying officers was able to launch one into the gunman who then shocked from his wound, fled to the car waiting for him and was driven away into hiding. The officer saved several lives in the coffee shop and perhaps many others in other locations.

It is the middle of an unusual cold spell in the Pacific Northwest, temperatures are not expected to rise to freezing (32 Fahrenheit, 0 Celsius). This weather has been with us for a week and is expected to have a week more before returning to the usual 45 degrees and raining winter weather. My sister also reports snow on the North Shore, and that's not northern New England but Lake Pontchartrain just outside New Orleans. Fitting weather for the Memorial service. Also fitting weather I think for the alternative energy lovefest & political sideshow commencing in Copenhagen. In fact it could be an omen if this conference truly had anything at all to do with science. Sadly it's all about politics, pseudo-science is the sheep's clothing.

Acadia

2009-10-30T22:16:00.000-07:00

I recently returned from a trip to the East Coast. Sleepy Hollow (New York's Catskill Mountains) and Maine. The time spent in New York at a family wedding was altogether too short. Maine was unseasonably cold. It seemed to be snowing or raining just about always. My brother in law who knows how much I love Acadia National park told me on Tuesday that Thursday morning would be a great day for the coast. Turns out he was absolutely correct. The morning was very cold but there were only a handful of clouds in the sky, a photographer could have designed it.

I did my homework and had a 5 page itinerary in a spiral notebook. Arrived at Acadia at O-Dark-Thirty to find it closed. HUH??? Since when is a National Park closed? I had noticed a few photographers at a bay I passed so they probably were as disappointed as I was. By the time we got into the park the sun was well up. Oh well. I later overheard some folks talking about black ice so perhaps there were some safety issues.

I did have a great time photographing the pink granite. I was particularly impressed with the eroding forces on the granite, ice, plant life and in particular the lichens. The lichens were various shades of green or else a grayish blue color.

The day grew steadily more cloudy and by noonish it was socked in. I missed the sunset I was hoping for but as I was driving back I could REALLY feel the cold in my bones. Funny how I didn't notice it at all walking though the park. Probably a good thing for me the day turned cloudy.

On this trip I brought a couple dozen large prints. A few on photographic paper, some on canvas and several on some very nice Arches watercolor paper. Anyone who asked for or admired a print was given it. Now this is a junk-science sample but all of the prints from the DP1 were given away as were all of my xPan (film) prints. The bayer sensor digital images (Nikon DSLR) came home with me.

Click on images for larger version

This DP1 continues to be a pain in the ass to use, but those colors....

new Blogs

2009-09-01T21:15:00.000-07:00

I have started 2 new blogs. The first iPhone meanderings is of course for iPhone images and observations about Apps.

The second is for my pre ordered Canon S90, yup...S90 meanderings. What else?

QuadCamera

2009-08-30T11:11:00.000-07:00

QuadCamera is an iPhone App ($1.99) which takes either 4 or 8 images and displays them together in a grid or in a photo-booth like strip. I had it in mind to make some sort of a kaleidoscope type image. These are the first attempts. I touched the volume rocker half way through one of the images and interestingly the screen icon displays on the image. I don't know if that will be of any use to me or not.

iPhone

2009-08-29T21:26:00.000-07:00

OK so I succumbed to the siren call and bought a new 3Gs Apple iPhone. For the past handful of years cell companies tried different internet access schemes. I've tried a few and found them to be lacking. I had imagined that this would be the "Killer App" for cell phones, portable internet access.

The iPhone does a very fine job of accessing the internet but it turns out it means a whole lot less than I had imagined. It's the Apps. Little single function programs that start instantly, run quickly and cost nothing ... or close to nothing. The 3 most popular prices are Free, $.99 and $1.99. Accessing the internet, although faster than I remember on previous phones, just isn't important in most cases.

Camera. Here's the fun part for me. The camera isn't great, but not too bad either. 3 MP f2.8 fixed aperture, variable shutter speeds and variable ISO. The images are small but more than adequate for the screen and seem to hold up well for 5x7 or 8x10 prints (most do). The screen displays the image prior to taking the picture, like any LCD viewfinder. Touching the screen forces the focus, exposure and White Balance (yes white balance) to adjust for the spot touched.

There are several photo Apps, I have close to 20 loaded on my phone, and I'm finding that for the most part I use a half dozen regularly. One very good App allows me to perform many standard Photoshop functions on the image. Most of the other Apps let me play, different effects, filters, text. One of my favorites simulates images from Holga or Lomo cameras.

There are several sites dedicated to reviewing the latest Apps, and countless personal photographer's blogs displaying nothing but their iPhone images. I learned on one of these blogs that the photo site Flickr lists the iPhone as the one responsible for the most uploads.

I'll probably write more about photography with the iPhone here but for now here are a few images.

DP1 and Nikon compare

2009-06-19T14:53:00.000-07:00

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.

DP1 and Nikon 2

2009-06-19T14:49:00.001-07:00

DP1 and Nikon

2009-06-19T14:44:00.000-07:00

Film, Scans, Digital & DP1

2009-05-14T21:31:00.000-07:00

One of the blogs I follow is "In My View" by Chris Eastwood. Judging from the photos of himself which he publishes, one of Chris' many talents is to actually look younger as time passes...not sure how he does that. Like me Chris shoots and scans film in many different sizes (including 120 folding cameras) and uses digital camera (s) as well. In a recent post he compared various scans of 35mm film to similar images shot digitally. This caused me to look again at my previous conclusions of scanned (B&W) film and to adjust my projected pixel count of film downward.

I took some scans of Acros B&W film on my Epson V700 scanner. I had thought I would do some 1mm square scans but it proved too difficult. I was able to make some 5mm x 5mm scans (well 4.96 x 5.03 but close enough). I scanned at 3200, 4800 & 6400 DPI. I clearly saw a difference between 3200 and 4800. Between 4800 and 6400 the differences weren't as easy to see. I determined that the 6400 scan had a few areas which were better than the 4800. I'm not sure what this means as far as actual resolution...4900?...5200??...6300??? Oh well.

The results interpolated onto a full frame of 35mm film are still quite impressive. At 4800 I estimate slightly more than 30 megapixels, at 6400 it's almost 55 megapixels. Either way it's a bunch. Less than I first thought but still a bunch o pixels.

Now. What does this mean? I'm not sure but I think it means that film is still viable for me. Film has grain. Digital, if there's enough light is quite smooth...no grain and no noise. (although interestingly there are a lot of grain simulation software titles enjoying brisk sales). Film is in most cases still scanned with a digital chip...much like the chip in a digital camera. Film images are post processed with the same software as digital images and printed exactly the same way...but still...there's something about a film image which I enjoy. I think what my test does for me is to ensure me that I am getting my fair share of pixels. That's something. Or perhaps I'm a Luddite.

A little over a year ago I was on the verge of selling the last of my film gear. My thought was to buy one of the "Next" wave of digital cameras (like the Nikon D3), then I bought the DP1. The images I get from this little digital camera are quite startling. The feeling of these images is remarkably film like. I think it's the foveon chip...in fact I'm sure of it. As a result I am less than satisfied with my other digital images. Adding a larger chip, or many more pixels would do nothing at all for me, just make me unsatisfied with a bigger image. I am however enjoying a renewed sense of satisfaction with my film images.

The DP1's range is a LOT like negative film, not too bad in the shadows and absolutely wonderful in the brightest areas. Digital does better in the shadows but where digital handles brightness by falling off a cliff, film is much more graceful. The DP1 while perhaps not as smooth as film still goes a lot farther without displaying the phony colors we've become accustomed to with digital...like the bright yellow circle around the sun at sunrise and sunset.

Doing a digital comparison of various camera's capabilities is to me very confusing. Adding the extra confusion element of film vs digital makes it worse. Pixels must be "Peeped", uprezed or downrezed...perhaps side to side rezed is better??? It's fun for a while though so many of us do it or read with interest the results of others.

Film has grain, or grain like elements. These become increasingly noticed as scans are larger. This makes the film images look less sharp, less clean, less usable. Digital images have software manufactured picture elements. Digital cameras actually have no pixels at all (well most of them don't) but rather have a bunch of sites sensitive to greys. The rest is done with increasingly sophisticated software. The same types of software are used to upsize images...essentially making it up as they go...making something out of nothing. The results though are great, and getting better. Causes me to wonder though if cameras have a future at all in digital "Photography."

Perhaps my enjoyment of film is a lot like eating sushi or Chinese food with chopsticks vs a fork. I know in my mind that chopsticks don't make the food taste better but...!

The Tuba Guy

2009-05-04T21:32:00.000-07:00

Most cities seem to have a collection of individuals best described as characters. Over the last 30 years or so I've met several of these characters. Many have had something distinguishing about them... wit, sense of humor, artistic or musical ability. One such person I've enjoyed interacting with is Seattle's Tuba Guy, AKA Ed McMichael. Previously with philharmonic and symphony orchestras he left that life behind, hit the streets and became well known in the city for his wacky hats, his tuba and his happy demeanor.

