Foveon Therapy/Scenes Seen: My Bridge Between Film & Digital.
In the words of Monty Python, “And now for something completely different.” The Sigma Quattro twins.
Two camera body styles. Same sensor.
Before I go further after some internal repositioning I will attempt to address where I currently land regarding the mention of brand and camera. In a recent post, I did not mention the camera and lens used. My thinking was that any number of brands had similar options so it did not matter. But what if a company or product does land outside of the norm? What if it has no direct competitors or similar offerings from other companies? That is the case today.
So what of the film and digital thing in the opening? The subjects of this post have Foveon sensors. In oversimplified terms it is a layered sensor that picks up the primary colors at every photo site instead of the much more common Bayer sensor array which captures colors using a skipped pixel pattern on one layer requiring interpolation to approximate colors at each location. This has advantages.
- More accurate color at each pixel.
- More detail from a similar number of pixels.
- A special “look” to my eye.
- Better black and white reproduction to my eye.
- As an added party trick the SD Quattro sports a removable hot mirror for non destructive infrared photography on demand.
- Requires that you commit.
- Mono profile creates mono DNGs.
- Crop profile creates crop DNGs.
- Choose 21:9 crop rato up front you get 21:9 DNGs.
- Some may balk but I like that it forces me to compose a certain way because I know there will be nothing I can do later on.
It also has disadvantages.
- Takes a month of Sundays to write to the SD card.
- Does not impede image taking that much but you will not be viewing images until that red light stops blinking.
- Video is off the table.
- Burns through batteries.
- No impediment to taking images but the camera does get warmer than I am used to.
So… no video, slow write times that stop me from reviewing photos, great colors, great black and white, and infrared on demand… Sounds like film to me.
So I reach for Foveon cameras when I would rather use film but do not feel like developing film later.
Does this make sense? No.
But I enjoy myself every time I use them.
Wrapping up with some pics from weekly chorus rehearsal. We have a December 14th concert coming (I even get a solo.) up along with some other engagements.
Do I have a recommendation? Nope. Sigma Foveon cameras are hard to recommend on rational terms. These are very irrational choices even within the realm of an irrational pursuit. Photography that is. But I enjoy using them and applaud Sigma for creating such interesting devices.
Happy capturing.
-ELW
Eric L. Woods 