As many of you know, I’m a full blood lover of Sigmas smaller cameras – the DP1 (24mm) and DP2 (42mm) – Cameras known for their extremely nice optics and fantastic sensor.

Now, the DP1s was introduced not long ago and for me it was a disappointment as it didn’t get the TRUE II that we love from the DP2 – and it also lacked those cool color modes that many of us discovered as fun and useful. And the last part, with heavy use of both DP1 and DP2 you soon realize that different buttons doing different things on two similar looking cameras is very frustrating. And the DP1s didn’t change any of this. Dp1s did get a better coating and therefore getting better coloristics.

Now, The DP1x comes with answers! Both the TRUE II processor as well as a new AF algorithm, providing high speed auto focusing. In addition, the user interface has been unified with the DP2 series by changing the Set Up Menu and adopting the QS (Quick Set) button. Finally both cameras can be handled without making life hard! In addition to the addition there is a new power save mode that enabled a greater number of pictures be taken on a single charge.

Back of both DP2s and DP1x:

The DP2s has all the goodies from the DP1x added and both cameras can do ISO50 all the way up to ISO3200 in RAW mode and finally Sigma has introduced a new very welcome slider in Sigma Photo Pro 4, a noise reduction slider! This will greatly enhance photo processing in the future for all of Sigmas cameras. At least we hope they will enable the slider for all and not only TRUE II equipped models.

Sigma!
Still there is no monochrome WB mode! Why you say, there is a black and white mode? Yes, up to ISO800 and only when using JPEG. Now, true black and white artists uses RAW only – and seeing the world in black and white when you want black and white result is MUCH better then the current noisier color view when shooting in bad lit situations. So, PLEASE Sigma – add monochrome white balance mode! It’s so simple and yet sophisticated and will truly help a lot of photographers to further enjoy your amazing cameras!

Please Please Please!

:)

This video is made for Linn to show on her last day at work for colleges. But I think it might be fun for you to see it as it shows how I work a bit. :)

And here’s a picture of Linn, in case you don’t know what she looks like. She’s the shorter of them two.

I haven’t worked much with Sigma Photo Pro (SPP) in a long time, mostly because Silkypix has come out and some recent shoots had to be developed quickly and at those times Lightroom comes in handy. But tonight I gave SPP a chance to show it’s true self – These are developments exported as 16bit tiffs and post processed in Photoshop using Nik Viveza. It’s fair as Lightroom has tools very similar to what’s possible in Viveza.

You find Lightroom 3 beta versions here.

View this shot as full size too..

And this one. :)

Dp1 – Original

In one of our trips we went to the small island, Åstol. It has 200 inhabitants and is very beautiful. These shots I took with DP1 and DP2 – used Sigmas polarizer and Cokin ND graduated filter. And of course a tripod. :) Weather was really boring, cloudy and cold. Pretty windy too.

So, looong shutter speeds as I used maximum aperture for all nature shots. (1-4s) Why? To make water look cool! :D ISO50 and 100 used. Oh, and Adobe Lightroom 3 has developed all shots.

DP1

DP1 – View original

DP1

DP1 – Full size Original (Bob and Olga is sitting somewhere in this shot!)

DP2 – Full size Original

DP2 – Full size Original

Åstol seen from Google Earth.

Tuesday evening Bob van Ooik, Olga and Anastasia Vasilkova showed up – on Linns birthday. They stayed a couple of days and we had no real plans more than having a great time. They followed me to my photography classes for young people, and my new film making class. And not only that, we also took a cover photo for a music album – a local rapper that I’ve shot in the past – and we painted with light – you know long exposure and then try to make things look nice running around with the light when it’s dark outside. Really cool. :D But I can’t really show that just yet.

This shot is taken with Sigma DP1 and by Linn. The rest above is taken with the Nikon D700.

We also went to the ocean where we played with my Elinchrom Quadra. Bob brought his D700 (perhaps it belongs to both?) and I enjoyed playing with it a lot. It’s fun with full 35mm and the possibility to shoot when it’s really really bad light. Oh, and it’s so fast too! :D

Olga painting my students while I’m taking a 30s shot.