The Tuba Guy could be found on most days outside a sporting event playing his tuba for tips. Very quick to give a "Thumbs-up" if you pitch him a buck, or inquire as to his state of mind, the Tuba Guy also seems to have memorized just about every fact or statistic about the team the fans are coming to see.

On the way to the Seattle Opera one evening I passed the Tuba Guy playing outside a hockey game. Probably because of my tux he knew I wasn't going to the game and played Papageno's song from Mozart's Magic Flute...where I was in fact going. Very interesting and entertaining to hear Mozart on a solo tuba...might even say you haven't heard opera at all until....

Coming home from performing outside a college game Ed was attacked by a group of teenage boys last November, robbed and beaten. Some days later he died from the beating. The mental anguish he suffered from having been attacked by residents of his beloved city was perhaps more serious than the severe physical trauma itself. The teenagers were sentenced last week to between 36 and 72 WEEKS in detention.

Goodbye Ed. Seattle is diminished by your passage.

DP1 at 1 year

2009-04-09T22:33:00.000-07:00

I've had my DP1 for just over a year now. It fits into my shirt pocket.

I was immediately impressed with the image quality attainable with this little camera. In the year I have learned how to better use this tool, and how to work around it's much reviewed shortcomings. The more I use it the more comfortable I become with it and the more I like it. I don't believe It will ever be as comfortable and intuitive as my Nikon F, circa 1970, but it is more comfortable for me than any other digital camera I've owned, and it fits into my shirt pocket.

Digital cameras seem to fall into 2 general categories, point and shoot and DSLR. Point and shoots are small, easy to carry, slow to use and the image quality, although improving is not in the DSLR category. DSLR's provide great image quality but are BIG, noisy, intimidating and increasingly ridiculously expensive. The DP1 is the size of a P&S and shares some of their slowness. The camera does provide the ability to get around some of the slowness problems and delivers images that flat knock you out. I consider the image quality to be superior to my DSLR. Sigma has delivered a 3rd category of digital camera, available no where else as of yet. A high quality image maker that fits into a shirt pocket.

Perhaps the most written about shortcoming of this camera is it's slowness. Slowness seems to fall into 4 categories, “slow” lens (f4), slow to focus, shutter lag* and slow to write to the card.

*Shutter lag is most often a slow focus issue

Slow lens. A faster lens would be nice but not at the expense of size. In reality the f4 lens isn't that big a problem. My favorite DSLR lens is an f4 12 ~ 24mm. So f4 is the same. Also, without a mirror assembly to slap around causing vibration I can hand hold the DP1 at a much slower shutter speed. With the DP1 if “Continuous” shooting is selected 3 shots are fired dramatically improving the odds of a sharp image at a slower shutter speed. Finally although many DSLR lenses are faster than f4 very very few of them are as good wide open as the lens on the DP1. The lenses that are great wide open often have names like Leica or Zeiss and are wildly expensive.

Slow to focus & Shutter Lag. I had originally not understood why DSLR's had a mirror. It made no sense to me. As I researched it I found that auto focus doesn't work well at all without the mirror. The DP1 has no mirror and is subjected to the focus handicap. They are working around it and I am led to believe that the DP2 focuses much faster in low light. There is a really simple work around, manual focus. First however a brief operational review of auto focus with a DSLR. The Nikon I own has 3 auto focus selections. In 2 of them a failure to achieve focus disables the shutter...so I automatically lose the shot. In practice this is unusually frustrating to me. Also, I often photograph musicians in dimly lit clubs (flash usually). Quite often just before I release the shutter, or while I am actually pressing the shutter release, the camera will pick up something else, like a guitar string or something and change focus. I get back home to find strings in perfect focus but not performers. Not good at all.

Manual focus. I liked this camera immediately but really started to appreciate it when I took a minute to consider manual focus. This is a feature I believe that isn't offered on other pocketable cameras. The way this works is this: the lens has a quite remarkable depth of field, even wide open. I adjust the focus for more or less what I estimate the distance to be and the lens D.O.F. takes care of the rest. This completely eliminates focus lag and shutter lag. When I press it fires... instantly. It's quite simple and it works! For instance, f4 at 8 feet everything from 5 feet to 17 feet is in focus. f7.1 at 8 feet everything from 3.75 feet to infinity is in focus. How simple is that?

Slow to write to card. This is a real slowness that has no real work around. A faster card reduces write time slightly but it's still too long. I believe that this is something which could be fixed, here's why. The camera has a 3 shot buffer. When Continuous is selected 3 images shots are taken and stored in the buffer. The camera is “On-hold” after that for several seconds while it processes all 3 of the images. If only one shot is taken the camera is still on hold 'till the shot is processed even though there is obviously room in the buffer for 2 more images. Sigma! Don't close the front door to the buffer if there is still room for more images! Virtually all other digital cameras had the identical problem and fixed it! Get er done!

I've taken a lot of images with the DP1. Even with eliminating 2 out of 3 of the continuous images I take, and removing the poor images the Sigma file on my eSATA drive is 135 GB and contains 12,000 images. I'm guessing that's about half of what I actually took.

Customer service, excellent.

I have had to return the camera twice, once for dust and once because I damaged it. In each case Sigma had a brand new replacement camera in my hands exactly 1 week after I dropped it in the mail. The dust replacement was no charge. I paid for the damaged camera but it was VERY reasonable.

Damage: extending lenses are quite easy to damage while extended. I damaged the DP1. Sigma replaced it for $160.00 total charge. As a reference I had previously damaged my TVS111 film camera (extending lens). The repair cost me $180.00 + tax + S&H and although it's better it's not quite right.

Non removable lens. Quite a bit of chatter about this on the web. Some folks think this is a death sentence. I personally think it's whooey. As someone once said, if you have more than one lens it's a certainty the wrong one will be on the camera. I had my Nikon F film camera for 30 years and never really outgrew the 50mm lens. There is a lot to be said for having one lens that really suits you and learning how to work well with it. I have come to really appreciate wide angle perspective and although I might have wished for a wider lens I like this lens very much.

Also, Sigma appears to be planning a 3rd DP camera with perhaps a telephoto lens. I notice today that the DP1 is on sale for $350.00. Need 2 focal lengths, buy 2 cameras. The DP1 has a world class lens. A lens of that caliber is quite a steal for $350.00 and it comes with a camera attached. What you need then is a shirt with 2 pockets.

Pixels

2009-02-11T23:21:00.000-08:00

A lot has been written about pixels and more is sure to follow. As a Sigma camera user I am aware of the confusion and marketing hype around this term. Does my DP1 have 4.7 mega pixels, or 14? Does my 10 mega pixel Nikon have 10, half of that? a quarter of that? or in reality no pixels at all. And the question many have asked, just how many pixels on film anyway?

I guess it depends upon where one starts and how they chose to count. The funniest thing to me about this is that if the images aren't printed I can't see where it matters at all. To look ultra close at an electronic image, called pixel peeping by many, has no significance other than that assigned by the peepers themselves.

Now when an image is printed then the fullness of the "Negative" comes into play. There is a quality which might be called sharpness, clarity, impact, whatever. The more pixels that go into the process the better the result. Sharpness in lenses is typically measured in line pairs per mm. The principle is easy enough to understand, the better the lens the more it can resolve. So how do pixels and line pairs compare and how many does it take before we can't perceive a difference? I have been under the conception that 5 line pairs per mm makes a sharp print. Ctein in an essay on T.O.P. today argues that the human eye is capable of determining a difference in prints until they exceed 30 line pairs per mm. WHEW! That's a bunch. He further argues that at today's best, printers are capable of delivering half of that or 15lp/mm. 15 lp/mm equates to about 100 megapixels at 8x10 prints. I guess that would be about 40 mega pixels for a Foveon sensor. Still a ton. Kinda puts the argument about 4.7 vs 14 into perspective.

Now the question about film. Some very smart folks have written about the theoretical limits to film. Good essays. Wrong of course, but well written anyway. The limiting factor for film, assuming a perfect exposure with a world class lens (ha) is the scanner. Scanners seem to come in 2 types, drum and CCD. Drum scanners cost a years pay and take a year or so to really learn to use. All others in my opinion are consumer grade CCD scanners. Some are quite expensive, some quite reasonable, all use the same technology and produce acceptable scans but not drum scan quality. My scanner is an Epson V700 which is actually a quite good CCD scanner, flatbed type, reasonably priced. Although marketing rated at up to 6400 dpi, I find that I seldom scan at that level. It just makes the files larger and doesn't seem to add much.

