Archive for the 'review' Category

Sigma 50mm F1.4 | First look!

Published at June 24, 2008 in 50mm, 50mm 1.4, Sigma Photo Pro, photography, portrait, review and sd14. 4 Comments

Sigma 50mm f1.4 first shots.
Just received the new Sigma 50mm F1.4 and due to heavy sunshine I couldn’t really in a fair way try it wide open - but even if the above shot is taken at F4 the bokeh is amazingly sweet.

I was thinking it would be bigger. a whopping 500g piece of glass could have been heavier. It’s pretty short and very fat somehow - gives a very cool impression - big opening that tell you I’M BRIGHT.

Sigma 50mm f1.4 first shots.
Alright, another shot at F2.5 and a shutter speed of 1/3200s. A friend holding a reflector to even out the light a bit. The widest I could go was F2 - so here goes another shot at F2.

Sigma 50mm f1.4 first shots.
(This one is not perfectly focused, it’s kind of hard at F2 - hard training lays ahead)

I will try hard the coming days to find other things to photograph and hopefully I’ll be back with some nice pics.

Sigma DP1 AML-1 Lens review - In Video and Pictures!

Published at June 19, 2008 in 16.5mm, 70mm, Movie, Raw Developer, Sigma Photo Pro, dp1, full size, how to, photography, portrait, review and sd14. 8 Comments

Images of AML-1

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

Images of AML-1Images of AML-1

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

Sigma DP1 AML-1 test images

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.

Sigma DP1 AML-1 test images

Sigma DP1 AML-1 test images Sigma DP1 AML-1 test images

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.

Dp1 + polarizer + movie!!!

Published at May 7, 2008 in Movie, dp1, how to, polarizer, portrait and review. 5 Comments


This was FUN! I took a lot of photos this way too, a cool way to frame your subjects but a bit tricky to balance it all. One hand filming and trying to keep sturdy and control the polarizer at the same time. AND walk. I’m not a woman am I.

Filmed with the Dp1 of course. :)

Sigma SUG Sweden ‘08 - clip 1

Published at May 7, 2008 in 120-300, Movie, dp1, photography and review. 7 Comments

Video clip hosted by the Norwegian photographer Yvind giving us important info on the 120-300 and how to use it properly. Inside you’ll find people like Ole, Filip, Oliver and myself. We also try to find another lost soul - the danish dragonfly photographer Fritz. - these are regular posters over at Dpreview and we had a little “get together” here at my place this very weekend. We had really great weather and much to talk about. And of course to shoot. I will post several un-cut videos.

These are all taken with the Sigma Dp1. If you wonder why you can’t see the SD14 display in this clip, that’s because I looked exposure by using AEL (because sunlight was very strong at the moment) and therefore the LCD will not show.

Somehow the movie became squeezed, not sure when or how. hehe

New SPP due soon! First preview.

Published at April 7, 2008 in Sigma Photo Pro, dp1, flash, full size, high iso, how to, portrait, review and studio. 33 Comments

[edit - Sigma today announced the new version for PC and Mac here as well as first DP1 update]

Working with SPP - DP1 all shots Elmia foto video 2008

I’ve been lucky enough to get my hands on a beta of the next SPP 2.x and for those of you being irritated of green corners I can now tell you that green corners are now only a bad memory! :D I could only test the PC version but it ran extremely quick under vm-ware, actually much faster than my Mac version of SPP3.1. I did try some SD14 files and especially reds are now better. But this article will concentrate on DP1 images.

I thought that my photos from Elmia foto video 2008 could be used for this preview and at the same time you can see what I do in SPP and maybe learn something about processing. In every image there is important data inside. Exposure, ISO, White balance as well as processing. All kinds of situations ranging from high iso mixed light to long exposures in tricky situations. And as an extra bonus - studio shots! Continue to read this article.

Continue reading ‘New SPP due soon! First preview.’

DP1 battery test.. part II

Published at March 25, 2008 in RAW, dp1 and review. 8 Comments

I felt for some time that the DP1 have much better battery life than I expected or felt at first - mainly due to the fact that my initial shooting habit changed some with time - my interest in zooming into every single detail in every image has now matured and I can relax more.

dp1 battery test - 880 shots.

I decided to make new test.
I turned off the LCD, turned on full AF and put on the external view finder. In order to take as many shots as possible I also turned on continues mode. Three pictures was taken each time. (95% of the time). ISO100 used on the first 400 - then ISO400 after that. I restarted the camera 30 times in a row to make test more real. I shot some indoor and some out door. It does take some energy to take as many shots as I did. :D In one day.