Above shots are taken at one of my classes, all taken with the D700 – at ISO ranging around 4000-6400. Pretty amazing really. They would probably look better too if I was used to dealing with Nikon raw and if I used other software then Lightroom. :)

If you want to visit Bob and Olgas homepage click here!

Canon 1D Mark IV video example by Vincent Laforet..
If you can’t play, go here to his smugmug page or his blog.

Nikon D3s video example Video example from Vincent Munier..

Impressive, isn’t it? Consider that both these cams can go all the way up to ISO102400, which is really insane! Compared to RAW footage possible with a RED, above shots still looks good but somewhat video. Did you notice how Canon footage look Canon? A special brownish tone to skin and enviroment that’s always there in low lit situations. Still impressive. :)

Red one footage: Right click and save as!
(HD720, h264 around 500MB size, but well worth looking at) – Oh, the Mysterious-X is on it’s way too – the next generation sensor from RED that will be even more impressive. Starting at a clean ISO800. You surely need lots of ND’s to do outdoor footage with any depth. You can follow some of that here.

Now, looking at all these mighty riders in shiny armor – when do we see the Foveon sensor do film? (except DP) It would probably not be able to go as high ISO wise but colors and definition will surely be in another league. Especially if it will be able to record in some type of RAW format. Should be possible if you consider what RED team has been able to do.

I still enjoy the possibilities provided by the DP1 and DP2 – and it shows that it’s possible. But still, resolution is way too low. :(

Sigma DP1 – my Sigma AML-1 lens adapter review (sorry, nothing new to share).

I’m sorry for not being very clear when speaking. I hardly hear myself sometimes. grr.

Original

As some of you noticed we like mushrooms, and fall in Sweden is like candy store for kids. These mushrooms are called Trattkantareller in Swedish and Cantharellus tubaeformis in Latin. Now you know. And we will dry them and use them during the cold and inhuman Swedish wintertime. See above shot at original size.

Here follows some shots that been on flickr for some time, but without me saying much. These are a bit Strobist as you can see how I did most of them. :) Btw, Everything in this post is developed using Silkypix. I actually learned more on how to use Silkypix since I developed these but they’ll do for now.

I also baked a nice little raw pack for you so that if you don’t currently have a Sigma, you can at least play around with some files. It’s a small collection of recent pictures taken with SD14, DP1 and DP2.

The above movie is recorded as HD (1280×720) so view full screen with HD turned on for best experience. It’s currently processed and might be done when you watch. :)

Download the Silkypix Raw Pack.. 109MB ZIP file.

Get the Silkypix beta software, go here for info.
Get flyingroosters test RAW file (used in his comments below). Download.
Get BiggyDogs English menu fix (read comment for install help). Download

Also, don’t miss this Silkypix info page. Click to see.
How to download from this page:

Also news about the up’n'coming SD15 – a photo store (Scandinavian photo) has it on their site with a price tag of approximately €800 without tax. Hopefully that means both cameras will be out in a not too distant future. Also this is a VERY welcome update to the somewhat old SD14 and I hope they get buffer and speed right. :) Oh and some bright LCD would be nice and and and..

Now, what I’m really waiting for is a new beast that must be in the make somewhere in the crypts of Sigma – they’re not purchasing Foveon without continuing the magic, are they?  I’d like to see a square sensor. Can someone tell me WHY there’s no square sensor except price of cutting the sensor cake differently? No more portrait or landscape thinking – just as with my Mudan 6×6. That’s such a great way to take photos. In RAW they’re always square – in Jpeg you select what ever size you prefer. Or are lenses made for 2/3? is the coating etc just bad in the upper / lower unused part? Also one of the very first tests of the foveon camera back in 2002 utilized a square sensor. Sooo cool. :D

Alright, I got that off my chest, feel much better now. Thoughts?

With the Sigma AML-1 you get closer, and not only that you get even shorter area in focus. You can create new worlds. :) I had the Sigma polarizer attached as well. Further down in this article you will see shots with and without reflections plus a comparison with DP1 and DP2. All except one shot is taken with DP2.

original

Below you seetwo shots, the first – a bit bluish – has the polarizer turned so it allows reflections from the sky. In the second shot I turned the polarizer and oala, reflections are gone, shutter speed is longer and colors are thicker. The whole image look different. SPP settings are more or less the same. (see iphone shots of the exact setup image 1, image 2 and image 3)

Just a 4s forest shot. :)

Above with reflections, Below without. Both shots at f4, the next below has f2.8. AML-1 used.