I have a couple of cameras with outstanding lenses and if I use a fine grain film I can actually see an improvement in scan quality all the way up to 6400 dpi. The image with this post was taken with a Contax TVSiii. This is an excellent film "point and shoot" with a world class Zeiss T lens. I usually have this camera loaded with B&W film and in this instance Fuji Acros, a fine grained 100 ASA film. Interestingly I dropped the camera just before entering the restaurant and the image isn't in perfect focus...not that it seems to matter much in this instance.

Details: I test scanned this image at increasing resolution and indeed saw a difference all the way up to 6400 dpi. About 30% of this image was cropped out. The pixel size of this image, 70 % of the negative is 6012 x 6967 pixels. When I do the math that's 41.9 mega pixels. Projecting this out indicates that a full size 35mm negative of this quality would scan to about 60 megapixels...more or less. Further, as scanners get better perhaps there are more pixels to squeeze from this image. Who knows. Film still has things to teach us.

At any rate, on a cold rainy Halloween morning to have this pretty young woman bring me a cup of hot coffee and a smile was wonderful. She was quite pleased with the print I made her. Prints. Good for photographers.

Prints

2009-02-08T18:49:00.000-08:00

I've been wondering about prints a great deal recently. I don't print very many of my images and wonder what other photographers are doing.

"Back in the old days" B&W film was developed and then a contact sheet was printed. As much of an art as "Seeing" in B&W is, evaluating contact sheets is probably very close. However, all of the negatives were printed at least once even if very small. Negatives were (still are) stored in a sheet of some sort, they were a paper type previously and now are clear plastic. The contact sheets were stored with the negatives. Pretty good system actually.

Now with digital we take a lot more pictures. The image files display nice and bright, clear and large on the computer screen. Much easier to evaluate and with the software available much easier to adjust the images as well. That being said, an overwhelming majority of images never "See the light of day." Also, it's a real chore to browse photos with another person. Finding the images one wishes to show inside a folder, inside another folder, in yet another folder on a hard drive etc. Often distraction or boredom arrives before the images are found. While it's quite true that DAM software like Aperture or Lightroom can fix this problem they require some discipline around keywording. More often than I would like to admit I've had trouble finding a particular image.

I believe I make a hundred or so images a year. I have 2 printers at home and will also quite often use Costco and now Adorama. They each have machines that are the equal of most custom labs and they also offer printer profiles for their printers. With the profiles it's quite easy to get a print that's a good match with what the screen shows. I have prints all over the house in folders. Yes I know, folders of prints vs folders of digital images but I do look at them. I also use folios. I like the ITOYA art profolio. They come in many sizes and I find deals on these on line. It's a good way to display images I think.

I've also made a few books. I should probably do more of this. Although the cost of the books seems high initially the actual per print cost is quite reasonable, the quality is good and improving.

Still, if I consider my 4 star and 5 star images which I have double stored and also saved to DVD, few are printed.

To have 5 star images not printed I'm guessing one must expect to be "Discovered" after they go.

film

2009-01-22T22:50:00.001-08:00

Kodak introduced a new color negative film recently, Ektar 100. It is finer grained and more saturated than Portra 160. These images are from the first roll I shot, walking around town on an overcast day with my xPan. When we get those heavy grey days I tend to think B&W or a subtle color film, like Portra NC. This Ektar seems to have done quite well. There is more than enough saturation. The film also converts well to B&W. I tend to prefer B&W film over color film converted to B&W but I am really liking the way this film converts.

snapshots

2009-01-18T01:52:00.001-08:00

Nothing unusual here. These are snapshots. My youngest son at one of his college hockey games, his sisters, mother and the old guy he calls dad. He recently finished up his enlistment, 6 years, special ops. Now he's quite close to graduating from college with a degree in Geology. A scientist, wow!

On camera flash, Aperture priority. I failed to let it focus properly for one picture. Pretty simple stuff.

B&W

2009-01-14T16:25:00.000-08:00

I shoot a lot of B&W film. I keep a Contax TVS on my belt usually loaded with a fast T Grain film like T Max 400 (pushed to 800) or T Max 3200 or Ilford Delta 3200. I often have a slower emulsion film loaded into the xPan and have been known to waste a few sheets of 4x5 as well. It only makes sense then to try the DP1 for B&W. Bottom line is that I like it for B&W, I like it a lot.

When I bought a digital camera I went from shooting 2 rolls of film a month to shooting twice that many images a day. The expectations I have are that I will spend about as much time per image as I did in the darkroom. How foolish am I. Instead I have all of these images processed just enough to see they have potential and then no further. "I'll get back to them later."

The slowness "Problem" with the DP1 is conditioning me to once again think more and shoot less. This thinking more is absolutely crucial for B&W. It's years of looking at tones, shapes, lines etc and trying to determine how the B&W film will see the colors. Suddenly with digital it's all about color. Others such as my friend Dan Sniffin have advised me that I need to slow down. They're right of course but hey...individual images are free after all aren't they?

These images were all shot in RAW, in color of course, processed in SPP. The process I have been using is to de saturate the image in SPP and boost the contrast a little. I try manipulating the Fill Light slider a bit but usually don't love the results. I save the file as TIFF and have a look at it in Aperture. Once again it seems that few of the Aperture adjustments (or CS3 adjustments) are really needed. I'm at the start of the learning curve. I'm thinking there are some really good B&W's in this camera.

negative fill light

2009-01-07T22:24:00.000-08:00

I was wandering in the rain tonight and came across a tavern that advertised "Aerialists tonight." It was early so I had a chance to look around the place, mid sized tavern with a very high ceiling. Built into the rafters were some ropes, drapes and a small trapeze. I found a spot in front of a 6 foot high jukebox which offered me a flat stable surface and a bit of protection from the folks who crowded in just before showtime.

So many people squeezed in that I'm sure we were way over the fire marshal's limit and more kept coming in. Once I put my arms up to situate the camera it was almost impossible to put them down again. A pickpocket would easily have robbed anyone near but probably not have been able to get away.

It's funny I suppose but a guy kinda bumped into me a couple of times and then looks at me and says, quite demanding "I'm trying to get through, EXCUSE ME!!!" WTF? "You'd better be able to fly then ass hole."

Oh well. Couple of shots here. It was very dark. I was shooting full open, ISO800 and -2 or even -3 EV so either 3200 ISO or 6400 ISO. None of my images are very good, the aerialists moved quickly and constantly but it is interesting to me how Negative Fill Light works here. Top image AUTO in SPP, next image has negative fill light applied. It seems to work the way a spotlight would have worked. No particular manipulation, I did crop a bit to take nearbye heads out. The 3rd image is just to kinda show the height of the ceiling.

Couple o fisheyes

2009-01-05T22:03:00.000-08:00

Because I am a big fan of wide angle lenses I brought my Nikon with me to Zion, Bryce. These 2 images are obviously fisheye, Nikons fine 10.5mm.

In the Bryce image I am really drawn to the 2 trees. Many folks consider the distorting of vertical lines as in the trees to be a fisheye "Problem." I just love it and often look for ways to include it in my images...doorways, narrow hallways, whatever. Oh well, as they say in the car business, "There's an ass for every seat."

The second image always catches my eye when looking at thumbnails. I've judged it to be a dud many times but still come back to it. The subject matter is mediocre, the fisheye wasn't held level so there is a "U" horizon. Unlike the verticals I kinda like my horizontals flat. The image is poorly exposed, washed out on the right...detail is sloppy. Then it dawned on me, it's the red. The leaves are kinda red, more like a reddish brown but red all the same. Red does indeed have staying power. As my friend John Barclay tells me..."If you see red, shoot it!" Guess he has a point, or pernt dependent upon where you live.

Good Fortune

2009-01-03T10:33:00.000-08:00

The later fall is an ideal time to visit many popular places, particularly in the south. The crowds are gone and the daytime temperatures are not blisteringly hot. The weather is a lot less predictable, but that adds to the excitement when things fall into place.

Zion NP in November, sunrise at the Towers of the Virgin. Yesterday it was in the upper 70's and sunny, today it's cloudy, windy and cold (tomorrow it will snow). As the wind blows the clouds around the sun briefly illuminates a small spot, then it clouds up, then another spot, then clouds up again. I noticed that in addition to our group there were a dozen or so other photographers (2 with view cameras), all set up, all hoping for some magic... nobody really expecting it though.

The first shot above is of The Towers, interesting on a cloudy morning. The second is the mountains and clouds behind us. Then the sun shone through, turning the Towers golden for just a few seconds. It was so sudden and for so brief a time I'm not certain that everyone there that morning was as lucky as I was. This was the only sun I saw all morning, what a great time for it.

I always carried the DP1 and usually the xPan. This morning I was confused about lens choice so I also carried a Nikon DSLR with a couple of lenses. I was lucky that I had the DP1 on the tripod. The 1 shot I took with the Nikon (while the DP1 processed) just wasn't the same.

The right place. The right time.

2009-01-02T19:47:00.000-08:00

How often these words apply. It seems that planning, preparation & persistence are just the first steps, luck either adds or removes the final piece. While it's true that we need to be prepared for luck to help us, we also really need it to help us.

