I have held on to a slightly dinged up copy of an odd duck I picked up a while ago.
It has earned a permanent place in my old vintage digital gear menagerie. It does ask a few things of you and lacks a few features all traced back to its party piece.
- No video.
- AF only a mother could love.
- Ergonomics only a mother could love.
- It is sloooooow.
- The time it takes to write to the SD card after capture is near laughable, but it keeps me shooting rather than chimping prior images so it is kind of a plus?
That party piece is the Foveon sensor.
I point you back to the prior post link under the camera image above for more on the sensor but it brings tangible benefits.
- Great colors.
- Great detail.
- Far exceeds anything I would expect from an APS-C sensor and stands up against larger and higher MP’d sensors.
- Great tones.
- Impressive but really shines when flexing its…
- Great monochromatic IQ.
- Creates amazing B&W images. Also interestingly RAW files defaults to B&W DNGs in LR so you reatin the cameras intended look rather than having to convert them to B&W like you usually have to do when shooting RAW.
- Makes you commit to the crop.
- Also different from other RAW files they are created with the selected camera crop. I especially like this when using the 21:9 crop for a fake Hasselblad XPan experience.
Ok. Enough of that. On to the photos. Decided to dust it off and take it for a spin recently. Regular readers (Thank you.) know the drill. Nothing Earth shattering. As it says on the tin these are scenes seen. The first few remind me why I try and bring a camera everywhere even when I am just running to pick up dinner.
Closing thoughts.
I heart this little weirdo camera.
Happy capturing.
-ELW
Eric L. Woods 