Below: Playing with different aperture. Fun if you have a good tripod.

f3,2  1/2s – original

f6,3  2s – original

f14 10s – original

Below, DP1 version on the exact same position as above shots. AML-1, f4 1,3s exposure.

Above: This shot was taken in a very dark part of the forest. I couldn’t focus so I used my iPhones bright screen  and put it beside the little mushy and focused. I also used the iPhone to lighten this mushroom a little. it’s a 15s exposure.

All originals can be found at my flickr page. Here’s a link to one of the above shots and you can find the rest beside that one.

Assisting me this evening was Bengt Werner.

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btw, there is no equal amount between cameras. All full size at flickr.

Bonus, really fast moving buss! :)

I’m back with more shots from Yunnan, Dali – I really enjoy my stay so far and my DP’s hasn’t run out of juice once yet. I have one spare battery for each and I charge every night. I film quite a lot too, will show later when it’s time. One thing is extremely annoying and that’s when I switch between the two use interface is slightly different so I often press the wrong buttons which has killed some good moments, perhaps there should be some option to make the DP2 mimic the DP1.. :)

As some of you know I had problems with my CS3 installation so I installed Lightroom 2.4 instead, so this time I have a wide mix between LR developed shots and SPP 3.3 developed shots (saved as TIFF from SPP and imported into LR for my little watermark and some post adjustments such as vigneting. Often none). Can you see what is what?

Self portrait!

Who is that?

This women is making one of Dali’s own famouse fried cheese with chocolate candy thingis..

These police officers helped us find a photo exhibition that’s we were invited to. And check out the bonus in the background.

The old man above wanted to sell some scroll (as you see on the ground three pictures up) and I asked him if I could take a picture of him, so I did and after that I went back to Linn, he ran after asking if he could have the photo sent to him. So he wrote down his address and the text says something like “please send me the pictures”.. He was very cute and of course I will send him. It’s not a marvelous shot but I’m sure he will be satisfied.

Below: So, finally we arrived to the opening ceremony of this much bigger thing than we expected, hundreds of photographers and thousands of visitors came to see a massive show of dancing minorities – Some very important persons were there and the association of photography in China was there with their president etc etc. It was very cool.

And the center of the show was the three pagodas. Over a thousands years old buddhist monasteries. This is said to be the third most important place on earth to buddhists. And yes, there was lots and lots of police everywhere. I felt very safe.

I was often photographed together with other photographers. Fun!. :)

Lastly, what’s the difference between these two shots?

The above and below lady is 92 years old and we visited her because she didn’t have many days left of this life and they wanted some pictures of her. I so much love to look at old peoples faces, listed to their voices and just imagine what life was back then.

Above: Using my sunglasses with some green fading cheap thing to bring sky for you to see.. very powerful – Lucky for us it stayed mountain side.

Below: This is acually shot at F14 using DP2. I cropped out some, the oof is very nice don’t you think? And woaa how sharp these lenses can be. DP1 is probably slightly sharper but Dp2 has slightly better bokeh. :)

Above: A really fast two shot sky magic thingi. Don’t look too close at the right side if the picture as it’s not a perfect match. I was shaking a little or something. Sat on a double seat bike at the moment (those bikes are so much fun!).

Below the below shot and the below shot: Cool with all these old style trucks!  Not so cool with environment in mind. Also x3 fill light is used for many of these shots.

Above: Spiders!!! These are BIG things, totally dangerous for flies and stuff. :)  And they come in massive amounts, I don’t like spiders too close to me..

Below: Sky is double exposed. Copied with fluffy border to fit nicely. I moved too much between shots so it’s a bit dirty. But works.

Above and below: Would you mind being here?

Below: Some of those shots from a couple of days ago. We went up for 276 stairs and enjoyed the view. If you open up some of the portrait shots you’ll find lots of dragon flies. There was literally thousands of them, especially higher up. They said it was because of rain coming. Pretty big too..

Above: Dragonflies!! See this shot even bigger, or you can’t really see any of those flying thingis..