On a photo shoot in Utah this past November, thinking we were on the road to Kodachrome Basin State Park my sister and I were actually driving into Bryce Canyon. My watch told me that it was officially "O Dark-thirty," it was also about 31 degrees with a freezing rain/sleet mixture falling. As we were about to make a u-turn we noticed a thin orange flame of a sunrise. Leaving the car on the side of the road, idling as I remember now, we grabbed a camera each and ran across the road, down into and out of the ditch, under tree limbs, over deadfall and reached the edge of the cliff with a few seconds of color left in the sky. Very few.

As a result, a couple of minor scratches and these images.

Technical info. ISO 50 -3EV. (f5.6 1/15 sec). Processed without manipulation in SPP.

Fill Light

2008-12-31T09:30:00.000-08:00

As my DP1 RAW files aren't read by Aperture I process them in the manufacturer's software SPP. This does a very good job as might be expected but is painfully slow and it's not really a program for managing large numbers of images. SPP does offer some additional adjustment capabilities though, one of them is Fill Light. Other programs have fill light capabilities but they're different.

The Fill Light adjustment has both positive and negative capabilities. Positive fill light approaches a somewhat HDR effect. Negative fill light adds a dream like quality to images, it's fun to play with. The impact is most pronounced around the lightest part of the image.

Ohio Wheat

2008-12-29T21:27:00.000-08:00

I was driving some back roads in southern Ohio this summer. One of them ended in a wheat field. I didn't expect wheat in Ohio. Once again the clarity of this DP1 lens astounds me.

various manipulations

2008-12-29T09:23:00.000-08:00

It's been 3 months since I updated this blog. This is due to several factors: I'm evidently quite lazy; I've been busy this fall; and, I'm not at all certain about the nature of this (or any) blog.

A blog is perhaps just a journal or diary but if that's true then why electronically publish it?

I originally had the idea that the DP1 being a new type of camera this blog might be of use to some considering one or starting to use one. I believe that this has been true. But then why continue to publish repeats of the same information if not for ego reasons. OK, ego, I guess that's good enough.

Having used the camera for over 8 months I have started to understand it and the software enough to experiment. I will post some examples here and on future entries.

I have recently returned from a photo trip through parts of the American South West. I learned more about my personal style of photography (and the DP1) than I had expected. I will post some pictures on future entries.

Regarding manipulation. I have always been interested in platinum / palladium images. These seem to convey an additional presence not found in other printing methods. As reference I would point of course to the work of Alfred Stieglitz. This process requires a large negative to be contact printed onto paper which has been treated with a platinum / palladium substance. The work is expensive if nothing else. It also requires the ability and the place to work with chemicals, light boxes and of course large negatives.

There are many people presently using this method and producing quite stunning work. I point to 2 whose work I own and enjoy, Beth Dow and Dalton Rooney. Beth has arranged to have some of her work professionally prepared, copied (?) and printed digitally, the result is that I can afford some...thank you Beth.

Dalton Rooney is an exceptional photographer from Brooklyn who recently started to experiment with the process and sold a few of his first works for next to nothing, probably not enough to cover expenses. I have one and just love it.

With an increasing understanding of my DP1 and a love of B&W and platinum photography I have decided to see if I can put something together digitally. This is my first attempt.

I like the color image, the yellow is very delicate. I also like the almost monochrome background but wish it were a bit less in focus. I wondered if background manipulation would add to the 3-D impact of the flower. I am terrible with Photoshop. Fortunately the few tools I needed to use were quite intuitive. I outlined the flower with a magnetic lasso inverted and applied a blur filter. Changed image to B&W and added toning in an attempt to match the color I see in platinum / palladium prints. I need to do more with yellow. The color is very hard to get correct. I am also thinking about bringing some of the leaves into focus.

SPP vs ACR

2008-09-21T19:43:00.000-07:00

SPP

ACR
SPP
ACR

Like many people I was quite excited to learn that the new version of ACR has preliminary support for the DP1 files. What this means to me is support for my images in Lightroom. The SPP RAW developer does a great job...one image at a time. It also is just a RAW developer and has no real cataloging capabilities. After spending the last 2 years with Aperture I have really come to appreciate the convenience.

Sadly I have to report that so far I have found ACR lacking, although the images do appear to be about 90% identical. The 2 images I used to test the programs each have very delicate tonalities and it is here that I find ACR to be lacking. It is in the rendering of subtle tones that the magic happens I think. Without this the perceived 3-D effect is missing.

I have no real expectations that the subtleties will show properly here but I will do my best to describe them.

Approaching Storm beach picture. SPP image shows substantially more low grey clouds in an almost 3-D rendition, ACR does not. This is perhaps "Micro contrast" but I can really see that there is an altitude difference in the clouds. This is somewhat lacking in the ACR image. Also, the SPP image contains more colors around the brightest part of the sky than the ACR image.

Olympic Mountain sunset picture. It is here that I immediately see the difference. The sun's disk is completely blown out on the ACR image where the SPP image shows delicate cloud cover. Also, the ACR image is starting to show that horrid bright yellow ring around the sun. This is something I NEVER see when observing sunsets but that digital cameras almost always do. I was quite excited to find that the DP1 didn't show this ring...now here it is again.

To be fair there are some things I like better on the ACR image. The noise in the dark areas of the sunset picture are more controlled and much easier for me to accept. The ACR image also seems to have a bit more mid contrast but that could be an illusion from the increased saturation the image displays.

So I guess I won't be spending the money for Lightroom just yet.

some more Reds and DP1

2008-09-14T14:11:00.000-07:00

Here is another example of Foveon and red. I'm not sure why I'm posting yet another example, perhaps because it's so easy to deal with and there seems to be a never ending discussion about this.

I made 2 quick adjustments to this image, one of them Vignetting. I would have made this adjustment to the image regardless of sensor; darkening the edges a bit keeps the image together somehow and focuses the attention on the roses. I have darkened the edges of my (B&W) prints long before I ever knew there was an actual term for this action. First time I heard vignetting I was thinking about a vinegar salad dressing.

The other adjustment was to "Fix" the red as pink phenomenon I notice with the DP1. The steps for this in Aperture (and probably in other programs) are just about as easy as it gets.

Aperture has a Color Correction Tool. When selected it opens a loupe and turns the cursor to an eyedropper. Clicking on the offending color selects it. The adjustment sliders are Hue, Saturation, Luminance and Range. Hue is the fixer. I select the red and simply click the slider to the right (towards yellow). I have found that 10 or 11 clicks usually do it. Saturation and Luminance are self descriptive and Range allows me to adjust the sensitivity of the color selection from "Razor sharp" to "Broad brush."

I used the AML-1 close up attachment and grabbed a couple of quick shots. I had no time to properly work this scene but the colors are what I was looking for.

a DP1 Workflow

2008-09-14T13:49:00.000-07:00

My current workflow is to review my images with SPP. If I find some I like I process as 16 bit tiffs and save / manage the tiffs in Aperture. I have wondered if perhaps it might be better to process all of the images as lower res JPGs with the thought being to go back and work the best images later.

This question is similar to the one I face when scanning film. Should I do quick low resolution scans and re scan the selects later or should I spend more time determining which are the best. I have compromised with the film scans in that I scan most images as medium resolution JPGs and occasionally re scan certain negatives later.

I am relatively certain that I will remain with my present system for my DP1 images until Aperture or Lightroom is able to process the RAW images and then will not use SPP again. I have a suspicion that Lightroom will support the DP1 relatively soon and that Aperture will never support the DP1. This is sad as I have come to be quite comfortable with Aperture and also sad because it will require the expenditure of more multiple hundreds of dollars. I am having some serious doubts about this whole RAW thing...seems as though there is ALWAYS another program that needs to be purchased. When do the benefits start to accrue again?

Well, if I do change to Lightroom I will once again be able to avail myself of the wit and wisdom of Scott Kelby and crew...that's a plus.

all creatures

2008-09-08T08:32:00.000-07:00

After tropical storm Hanna blew bye I found this beautiful creature in the garage. After posing for a few photographs she went on her way. In search of breakfast perhaps.

I attached the AML-1 close up lens to the DP1 and used the Nikon SB30 small flash. Exposure took a couple of tries. At 1/8 power and f11 I got pretty good exposure, but she was in a rush and so I was too. Focus was a bit more tricky. I couldn't remember exactly what the focus range was for the AML-1 and so tried to keep the camera about 11 inches from the small snake. Out of about 15 shots I got these 4. I needed to apply edge sharpening on all 4. The others were either dramatically overexposed or most often out of focus.

DP1 and Film

2008-09-05T15:23:00.000-07:00

Been a busy summer so far. Little time for Blogging. Since starting to understand the DP1 I have become quite pleased with the film like quality of the images...and that would be print film vs slide or chrome film.