Result:
RAW files: 250 (2.97GB)
JPEG Full size: 236 (577MB)
JPEG Med size: 172 (108MB)
JPEG Low size: 218 (72MB)
Movies: 3 (total 60MB > 4min)
Sound file: 1
——————————
Total: 880

In short: LCD off - AF on - Continues mode on.
Using LCD on maybe 30-40 shots. MF used on about 20 shots.

Upsize DP1 video, Said and GRD’s.

Published at March 16, 2008 in Link, Movie, dp1, full size and review. 9 Comments

HD video with DP1

480p version. 640×480
720p version. 960×720
Original version. 320×240

What does a 320×240 resolution DP1 video look like when upsized to 480p and 720p? That question has been on some peoples mind and one reader took action and made two versions of the above video. Resized by Dik Hoek with something called “super-resolution”.

“Super-resolution” is a term for a set of methods of increasing image or video resolution. All these methods are based on same idea: using information from several images to create one upsized image. These methods try to extract details from one frames to reconstruct other frames. This approach differs a lot from some sophisticated image upsizing methods which try to synthesize artificial details”. - To get your hands on a 30 day trial version of the software doing this - Click here!

And I can just say, Wow! It really works and it does look awsome! Sure, pixalation etc but it looks very cool indeed and using this you can cut together movies much easier in software such as Adobe premiere and Final cut without coming out with lower resolution video. (useful to take away the hi pitch “cut” sounds) I use the video-part of the DP1 quite often and results are very good. I really love the feeling it gives - something super8 like. :)

What’s next? Said Karlsson’s
Second impressions of the Sigma DP1

He’s another DP1 user that doesn’t come from the world of SD-cameras. He is a professional photographer and journalist - he’s mainly using his Canon 5D but been waiting for something to replace his Ricoh GX100. Said is now an DP1 owner and reading his blog is very interesting as it gives a little different view then the one from me. :) - But maybe best of all, he’s really good with the camera.

Image by Said Karlsson
Photo and copyright: Said Karlsson

And more from the east: Euyoung’s Soliloquy..  

We have a Ricoh GR fan site that have tested the DP1 against the Ricoh’s - it’s in Chinese but interesting. Especially the part where they compare out door, real life images between GRD2 and DP1. Go, check it out.  (The good and bad thing about visiting a Ricoh fan site is that they’re really not trying to hide any flaws. :)

Ricoh GRD2: (copyright Euyoung’s Soliloquy)

Sigma DP1: (Copyright: Euyoung’s Soliloquy)
image belonging to GRD fan site mentioned above.

More to come..

Sigma DP1 first impressions.

Published at March 1, 2008 in 16.5mm, Sigma Photo Pro, dp1, full size and review. 29 Comments

Sigma DP1 @ ISO400
ISO400

It’s been lots of buz lately about the much anticipated Sigma DP1 - the every mans Leica that finally is ready to ship (or very close to) and I, as maybe the most happy guy on earth right now I HAVE ONE! :D And of course I will have to write a little something about it - from an SD14 users point of view.

Sigma DP1 image
ISo200

Build quality is very good, front and back made out of metal and nothing is flimsy. Very sturdy feeling. Should be at almost 300g. Almost too much when it comes to the MSAP wheel. The other wheel is the one for manual focusing and it’s very easy to turn without any clicks - easy to fast manual focus and this feature was one that I was afraid of being bad - is very good and very very useful. I use it 100% of the time. (at least at day one. ;)

Lens is superb. Bokeh is wonderful. F4 works very very well much thanks to the great sharpness wide open. Remember that common lenses such as 10-20 and 12-24 is the same or slower and much bigger! Do I dare say that this little DP1 16.5mm lens is sharper? I think it is. More or less all my shots this first cloudy day has been taken at F4.

DP1 @ ISO400+
ISO500

Speed was another thing that scared me some. In order to make it less painful I bought the fastest SD card I could find, the SD Extreme III from SanDisk and I have no idea if it helps but I have yet to miss a shot because of save times. It’s a bit faster than my SD14 I think but with smaller buffer. About half I guess. There is two ways of taking shots. One in continues mode - about three shots in less than a second (RAW mode) - and a “normal” shot mode that will give you about two-three seconds between shots. - this is no SLR and will not be used as one either.

Flipping thru images, zoom in to see 100% etc is very fast and interestingly enough much faster and better implemented than in my SD14.  Feels instant.