Above: Lastly, a special breed of dog from Tibet, once made to protect tibetans from Tigers and other predators. This one is about a year old and will become much bigger. It’s nothing you really wanna play around with even if it looks like a family dog.

All shots can be viewed bigger. Not full size but with very low compression and higher resolution.

Something you drink always, tea! Like in Britain only it comes in more visible form. Often they have some herbs inside that they call medicine and doctor told them to drink. When eating you always get green tea to the food, lots of people carry a tea thingi with them at all times such as these below.

I was teasing Linn telling her that modern China used VC machines to cut all those fancy patterns and images they have everywhere in windows and chairs and stuff. How wrong I was. Lots of those are man made. I walked on a street with a huge amount of smaller companies with people making really really beautiful stuff such as these below. Light was worse than I though so ISO should have been higher for better sharpness. My fault.

Pictures below are from Dali ancient city. Very cool place.

Above shot isn’t ISO400 as image says. It’s 100. Too fast work. Linn is waiting for the computer. ;) She wanna develop her shots now. aaaaaaa

Food, what can I say? Chinese cooking is just from another planet and something to die for. A restaurant often looks something like this and you point your finger on whatever vegetable, meat or mushroom or whatever is visible and they’ll tell you one or two ways to cook it – you select one and oala you have your dish. So if you point a tomato they will most likely make a tomato egg mix that is very nice.

I went with friends to some different restaurant these days and I took some shots to show you what it looks like with many dishes on a table. And I’ll ask Linn to fill in some short info on what’s being served but in short it’s donkey, pork, water living vegetable, beans etc etc – even grasshopper (but not on any of these shots) and the candle is not there to be nice – but to keep flies away.

Oh and under each picture you see if it’s DP1 or DP2. Most is DP1 as it’s wider and suites my photography style a bit better.

Human power. Or the power of humans. It’s quite amazing how some of these people work and you can’t really see it on this shot but if I wanted to take a picture of him he would most likely give me a big smile and treat me a cigarett (which I would have to decline). And no, I’m not talking about any of the guys sitting there..

I have shoe size 46 in European size, that’s extremely uncommon in China and maybe if I lived in Beijing (Northern Chinese are often bigger, they say it comes from them eating less rice and more bread) I could find something but down here in the south it’s nearly impossible. So above is a shoe maker that I ordered sandals from. I had to paint what I wanted it to look like and everything. The bottom layer is made from an old car tire too. How cool isn’t that? Well. In another week or so I’ll know the result. And price? He was a bit on the expensive side. 60RMB

Above lady has Bai minority clothes on, the same minority that Linn comes from.

No money to read the local newspaper? No problem! :)

There’s a new version of the X3F_qlgenerator out that now uses x3f_extract. It handles the DP1 X3F files significantly better than earlier versions (a plus), and keeps the same orientation enhancements from v1.2. Thanks to Carl’s RAW DP2 Pack, I was also able to verify that Quicklook handles the DP2 files rather well (now I just have to get my hands on a DP2). Enjoy.

http://www.corpus-callosum.com/software/packages/X3F_Utilities_v1.3.dmg

Movie made a while back about the plugin.
[See post to watch Flash video] ]]> http://www.rytterfalk.com/2009/05/13/updated-sigma-raw-quicklook-plugin/feed/ 3 http://www.rytterfalk.com/2009/03/17/a-year-or-so-with-sd14-and-dp1/ http://www.rytterfalk.com/2009/03/17/a-year-or-so-with-sd14-and-dp1/#comments Tue, 17 Mar 2009 11:26:19 +0000 Carl Rytterfalk http://www.rytterfalk.com/?p=574 Getting bored of myself, decided to take a look at what I forgot to post. Some has been posted but some was forgotten. So here we go. :D A year with the SD14 and DP1. And to make this post super honest I only used Sigma Photo Pro, no Photoshop at all. So this is what you could do without magic wands and plugins.. :P

There is a house close to where I live, it’s a house where people live that haven’t got the best out of life. I go there a couple of times every week and I almost never bring my camera – mostly because I don’t want them to think I’m there for the shot. But this Monday I brought the DP1 (I so much love it’s size!) and I under exposed ISO800 to get better shutter speeds. (light was dim).

full size available on flickr

Anyways, long time since I posted and I’m sorry for that. :/ work work work.