I have always appreciated print film but frankly the variances in the printing process were unacceptable. Each lab was different and each technician in a lab produced different results. As the problem was with the printing and not the developing of the film, now that we have scanners and software we can take control of the output part. Print film brings a wide range of subtle tones and colors. I believe the dynamic range to be quite a bit greater than slides...or digital for that matter. My choice in the print films is Kodak's Portra with 160NC being my favorite.

These 2 images are from Mt Rainier National Park. I had Portra 160NC loaded in my xPan with the 45mm lens. Interestingly the field of view appears to be about the same as the DP1.

Also of interest to me is that with each camera I really wanted a few more degrees of coverage. The water had cut through several yards of stone to form the pool and it was very dramatic. Many bemoan the lack of a zoom or a "Normal" lens on the DP1 but as yet I've wished only for wider.

Technical details.

DP1: WB Shade, ISO 100, f8, 0.4 seconds exposure.

xPan 45mm, ISO 160, f11, 0.5 seconds

I "Quick" scanned the film on an Epson V700 using Epson scanner software at 1200 dpi. I have the ability to derive substantially more information from this negative by upping the scan quality and also by using Silverfast software (multi-exposure) and will probably do just that when I have a few moments.

I saved each image as a TIFF file in Aperture and drew middle grey white balance from a point on the rocks above the red tree trunk. Other than that no adjustments were made.

I'm quite impressed with the similarities in these images and frankly when I closely inspect the corners of the images I am once again in awe of the lens on the DP1. I'll say this again, with the many multiple dollars I've spent on glass over the years (a bunch) I have never had a better lens than the one on my DP1.

Seattle at night

2008-07-21T10:06:00.000-07:00

The opportunity to photograph belly dancers brought me to Seattle the other day. This was quite an interesting exercise, once I edit the images I'm thinking I will have a few keepers.

The opportunity to photograph the city on a clear night with a large moon rising was irresistible.I completely mis read the Yahoo map of seattle, or else I don't understand the Navy Altitude/Azimuth charts, or some of each. I had not positioned myself properly to take advantage of the moonrise as I had hoped. Oh well. What I was able to do was photograph the city again from an area I've used before, the result is above. I am quite impressed with this camera's abilities yet again. I like this image very much. It's different, better somehow from the other images from the same place, film or digital.

Technically I had the camera on a tripod of course, but I had the meter set to center weighted. I reviewed the images with a loupe after shooting and could quickly see that they were overexposed, didn't think to try spot metering. This shot was at a -3 EV, I think it's just about right.

A few interesting notes. The dots in the sky are celestial objects, most are stars, the bright one in the middle of the sky is a planet. Not sure which planet, Venus perhaps. The streaks are airplanes taking off. I am looking south and there are 2 active airports there, Boeing Field on the right side of the image and SeaTac towards the middle. Aircraft flying north will usually turn just before reaching the city and I see there are 2 streaks from turning aircraft, the alternating green and red wing tip lights are visible. Above and a bit to the right of the red roof is a glimpse of Mount Rainier.

DP1, lavender and red

2008-07-15T10:27:00.000-07:00

Spent a few hours in Sequim WA where the lavender is in bloom. Very lovely fields, various shades of purple flowers, well manicured green grass, plantings of vibrant red poppies and the occasional yellow sunflower. I'm sure that running a lavender farm is a full time job, much like any other job, but at this time of year I wonder if one gets paid to work there or has to pay for the opportunity.

As I was "Chimping" the pictures I was taking I couldn't help wondering just how to deal with the red colors, which as expected look too pink to me. The fix was much simpler than expected. I use Apple's Aperture to manage my image files and the adjustment tools it offers are quite comprehensive. One of the boxes is labeled "Color" and offers an eyedropper tool to adjust Hue, Saturation, Luminance and Range of the color selected. I selected the pink and moved the Hue slider about 11 clicks toward the yellow side. The results are very good and toggling quickly between the original and adjustment shows me no variation in any other color at all.

So easy even I can do it. I am quite certain that CS3 offers similar capabilities. I also expect that Elements, iPhoto, and a host of other tools also have this capability. It's also possible that SPP has some abilities here as well but I don't know for sure.

DP1 lens choice

2008-07-07T09:45:00.000-07:00

Earl Thomas

John Lee Hooker Jr.

Randy Oxford trombone

The Legendary Roy Gaines

Tony Ruiz, bass man for Dennis Jones Band

Admittedly I differ from many others in my choice of lenses. I have found that a wide angle is almost always the correct choice and a telephoto a poor choice. I'm not sure why this is. The concept of "Getting more in" is probably part of it but a small part. I am quite excited by changes in perspective. For this reason I find the (28mm) lens to be a good choice.

In reality it is a bit longer than I most often use(d) with my Nikon but quite acceptable. The above photo's are all shot with a Nikon DSLR using the 12~24mm lens at 12mm. With the chip size factor this equates to about 18mm, unusually wide for many, just right for me.

When my Granddaughter Emma was born, "Can you believe I'm six?" I purchased my first digital camera. I also attached a Contax TVS point and shoot film camera to my belt, right next to my cell phone. The TVS has a 35 ~ 60mm zoom. 35 to 60 should be called "Zoom?" it ain't much. Reviewing the images shot at each end of the range though I found that I almost never was unhappy when choosing 35mm and quite often was when I chose 60mm.

What this tells me is that if Sigma offered an identical camera with a longer lens I would NOT be part of the rush.

That's all?

2008-06-25T15:34:00.000-07:00

There is a current large discussion thread about Foveon and Red. I have been aware of other questions about the chip's capabilities with red and so I participated. I had hoped to learn something about the DP1's capabilities.

As near as I can tell from the thread, this chip sometimes produces a red with too much pink overtone. Umm...huh? Is that what this is all about? A piece of cake adjustment in Aperture or Photoshop or one of many other programs generates this much discussion?

An inability to focus properly or render fine detail now that's a REAL problem. A completely blown out unrecoverable red channel...yup a REAL problem. A little too much pink? C'mon. Really?

DP1 and Red

2008-06-24T13:48:00.000-07:00

D80 100mm

DP1

D80 12 ~ 24mm

DP1

Quite a buzz in dpreview today about the Foveon chip and red. It seems that there is a general wisdom that this chip has a problem with red. On it's face this makes absolutely no sense to me. 33% of the sensors are for red on a Foveon chip and 25% of the B&W sensors of bayer type chips are masked to read red. On it's face 33% is larger than 25% so the confusion starts.

There would be at least 3 avenues here, perhaps more. The 3 I see are:

How well it reproduces color;

how well it focuses on red detail; and for me most importantly,

how it does in red light.

As I photograph a lot of musicians I often enter clubs with the stage lit by red spot lights. I usually mention to the club management that the red light is quite unflattering to the musicians. If this doesn't work I just grumble like other seasoned photographers. I usually carry a small film camera just in case.

Let's be real blunt here. With a Bayer chip you WILL NOT get a good photograph in red light. Don't care if you desaturate to B&W, skin still looks horrid. If a flash is used the power it takes to overcome the red light burns right through all of the other channels as well.

I have been using the DP1 in red light situations and although were not talking works of art here I do believe it does a better job than my Nikon.

I don't do much macro work or close-ups of flowers so I have little experience with true colors here or focusing abilities. I did take the above shots today of my tail light.

With the Nikon I used 2 lenses, a 100mm macro lens and a 12-24mm set to appx the same setting as the DP1. I tried different f stops and a couple of different ISO's to ensure fast shutter speeds. WB set to Daylight, DP1 images developed as X3 and saved as 16 bit tiffs, Nikon developed in Aperture 2.

Interesting to me is how orange the 100mm shot is, and how poorly it focused, perhaps due to short DOF.

The other shots are quite similar. The DP1 color seems a bit pink but this is very easily adjusted in Aperture as well as other programs. I also see the DP1 image much more is in focus (look at right side of the image) but perhaps this is due in part to the Sigma lens quality.

In any event. If there's an inherent red problem with the Foveon chip I'm not seeing it. As someone mentioned though this may be due to ultra violet influence of some sort in flower photography.

DP1 Accessories 3

2008-06-23T16:48:00.001-07:00

I have the HA-11 Hood for my DP1. It works well but causes a problem. The square hood doesn't have a cover or accept any conventional type cap as near as I can determine. The problem then becomes deciding if it's better to remove the hood and carry it separately or to leave the lens uncovered. If the lens is uncovered it seems to actively attract dust which is hard to remove unless of course I remove the hood.

Fortunately the round section of the HA-11 is threaded and another camera's hood will screw into it, in my case the metal Contax GG-2 hood. Further, the GG-2 size is 55mm meaning the cap from my Tokina 100mm macro fits perfectly, more easily than the Contax cap. Now if only the GG-2 was threaded so I could use the damn fine polarizer I bought for the 100mm Tokina.