Sigma DP1 at night club
ISO200

The external flash is extremely cool looking. I had it to one of my night club sessions and people wowed it many times. I had to lend my little camera to many people. Never did that with my SD14. :) - one good thing here is that you can turn the focus wheel to 1m and leave it there. It’s pretty easy to learn how far away 1m is and keep it that way. :)

LCD is 230 000 dots and OK. It’s not the brightest in the business but works great. Better than the LCD on my SD14. Colors looks accurate and gives me a good feeling for sharpness etc. It’s also possible to see histogram etc as you would expect. In dark enviroment the “live” flow becomes very grainy - look cool but isn’t very useful to judge sharpness from at those times knowing how far one meter is, is good. :)

Battery life is yet to be known. First impression is that it’s similar to my SD14, maybe a bit less.

Final word from day one - I like it - it’s going to be where I go. :D  and now some images. Experimental ISO3200 and others.

Sigma DP1 @ ISO3200
ISO3200

Sigma DP1 @ ISO3200
ISO3200

Sigma DP1 image
ISO200

Sigma DP1 image
ISO100

Sigma DP1 @ ISO1200
ISO1200

Dpreview thread.
Video example

Going off line for a while…

Published at December 17, 2007 in Adobe Lightroom, Movie, Raw Developer, apple, flash, review and sd14. 9 Comments

I’m taking a small vacation for the internet and computer. Will use it for images and work only but I will try to spend tops two hours a day with it if possible. At least till new year.

Until then you might wanna see this little flash movie that I’ve shown to some of my readers but I decided that maybe everyone could get a little something from it. It’s a “in action” movie showing me working with Lightroom and Raw Developer. A screen cast thing.

Download rd.flv. (you might need a player such as VLC or some flash thingi from adobe)

So if a comment goes unanswered you know why. :) Happy Christmas!

Sigma SD14 vs Kodak 14nx

Published at November 20, 2007 in Link, review and sd14. 13 Comments

I want to show you an interesting comparison between SD14 (4.6MP) and the Kodak 14nx (14MP) which is the only semipro bayern camera that has 14MP and not utilizing a AA-filter (softening filter in front of the sensor).

http://www.whisperingcat.co.uk/scans/sd14vs14nx.htm
Words and scans by David Millier, images shot by and © Erik Muehlberger

Raw PhotoStudio Darkroom 1.59 - High ISO

Published at October 8, 2007 in Movie, flash, review and sd14. 4 Comments

I’m currently playing a lot with the German version of Raw PhotoStudio Darkroom 1.59. I can’t find an English OS X version yet. If you know, please tell. This flash movie shows high images ISO only, 800 to 1600. It’s not made to show the software too much, much because of language and I feel a bit clumsy still. But I must say that I like it, very much. I will make a test between all four developers. (SPP3, Lightroom, RAW Developer and Photostudio Darkroom). But for now:

Raw Developer mini-review flv..

Published at August 11, 2007 in Movie, flash, photography, review and sd14. 7 Comments

[EDIT] Open recommendation: Please convert to DNG in order to make Raw Developer 1.7.0 stable and retrieve maximum information from your X3F’s. [/EDIT] Alright, it’s time again for yet another movie. Should play in correct size too! I’m trying to find WHAT it is that makes Raw Developer a nice complement to Lightroom and SPP. (I know I need to keep them all). The built in advanced sharpening does help together with true color rendition (I do not know this for sure, but my eyes tells me ;)

RAW developer 1.7.0 - In action movie.

Published at August 8, 2007 in Movie, flash, review and sd14. 12 Comments

New movie: I made a new movie - would give you a better look at the program and probably my voice is there during the whole show. Does it work? (Grrr - it’s made for 500×374 but comes out different) - Day three with Raw Developer: I feel that colors become more true and the whole image more 3D. It takes some picking but when you’re done it feels great!

Continue reading ‘RAW developer 1.7.0 - In action movie.’

Till Kamera & Bild om SD14 testet. (open letter in swedish)

Published at August 3, 2007 in review and swedish. 11 Comments

Sigma ser världen lite skarpare - Svar på artiklar i tidningarna Kamera & bild samt Digitalfoto för alla

[edit: texten är ändrad 8 april 2008, om Sigma och motljus] Jag hade olusten att häromdagen läsa testet av SD14 i tidningen Kamera & Bild, en artikel skriven av chefsredaktören Magnus Frödenberg. Jag känner mig tvungen att gå i svaromål för Sigmas räkning, då vi som är ägare av kameran är så få. Artikeln känns helt enkelt inte rättvis. Continue reading ‘Till Kamera & Bild om SD14 testet. (open letter in swedish)’

Test: Sigma 10-20 vs Sigma 12-24 (updated)

Published at July 25, 2007 in 10-20, 12-24, full size, photography, review and sd14. 18 Comments

12-24vs10-20

Yesterday Linn decided that we should go out and pick some food in the forest (mushroom food). So I decided that that was boring and that I could take some photos instead of the picking part.
Continue reading ‘Test: Sigma 10-20 vs Sigma 12-24 (updated)’

[link] Interesting take on SD14 resizing.