DP1.

SD14 10-20mm. Handheld. 

DP1 handheld. This one came out fantastic. :D 

The only SD14 image is the one with the wooden fence or whatever it’s called. With the house. :) Black and whites are ISO1600+ shots taken with the Dp1. Last one is DP1, vignette created by me always. Lens isn’t that bad. ;)

Marry Christmas to you all! And think about those who has less then you. :) They need a smile and if possible a hug.

I have done a test series with some ISO3200 situational shots. Real life, real needed type of shots (shutter speed around 1/10 – 1/30 at low F numbers) . I’d like to know where your limit and preferred preference between sharpness and detail goes. Or if you have any other way to deal with this. I will not give you my RAW this time, but you’ll have these at all settings at full size good quality JPEG’s to play with.

Six copies of the same image:
A First: Straight out of SPP. Pushed to ISO3200 | A2 Curved (Photoshop)
B Second: Sharpness -1.0 in SPP. | B2 Curved PS
C Third: Sharpness -2.0 in SPP. | C2 Curved PS

1.

open at full size

2.

open at full size

3.

open at full size

4.

open at full size

5.

open at full size

6.

open at 50% of full size

Thanks! :D When you comment you could refer to the Image 2 picture A. etc.
This is the same post as I did over at Dpreview sigma forum.
Lightroom versions

To get the best results: (without extras)

Lightroom2: No sharpening. almost full noise reduction. Monochrome WB (set using SPP).
SPP: Sharpening between -1.0 and 2.0 depening on taste. Add shadow ca -0.6. You need some PS in order to get a good feeling. Use Curve and darken shadows some more.  See next post on this.

And here’s some ISO1600 images pushed the same way from ISO800 but this time only underexposing one stop. Noise reduction and vignetting added using standard Lightroom2 magic.

All Full size on my flickr account.

Did I tell you I LOVE my DP1? :D (I don’t love everything about it, but I do forgive when playing with the RAW). These images are all taken with one light. One big softbox with a not well known branded flash so it’s probably a setup that everyone could afford. These images are all available as full size for pixel-peepers out there They are as sharp as they look all the way down to 100% and will look terribly good printed. Better so of printed big! Please do try! :)  (go to my flickr account for more images from the same series).

Workflow is terribly simple. Sigma Photo Pro, save as TIFF 16, post process using Aperture or Lightroom. I did use Lightroom 2 only for the BW below.

Here you can see how big the softbox is, and what the setup looks like. I never moved the light (or at least very little).

It’s my pure pleasure to present to you my friend Magnus. He came to one of my photo lessons and for this lesson we rented a smaller studio and he was maybe the best target I could ask for. I used the DP1 most of the time even though I did have the SD14 with me. I’m pretty sure the DP2 will become a very good friend to both me and my DP1 ones it’s out. For your info I used one big softbox and a white backdrop. I tried to have the light straight behind me so I kneeled under it to take these shots. (it also made sense to go down, this guy is 14 years old and not very big). Wanna see this image at full resolution? 

DP1 RAW PACK MAGNUS | four images, 46MB
Use Sigma Photo Pro or Adobe Lightroom to develop these images.

SD14 + DP1, 12-24 and 120-300 used most on these. Sigma Photo Pro for all color pictures and Raw Developer 1.80 used on all Black and white shots. Aperture for post and publishing.  Click more for more! :D Full size images for all.

Another really fun wedding session, this time a bit north or everything in a town called Mariestad – more famous for it’s fine beer. It was a bit tricky as Linn is now working down south as a guide on a castle and she couldn’t be my assistant. I really wanted that – so we improvised and used the best man for the job. Lucky for Jon and Carolina, it worked great! You can actually see him on several shots.

Oh, I also improved my car shooting style thingi – fun stuff! Lucky for me we had the time needed to play.

Cameras used was SD14 and DP1 – I had many lenses with me – more or less all but I ended up using the trusty 12-24 the most as I love the cokin filter border effect so much. Second place I think is 30 or 50mm 1.4 not sure as 50 is so new for me I tend to reach for the 30mm. 120-300 does give me joy when needed. It’s not very easy to find good occations or locations for it but when it’s time then it’s great!