One side note, with this installed I am able to turn the DP1 on without worrying about first removing the Sigma lens cap. A small thing to be sure but to me a comfortable one.

With the multi color hood, the Tokina cap and the invisi shield plastic installed and peeling it sure is a raggedy looking thing. Fits me somehow.

DP1 Accessories 2

2008-06-22T19:24:00.000-07:00

been some mentions of wrist straps on the Sigma group at dpreview. There would be 2 great functions for a camera strap. One is to keep the camera positioned to always be ready to shoot. However your arm was moved the camera would always be facing the proper direction and the shutter release button would be near a finger. I don't have any idea what this would look like but I often find myself wrapping the camera neck strap around my hand trying to figure it out.

The second (or perhaps first) great function would be to prevent the camera from hitting the floor. I have found that if something hits the back of my hand, or I bump it while walking perhaps, my fingers just spring open...seems to have become an auto response. I have a wrist strap for my DSLR which was made by OPTECH/USA and it has saved my Nikon more than once in crowds. Looks kinda geeky but Oh Well.

When I bought a DP1 I went to the local camera store browsing straps and found another strap also made by OPTECH/USA. Like the SLR strap it has kept the DP1 from meeting the pavement more than once.

The attachment string is much too thick for the DP1 lugs but fortunately the DP1 neck strap comes apart in sections. I attached the clip to the DP1 neck strap and the wrist strap to the clip. Works pretty well.

And...at about $10.00 if I do find the perfect strap at least I won't feel like I've thrown my money away.

DP1 Accessories

2008-06-22T11:15:00.001-07:00

I have found that regardless of their advertising device screens scratch. Also, when i drop a device (as I do semi-often) the case is usually damaged. So. One of the first things I do after buying a new electronic device is cover it with protective plastic. A custom designed bullet proof body condom would be great but they're almost never available and if they are the price is prohibitive.

I found a product called "invisi-shield" a few years back. The clear plastic is quite indestructible. The company selling this product changed over time now calling themselves Zagg I believe. I purchased a kit for a cell phone 2 or 3 years ago and it worked great. The plastic protects the screen and the extra pieces seem to work well on the edges of the device. Not perfect protection from drops but quite good. I even had an extra piece which i installed on my son's point n shoot before his first tour to Afghanistan. Son and camera home unharmed each time thank God.

So I purchased the largest piece they had available, fit for a laptop computer and I cut pieces from it with a very sharp pair of scissors. Knifes (or razors) don't seem to trim this substance.

I had to return my DP1 because of dust. I peeled the plastic off and re used it on the replacement camera. The sticky stuff still works pretty well but it doesn't look as good the second time around. In a way though this is actually better. When folks first see my camera they often think it's held together with scotch tape. I'm imagining it's less attractive and less likely to go home in someone else's pocket that way.

One thing I learned from a previous camera is that a mono-pod scratches. I put a piece of plastic over the tripod screw hole (difficult to cut properly) and there are no scratches. I also cover ends and corners against the inevitable drops. As I had a dust problem I have also begun to cover seams. Who knows if it will help or not.

Subtle Differences

2008-06-21T10:42:00.000-07:00

Differences which may seem obvious are often hard to quantify meaningfully. Jerry Seinfeld had a comedy routine where he would mimic sprinters approaching the finish line. The winner had his head forward at a 90 degree angle to his body. 89 degrees was second and the person with his head upright was dead last. Seeing who won was easy, determining the qualitative differences between athletes is quite a bit harder

I look at some of my DP1 images and the differences between these and similar bayer type DSLR images is immediately obvious. Quantifying what the differences are however requires more words.

The above image, taken near my home looks west over the southern part of the Puget Sound towards the Olympic Mountain Range. I have taken many many many images from this spot so the images demand comparison. Most of the images were taken with a Nikon D-80. The 10mp chip in this camera is first rate and I have a collection of glass, all quite good. I have a handful of film images, chrome and negative from this spot as well.

What I have come to expect from digital is a "Snapping-up" of the colors in the sky, an unusual ring (brilliant yellow) around the sun and a complete loss of detail on the sun's disc. I have tried many different exposure and filtering methods as well as Photomatix Pro HDR combinations. None rock me.

The DP1 shot surprised me immediately with no yellow ring and cloud detail over the sun. This translates quite well in a print. Further study also made me realize that the colors are more as I remember them and the color transitions softer. There are DOZENS of differences in color shade between the sun and the clouds and many more in the clouds themselves.

The largest paper I have presently is 13x19. When I print several images of this scene taken with both types of digital camera I notice that people will immediately remark "Oh Wow!" at the striking saturated colors delivered by my Nikon but always come back to this DP1 image with a "This is my favorite!" Mine too.

On the both good and bad side. I have begun to look again at my recent film images and am liking them a whole lot more than I thought I would, (subtle colors, smooth transitions). I was planning to sell the film gear...Oh well.

More DP1 low light

2008-06-15T21:31:00.000-07:00

These images are from last week. The weather here in Seattle has been quite nice, sun and everything for 3 days in a row now.

As the saying goes you can tell the seasons here by which team is playing in the rain. Mariners it must be summer.

These images, 2 at asa 800 and 1 at 400 were hand held. I had a monopod with me and should have used it for the night shot but I had found a very small overhang which blocked much but not all of the rain and I was uncertain how much moisture the camera would withstand. At any rate asa800, f4 at 1/10th second.

DP1 + Flash

2008-06-07T11:42:00.000-07:00

I purchased a Nikon SB-30 flash unit for the DP1. This is a small flash originally produced by Nikon for their film cameras. It's still available new from Nikon for under $90.00. I got mine through Amazon.com. Rated at guide number 52 I believe that this flash is more powerful than the Sigma small flash, the EF-140. It is designed to cover an area for a 28mm lens, which works out just fine. I think the SB-30 is about the same size as the EF-140 and it comes with a nylon case with a belt loop attachment.

The disadvantage to this unit is that it's not a ttl flash for the DP1. This is of almost no consequence for me. When I was able to purchase my first external flash, 40 years ago, there was no such thing as ttl. All flash photography involved math...rudimentary math. It's not really hard. In addition this flash unit has several settings for various f-stops and film speeds so a quasi-ttl could be set up if I wished. What I usually do is take a quick test shot, review it on the LCD screen and make adjustments if needed. Then I'm pretty much good to go.

I set the camera to M. As it's the f stop that determines image brightness I can set the shutter for whatever creative urges I have. I generally set the flash to 1/8 if within 7 feet of my subject and 1/1 if further away.

Interestingly this flash recycles so quickly that at 1/8 power with the DP1 on continuous drive mode the flash fires for all 3 shots. (at 1/1 I seem to get flash for exposures 1 and 3). I use this often if at the various blues joints I frequent. As this camera looks like any other point and shoot the 3 quick flashes are not any more annoying than the "red-eye" flash setting others are using.

Another feature is the "Wireless" flash setting. When set on "M" the flash will fire in sync with the pop up flash on the DP1. This works well for off camera flash for up to about 25'. The "A" setting is for sync at a greater distance but the DP1 doesn't seem to trigger it...the Nikon flashes do though.

This flash also has adjustment capabilities (+1/2, -1/2) as well as a diffusion screen for close-up.

Rain

2008-06-04T12:04:00.000-07:00

Here in Seattle it's raining. Cold and wet. Quite a summer so far. On the other hand I get a couple of fog shots, they're always fun. I had thought that negative fill light might work well with fog but so far haven't gotten the effect I was looking for. The adjustment does indeed bring a dreamy-ness to the image but I don't seem to have the control over it's placement that I would like.

DP1 does Purple

2008-06-01T18:20:00.000-07:00

Nikon D-80 above

DP1 below

There's been quite a bit written about the Foveon chip (DP1) and red. I have my own opinion about this camera with a red environment and will be writing something in the next several days. Thinking about color though made me curious about this camera with purple. Purple is a color with unusual properties, it tends to have an emotional impact as well with many people. It is also a color which is impossible for a digital camera to reproduce. No matter how purple the print appears, a comparison to the actual subject proves it to be shades of blue but never purple.

We have a small bathroom painted purple and I have used it to test several digital cameras and to prove to others that No, their camera doesn't do purple either.

I brought the DP1 to the "Purple room" and Wang dang Doodle...Purple! Whad'ya know.

DP1 low light

2008-05-20T23:26:00.000-07:00

Two more low light shots. One was at asa 800 and the other asa 800 -2EV, so that's somewhere around asa 3200. I did very little to these, just let SPP develop them. I did pull middle grey WB from the same place (lighthouse). It's interesting how the colors are different.

I see swatches or streaks of green, most obvious in the white painted molding. As I shoot low light shots with expectations of B&W conversion it makes less difference.

For the B&W I went just about as simple as possible, lowered the saturation. No other heroics.

All in all not bad at all for a stealthy pocket camera. The DP1 may not do all that well in bench tests. I'll try to remember that if I get a gig doing bench tests. For other, real life situations it does pretty darn good.