Published at July 10, 2007 in Link, review and sd14. 15 Comments

Pawel Miszewski wrote an article over at Dpreview.com about resizing SD14 images. He currently used my public RAW files and so should you! :D But if you don’t have the time or energy to do so, read this and look at the result.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1027&message=23941482

[link] Interesting review of SD14 vs 5D

Published at July 9, 2007 in review and sd14. 0 Comments

Mike Chaney is the author of Qimage and Profile Prism. He’s also a long time Canon 5D owner and in March he also became a Sigma SD14 owner. Owning both a 12.4MP bayern camera and a 4.6 three layer camera he has been able to do some in-depth comparison tests. And here is now his final take, the whole review is there as well. A bit technical but still very very interesting.

http://www.ddisoftware.com/sd14-5d/#finaltake

Final thoughs on the Sigma that I agree with:

Pros:

  • Unrivaled sharpness/detail at the pixel level
  • Less surprises caused by inconsistent resolving power for different colors
  • Very accurate color IF you take the time to get a good WB
  • Very low noise under most shooting conditions
  • Final photos are smaller in size (easier to work with/transfer) yet contain more real data than cameras boasting 2x the final resolution

Cons:

  • Slow buffering may impede quick shooters
  • AF a little pickier than most: takes more practice to get good focus on the first try
  • Battery life not phenomenal [Carl: about 3-400 shots]
  • Auto WB sometimes way off, although easily fixed if shooting raw
  • Certain colors have a slight hue shift, particularly red and purple: hopefully SPP software can improve this in the future [Carl: This is not the case for Adobe Lightroom 1.1 users]

[mov] Studio movie! SD14 & 5D

Published at April 20, 2007 in Movie, photography, review, sd14 and studio. 7 Comments

click to play!
Length: 9min 23sec
File: sd14_5d_studio.mov
Watch locally. Watch youtube.
Starring: Alroe, Linn, Carl, SD14 & 5D
About: One day in the studio.

See some of the pictures inside this movie.

[img] SD14 in the Studio together with 5D..

Published at April 15, 2007 in 30mm, 50mm, 70-200, full size, photography, portrait, review, sd14 and studio. 25 Comments

[EDIT] Movie is up!

[Edit 2008 | 1 | 23 - Now I look at these shots and I can clearly see that with todays software (both SPP 2.3 and RD 1.72) I could make better developments. So if you happen to download these are RAW - don’t be surprised if they look better! :D /Edit]

I went to Denmark yesterday invited by the Danish photographer Alroe to record my third “review” of the SD14. This time in his studio. It will take a couple of days to finish the movie but until then I want you to see some of the resulting images that came out and in full size and possibly soon as downloadable RAW files. (depends if you’re able to use a decent raw converter. ;)

This is what the Setup looks like at Bo's studio. You will see more when we show the video.

I must say that I’m very happy and very satisfied with the result of our shoot. mr Alroe is using a Canon 5D with L lenses and that made this shoot a little more interesting. Now, we don’t want you to kill your eyes with pixel peeping so we didn’t take “exactly” the same shots, maybe next time. I’ve heard that Sigma SD14 images are too sharp and might hurt your eyes.

Last in this article you can read some more about my inital 5D feelings. I was using the latest firmware 1.01 for my SD14 and it’s a GREAT update. Colors of the LCD is now very nice and speed is also improved. It’s overall a better feeling doing photography with it. Many of these studio shots are shot at ISO200 BY MISTAKE! But, Bo also did on his 5D so for the sake of review it’s a good thing. But I’m sure result would be even more impressive using ISO100. Now over to some of my images.

One more thing. Lenses used was 30mm, 28mm, 70-200 and 50mm Sigma EX lenses. My ABSOLUTE favorite in the studio was the 28mm, it just nailed focus all the time and it’s very “correct”.

Added some slight underwater tone to make it look cooler. Continue reading ‘[img] SD14 in the Studio together with 5D..’

[mov] SD14 movie review! :D 4:42

Published at March 18, 2007 in Movie, photography, review and sd14. 14 Comments

enter the review
Oh, and the mic looks cool on image but we forgot to turn it on. We’re so so professional. HAHA