I also noticed a slight magenta cast in some of the “just out of the church” shots – just so you know. :D

When open the whole article more pictures appears as well as some whom has been shown already above. Don’t be frightened about that, it’s perfectly normal.

Another wedding session, and I’m happy to announce that DP1 is a great b camera! :D Linn had hers with her all the time (she assist me) and she took quite a few really nice shots. I used mine as well and I got more keepers from the DP1 (compared to amount of shots taken) than with the SD14. More time to think? I think one or two of Linns are among these too.

My workflow has slightly changed and looks like the following. I make the basic adjustments from SD14 and DP1 RAW in SPP 2.5 Windows. After adjustments are done I import all into a new project in Apple Aperture.

In Aperture I use the new plugin called Viveza to further adjust certain spots – add light to face or simply to enhance black and white images. I also use Aperture to dodge and burn, crop and straighten, add vignetting and my little watermark. I don’t apply vignetting to all but to many shots. So don’t judge lenses because of my images. hehe..

During all this I also add stars to my favorites, this I later use when publishing to the couple and the very best here on my website. I ended up with 44 images in this post and 133 to the couple, I started with about 300 from SPP and around 700 in total from field..

The two above shots are DP1

DP1

There is all in all 44 images in this post. Click each image to view the full size image. Remember that this is copyrighted material.

DP1

DP1

DP1

DP1

Linns shot, 10-20mm

DP1

DP1

DP1

DP1

About a week ago I received the much awaited (at least by me) close up lens made by Sigma. I must say that I was happily surprised about the little leather box that came with the lens! Soooo retro and beautifully crafted! WELL DONE SIGMA! Now, is the lens as good as the box it came in? :D

I’ve read numerous threads over at dpreview on different solutions and I’ve seen magnificent macro shots with all sorts of filters – some good, some not so good. Now, when the Sigma AML-1 was announced I was a bit surprised on the closest distance which is 20cm – not very Macro on a 28mm lens is it?! :D and in order to show you just how close 20cm is and what it feels like – I made this little video. If you watch it on Youtube then you can see it in higher resolution. Embedded is low res.

The lens is very bright – not sure you loose any light. Can’t really see any difference in shutter speeds and the lens says nothing about it. You can’t focus to infinity with it on – but it’s made for closeups so it’s not really a problem. OOF becomes BEAUTIFUL! Especially welcome when you’re making movies. Along with the extremely sharp lens and sensor it becomes almost unreal. Take a look at the shot of Linn, click it and the full version will load. It’s so so detailed. If the DP1 only had MORE resolution when making movies!! :D

The AML-1 as a slight negative distortion in corners – The opposite to the type of distortion we’re used to with normal lenses. But it’s not noticeable in day to day images. The picture below shows the effect, look at the window and you’ll understand what I mean.

Conclusion. I should have had TWO lenses or even three and stacked them, that would probably give very nice macros. Right now you don’t get close enough for that type of photography with only one lens. For movies and portraits such as the ones above it’s a wonderful solution and gives you new views – plus that the extreme OOF is perfect for videos.

Btw, the lens / filter itself is very very well made and NO CA can be found. At least not in any of my photos so far. Contrast and sharpnes are really top notch.

I alternated between three different PS plugins to get the look that I wanted or simply to blow out the white background. The ones used most (for white background) is Viveza, the secondly most used is AlienSkin Exposure and the third used for one or two shots is Nik Color Efex Pro.

All shots are here presented in full resolution. Two shots have been slightly cropped. The rest have been left as is.

Click each for full size view. Enjoy!

Yes, it’s me (above and below).

There is more to come.
Click below for some more from this very session.

This one is saved as “double size” = 18.5MP res. Click to open each picture in full size. (or more)

I went to this very place with my Danish friends recently (SUG meeting) but felt the urge to go back and see if sunset would give some better pictures. To be honest, last time I was mostly shooting video with the DP1 and had no real time to think about stills. :D  Anyways these are two new shots taken with the DP1 handheld and with ND Grad 121P filter. Plus one more at my flickr account.

Filmed with the Dp1 of course. :)