THE REVIEW!

2008-05-19T23:07:00.000-07:00

The dpreview.com review of the DP1 hit the web today and the Sigma forum has been buzzing. The rating of Above Average was surprising for folks like me who actually enjoy using this camera and thought it might be higher. Some of the reasoning / explanation was suspect but after some thought about it I figure they're right.

We are all anxious to have approval for the decisions we make, validation I suppose is the buzz word. But. When I think about it, I would never make a large time and $$$ decision based upon what web sites write. None of the photographers I know would either. So who does, and what are they looking to discover in a review. I imagine it's bench tests, comparison images, technical info and conclusions. This is where reviewers shine. They know their market. Their market has complained long and hard about missing shots due to shutter lag (slow focus) and slow write times. To have a new camera bring these exact same things to them just won't do.

This camera brings back a feeling of quality in images that is becoming lost. I get the most enjoyment from my old folding cameras. Medium format with outstanding 4 element german glass and all of the modern conveniences of the 1940's (none). They don't even take batteries. They're nothing at all except IQ

In 1971 after saving for over a year I bought a brand new Nikon F. It has a center weighted meter with a needle showing in the viewfinder. Completely mechanical except for the light meter I used it for 30 years. Now my digital Nikon does everything from focus to shutter setting to auto iso etc etc and shoots 10 or so RAW images rapid fire. If I'm missing a shot I'm just not facing the right way. The images it produces when manipulated slightly are wonderful. As proof I point to the 5 star images I have cataloged by Apple's Aperture. I bought the DP1 because I was hoping it would be like the Nikon in a small package and indeed it is. The user functionality I expected is perhaps more like the film Nikon and surprisingly so is the image quality. So it is like the Nikon in a small body but the old Nikon.

Someone in one of the forum threads mentioned that there is more to a camera than IQ. It doesn't really matter if the writer was serious, it's a great question. I think the answer is situational and photographer dependent. Action shots, while life goes on all around, An "OK" IQ in a great users camera is perfect. Other times though it's all about the IQ. Spend thousands on glass and use the equivalent of expired film??? Nope!

As an example. I made a photo book of a week spent with the grand daughters. Aperture makes this quite easy and the result was wonderful. Now I've started to pull together my 5 stars, looking to make another book. After several weeks with the DP1 though I'm just not happy with altogether too many of them. The IQ on digital just wasn't there. I didn't see that clearly because my images are either DSLR or film which is scanned and digitized.

The DP1 reminds me of what I've been missing.

DP1 a return to film

2008-05-16T22:11:00.000-07:00

As I was without my DP1 for a week I had the opportunity to study some of my previous images and try to understand what it is about this camera that impresses me so.

Being what is called an "Early adopter" I am prone to look favorably on new technological gadgets. The idea of a large sensor in a small silent body is worthy of my support and the lens is a very pleasant surprise. Still, given the slowness between shots of this camera, and the slowness to focus (in low light I'm not able to use the manual focus well at all) the bloom should be off the rose by now. It's not. Rather I am finding myself more enamored of it.

I believe that what I have identified as it's ability to deal with subtleties is in fact quite reminiscent of film. I have never had the time or the money to get good at color darkroom work. I have had some opportunities to experiment and i have been fortunate to have had associates who I consider good. The quality I have come to expect from color film, slides and also negative, is just not evident in digital. Sorry, it just isn't. Where with film I would see a certain number of distinct subtle tones / colors, with digital I see several less. The colors I see are in fact well (over?) saturated and so the image just jumps into your eyes. Scanned film on home scanners is very good, but not great. I for one could never afford to have my negatives / slides professionally scanned and so I have learned to dial up the saturation a bit...or do a large radius USM.

With this new DP1 I am seeing many many more shades. This is quite exciting.

I think that just as film and digital are in fact different mediums, so this camera is a different medium from my other digital cameras, somewhat closer to film.

2008-05-16T14:50:00.001-07:00

While I was waiting for my DP1's return I had a chance to look at some low light images again.

The first image was shot at ASA 800 (1/4 sec at f4).

The next image was ASA800 -2ev (1/13 at f4)

For each image I let SPP do it's magic in Auto mode. I found that I liked the image better with less saturation so i dialed in a -0.3 and 0.2 respectively. I looked for neutral gray on the wing of the carved bird upper left of the image. I can see that there is a difference in color rendition, probably the result of the exposure difference.

Once again, these are not 5 star images and other than the above no adjustments were made.

All in all not too bad

DP1 and Dust part 2

2008-05-16T14:23:00.000-07:00

DHL was at my door this morning with a new DP1. Considering I sent it regular mail last Friday afternoon the service is great. (I spent my money on insurance rather than faster delivery).

I notice they sent me a brand new camera.

Thank you Sigma.

DP1 & Dust

2008-05-13T07:00:00.000-07:00

   A-10 & Dust 1
   A-10 & dust 2
   Ospreys & Dust

During a walk along the Sound the other day I noticed an eagle, a pair of ospreys and an A-10 overhead at different times. As a result I spent a good deal of time looking closely at the resulting images at 100% and there it was, dust. Didn't expect it, don't know how it got there but.... As I haven't found the right belt-loop case for my DP1 I tend to carry it in a shirt pocket. Perhaps that's where the dust came from. Large blob upper right of image, few other very small spots.

The good news is that an e-mail to Sigma brought a quick response, from a real person, who offered to fix it right away. You just gotta love it when an e-mail comes from a real person. Quite often I read the disclaimer at the end of an e-mail telling me it cannot be replied to.

The bad news is that I'm without my DP1 until it's returned.

DP1 and Nikon D-80 compare

2008-05-10T19:44:00.000-07:00

I know that this type of comparison is always open to interpretation but sometimes it just presents itself. I planted some flowers a week ago and photographed them with the DP-1. I liked the results very much.

Then I decided to test the upsizing methods at my disposal, Aperture, CS-3 and the printing program Qimage. I cropped the images and upsized to 600 DPI tiff's. I found that both Aperture and Qimage produced very similar images and that each was superior to the CS-3 image. I am certain that there are other ways to work CS-3 and that this was a quick trial. However, the job was easiest in Aperture and there's something to say about easy if it produces great results.

Then today I was looking at the same plant and had my Nikon D-80 in hand. I dialed in the same settings as the DP-1 shot (focal length, f stop, iso, white balance). I noticed that the shutter speed was faster on the Nikon shot (1/125 vs 1/80) so it must have been brighter today. The colors are different. I guess the flower didn't like being transplanted too much. I think it will recover though.

The Nikon image, (upsized to 600 DPI) is quite good technically. The DP-1 image though is great. I guess the color change impacts that somehow. Blue more crisp than red? But! Reviewers of the DP-1 are all in lockstep in chiding Sigma for claiming 14mp from their 4.6mp chip. I would expect the DP-1 image to be running as fast as it can to keep up with the supburb 10mp Nikon image, not the other way around. Any way I look at it, the results of this test go to Sigma.

DP1 subtle colors

2008-05-06T22:23:00.000-07:00

This camera does an excellent job with subtle colors, tones, shadows. I continue to be very impressed. This is along the Atlantic coast as a spring storm approached. It very quickly got quite exhilarating!

Viewing this file with the RAW developer the low cloud in the upper left really stands out. There is enough mid contrast to make the cloud seem almost 3-D. The feeling is that of almost being there. This dimensionality converts well to 16bit tiff but I notice a slight lessening in the jpeg file. Unfortunately I am unable to upload the tiff file to this blog.

The Blues and Negative Fill Light

2008-05-04T23:11:00.000-07:00

These images are of Craig Caffall, a blues performer recently from the Bay Area. I am a big fan of the blues. I am also a big fan of wide angle lenses. The two do go together.

I was anxious to try the DP1 in a Blues Joint and shot these images in the Highway 99 Club in Seattle. Information is pretty generic, asa400, flash, 1/200 second exposure. What's interesting to me is how the negative fill light works here. First it darkens and obscures the background and then gives a highlight effect to the performer.

The images obviously need more work, perhaps I'll work on them later. Took just a few seconds to pull these images out...and so I can go back to shooting.

Black&White Photography with the DP1

2008-05-03T20:29:00.000-07:00

This nondescript image is of a building in Tacoma WA on an overcast afternoon. I converted to B&W by changing the SPP software's White Balance to MONOCHROME. Then I fiddled with the sliders, contrast, exposure & highlights until I liked the way it looked on my monitor. Finally I tried different amounts of Fill Light, both positive and negative.

The positive fill light image (a lot of fill light) is reminiscent of HDR images with a great deal of light smoothing. The negative fill light is interesting, harder to describe. It seems to bring a bit of smudge vignetting quality. This will require more trials. At first it put me in mind of old B&W movies.

DP1 B&W, DP1 Low Light

2008-05-02T18:54:00.000-07:00

No camera does very well in extreme low light situations, except for the Nikon D-3 so I hear. The noise characteristics of the DP1 are quite different from my Nikon D-80. Rather than increasing film grain like appearance the DP1 seems to display horizontal bands of green swatches. I wonder if this is a characteristic of this Foveon chip or if my camera needs repair.

In actual application this isn't a big problem though as my intentions for low light are almost always monochrome images...or something approaching monochrome.

The other side of the coin is that I am able to unobtrusively photograph with the DP1, something I am unable to do with a DSLR. The DP1 is a great stealth camera.

The above photographs were taken during a visit to the eye doctor. It was so dark for the second image that I was unable to read the mode setting on the camera...that's dark. It was also quiet with the doctor observing and dictating findings to her assistant. Obviously I couldn't use the D-80 so this is a shot I wouldn't have gotten at all without the DP1.

DP1 + HDR

2008-05-01T16:43:00.000-07:00

These 2 images were prepared using different tools. The first was processed in SPP with the Fill Light and Highlight sliders moved right. The second is an HDR (tonemapped) from 3 exposures, 0, +1 and -1 ev. This image was processed with Photomatix Pro v3.0. I attempted to get acceptable information from the foreground, shadow areas and also to bring out the colors I saw in the sky. It's a bit overdone but....

I'm not a big fan of HDR and in fact have found it to be a lot of trouble for a non acceptable result in the past. I have been able to make 2 or 3 acceptable HDR images with my Nikon D-80 but that was out of perhaps 50 or 60 different trials. The concept of HDR is quite exciting, dramatically increase the effective range of a digital camera. I have a problem however with the overdone, cartoonish, colors and the overall "Grunge" look to the finished product. I think it's possible to minimize the ill effects and still gain something from the process but the margin between no effect and too much effect is painfully narrow, sometimes non existent.

I also have the idea that there is an effect I would like to see applied to faces, my all time favorite subject. The problem here is to get 3 or more images which are identical except for exposure. Seems an impossibility.

Enter SPP and the Fill Light slider. I am thinking that there is a quasi HDR look to the + side of the slider. Again it's a small margin between not enough and too much but the process happens on a single image.

More to come.

Fill Light experimenting

2008-05-01T11:51:00.000-07:00

I have been experimenting a bit with fill light, positive and negative. Each has an interesting impact on the images. These shots of a sunset were processed with SPP. The +.4 fill light image was the first one and done in the Auto mode. I ran the Fill Light setting back to 0 for the neutral image and further moved it to the left for the - image. About 0.9 it looked pretty good on the monitor so I added a border and text and downloaded a small jpeg to this blog. Next up I will try some tonemapping (HDR).

River's Edge

2008-04-28T20:20:00.000-07:00

This image was taken on a little piece land next to a public walking / jogging path along the bank of the Mississippi in New Orleans. I stood next to a sign indicating that it is private property and an agent of the owner came out and spoke to me. I could see him as I approached and it seemed to me that he was guarding the owner's privacy. After an enjoyable conversation during which I identified myself as a photographer and gave him a card he was quite pleased to show me the property and have me photograph it.

The sky was a subtle salmon color but the sun was peeking through directly into my lens. There were also a very large number of f stops between the sky and the fence. I was able to position myself so that the insulator mouth of the figure blocked the sun. The DP1's dynamic range brought much of the detail out. I have a small flash, Nikon SB30 which effectively lit the foreground and also interestingly brought the reflective tape (red) and street sigh (green) to life.

Very difficult shot. Very lucky to have gotten it.

Crescent City

2008-04-28T20:16:00.000-07:00

This image of the crescent moon over the Arabesque Restaurant in New Orleans, the Crescent City was too good to pass up. Taken at ASA 800 1/13 second hand held. Not having a mirror to slap up and down really makes a difference in camera shake.

Mini-Storms

2008-04-27T10:50:00.000-07:00

I am getting better images of clouds with the DP1 than I expected. These 3 images were taken while driving. I held the camera up through the open sun roof. They are images of a mini-storm (my name). There have been a handful of these over the last few weeks, about 3 to 5 miles wide and traveling quickly from west to east (more or less). Inside these storms the weather is quite wild, wind, snow, hail, lightning...then they pass and the weather is sunny and pleasant.

Some winters we in the Pacific Northwest are blessed with more sunshine than others, this has been one of those winters. Yes. It does rain here often but the rain, drizzle actually, comes from a featureless low grey cloud which stretches from horizon to horizon. About as much fun to photograph as a wet grey card. This year The Cloud has been gone much of the time. As a result we are getting to enjoy the other clouds which perhaps are always there but hidden, clouds like the mini-storms.

SPP Software

2008-04-26T13:31:00.000-07:00

Sigma's RAW processor is called Sigma Photo Pro...SPP. Like other manufacturer's RAW processors it is quite good at developing the files from it's cameras. Also like other developers it is nowhere at all for helping to create a streamlined workflow. I am hopeful that another asset management software (Aperture I hope) decides to work with these files.

One thing this software has is a slider they call X3 Fill Light, at first glance some sort of shadow enhancement tool. What this tool really does however is more sophisticated and quite exciting. On the + side of the slider it quickly begins to bring HDR type qualities to the image. Now while HDR is an acquired taste for sure, one I haven't yet acquired, it does increase the dynamic range of the image. In fact this dynamic range increase was it's original listed purpose. The cartoonish colors and the "Grunge" look quickly became what it's known for. I've tried to add a subtle enhancement or tone mapping to images with HDR software but quite frankly the work is frustrating and almost never worth the effort. X3 fill light allows me to dial in as little as I like and not only do it easily but do it with one image. Bottom line...I get more information in my photographs. I don't know how much increased dynamic range is because of the Foveon chip and how much the software but I like the results.

One of the very first things I noticed with the DP1, long before I tried bracketed exposures, was the sky. Somehow just as the software was done processing the image the skies would just pop. Rather than the "Mono" white sky to be cropped out later I was seeing detail, clouds, how exciting.

These images were taken in the large Cemetery at the end of Canal? Street about 12:30pm on a bright sunny day. The perfect recipe for disaster. They were good enough to be able to convert to B&W.

Borders

2008-04-24T18:39:00.000-07:00

As it turns out borders are easy with Photoshop. I also learned that a second, defining border needs to be added, and I lightened the image a bit.

New Orleans

2008-04-24T17:48:00.000-07:00

Morning walk in New Orleans, by Esplanade near City Park. The bayou has a name I'm sure but it looks like Blue Bayou to me. I tried a little sepia on the image of Forshay (how it's said not spelled) Park. I like the way this image looks with a white border. There's a way to do this in Aperture or Photoshop I'm sure, just have to figure it out.

Clarksdale Mississippi

2008-04-22T18:31:00.000-07:00

Clarksdale is known as the Birthplace of the Blues.

Morgan Freeman's Blues Club "Ground Zero."

Ground Zero

2008-04-22T18:25:00.000-07:00

Ground Zero interior

Red Flowers DP1

2008-04-20T19:20:00.000-07:00

These images are of the same red flowers but taken with the DP1. I really like the way this camera deals with reds. These colors are much closer to what I actually saw. I tried boosting the saturation a bit on the Nikon images to see if I could match this color but completely oversaturated the channel before getting close.

Red Flowers

2008-04-20T18:59:00.000-07:00

Along the roadside in Mississippi were fields of red wildflowers. Where the flowers were the thickest there were no safe places to stop. Where the shoulder was wide enough to stop the flowers were usually thin. I did manage to find a compromise spot, kinda safe and at least some flowers. I took pictures with the DP1 and also with my D-80. The lenses were different (100mm on the Nikon) and so the comparison isn't "Scientific" but still striking. These 2 are the Nikon images. I like the way they turned out.

Road Trip

2008-04-16T19:11:00.000-07:00

I received my DP-1 while in Florida. The first morning I took the Crescent Moon picture about 20 minutes before sunrise. I held the camera on a railing for the 2 second exposure. Interestingly this is something I had never tried with a DSLR.

The Girls & Birds image as well as the Girls & God Beams image were during sunrise.

These images are all ASA 400.

First shots and impressions

2008-04-02T19:30:00.000-07:00

Well the camera finally arrived, a few days late but it's here. The menu's are quite easy to use. This is good as the camera is so much fun to play with I can't find time to read the manual. After charging the battery I took a half dozen RAW images. The first ever is above, it was taken at sunset while driving over a bridge at about 45mph. The next image was shot with the built in flash and a distance of about 2.5 feet. I processed the images with no manual adjustments in SPP 3.1 which I downloaded from another site while waiting impatiently for the camera to arrive.

I am having trouble believing how delicately it captured the subtle colors. I like this camera.

and so it begins

2008-03-03T21:23:00.000-08:00

This site initially will be for various photographs taken with the Sigma DP-1. This camera presently is unique in offering a DSLR sized sensor in a point and shoot sized body.