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I have not left the planet. ;) But my SD15 is currently in the hands of a friend and the SD1 just arrived back from Bengt Werner who wanted to try it out.. Now, seeing that the new Firmware is out (1.03) I upgraded and went out a couple of times this week, these shots are all from yesterday and they’re all low ISO (max 200) but I did take a few ISO800 a couple of days ago that looked stunning. It feels like the SD1 has grown a lot since the first firmware and it’s now more quick in respons and I also feel that exposures ends up much more controlled than before. A lot better. The sunny shot below was well balanced but the strong evening sun was problematic for ISO100, but to my big surprised it wasn’t a ruined shot as it would have been in the past but it was all nice looking in SPP 5.1. See screen of what it looked like before processing! 

Btw, the PhotoScala wooden shell for the SD1 isn’t my cup of tea. Perhaps if they made something that fits truly tight and made out of beautiful leather. :D That would be super awesome.

Another note, these shots are all hand held using the super great 120-300 OS and luminance is turned to the lowest setting in SPP so that no detail would be left out. Some has been slightly sharpened after and some has not. I’m not sure how the new SPP 5.1 does sharpening so I feel a bit unsure about it yet.

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Ah, I’m so late. :D I’m back in Sweden and I’ve been busy at work since hour one. But, thanks to some of you I also noticed a welcome note about the release of a new firmware which I now know makes my SD1 a bit less useful as it’s more responsive during write – and a new SPP5 that has much improved colors on saved files (profiles included). I did notice however that it’s not a 100% fix for Mac users.

Person wrote:
NEW FIRMWARE AND NEW SPP are here!!!!
The SD1 color problems have FINALLY been fixed.
You can even work in Pro Photo and save as Pro Photo with no issues. The whole thing looks and works like a normal camera now!

Rodzyn wrote:
New soft SD1 :

http://www.sigma-sd.com/SD1/firmware.html

new wersion SPP5:

http://www.sigma-sd.com/SD1/jp/photopro.html

So, as I’m too busy for the moment I can’t fully test everything but I do have a shot from yesterday using the new SD1 firmware and the new SPP. 12-24 used.

For those that follow my blog also knows that I sometimes use my little sisters music – and her song Autumn depression was a theme song on one of my videos (can’t reach youtube from China so I can’t find it nor link to it) but I just noticed when playing it to my parents in law that Kerstin updated the song and it’s now super great! :D

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To the song I give you my first Pixelmator edited photo, it’s tough to work in a new software and it was frustrating but I think result is OK. It doesn’t have any advanced sharpening – and RawTherapee that I relied on so much lately doesn’t work in OS X Lion – So I’m stuck with what I got. Not much. :)

Hopefully Pixelmator 2.0 will have everything that I lack right now, but then it’s too late as I’ll be back home to my safe PS. :D

If anyone has any other suggestions for great sharpening softwares outside PS and on a Mac – and free or not very expensive then feel free to shout!

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Another shot from my trip up north and this time it’s a Yak bull (At least I think so).. :) It’s a shot taken at ISO200 – You may want to open the shot in PS in order to fully see what I see, it’s still the strange profile bug making my shots look weird online. :(

Now, maybe you would like to know what the shot looks like in it’s none edited state?

I started with the last shot (almost) and saved at 16bit tiff, and worked with the dodge brush in Aperture to get where I wanted. I’m getting better with Aperture with everyday that passes. It’s good to be forced sometimes. :) I’m even thinking of installing Pixelmator and work with that instead of Photoshop.. At least while in China. :)

 Original from the window of my car..

For the last four days I’ve been on vacation on my vacation to the north of Yunnan province, to a place named Shangeri-la.. I used ISO200 in order to get the entire scene without having to bracket (take three or more shots with different exposures). So in order to get sky and foreground in one shot I used x3 fill light which works remarkably well with SD1 images, very different from my past experience.

Now, the colorbug within SPP5 isn’t yet fixed and I have to fight the magenta touch in Aperture and I feel/fear that I loose density because of this fight. Anyways. Don’t forget to click the boy shot and the water shot as they’re both incredibly detailed.

Some additional info can be found in my Dpreview Sigma forum thread.

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 Original Driving at Tiger Leaping Gorge

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And last a shot from when I passed a waterfall just beside the road, Linn opened the window to touch the water. :P

There will be more!

Couldn’t resist.. And she even exaggerate the magenta effect quite a bit.. :)

A bit later I saw her again, now her dad had collected some more of what he was collecting.. I tried to make her smile, but she wouldn’t. :(

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I love ev-bikes! I had one many years ago when I lived in Kunming and the other day we tried a few to see if perhaps it would be time to get another one.. They’re really awesome!! This one can do about 45km before running out of juice and cost around 2000rmb (€200) – And it’s foldable and battery is easily removable. Cool stuff!!

Good that I have Linn, she makes my photos look so much better! :D

These are some older shots from some weeks ago, still SD1 of course. Now looking at them thinking that maybe a bit too magenta. Oh well. :)

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None of these are taken in HI mode, but in mixed MED and LOW mode.

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I will not post much until next release of SPP5 is out. It’s just an amazing amount of work to get anything right and out without looking too off from your original idea. But please enjoy this small selection.

All images taken using the Sigma SD1 + 18-50 2.8 macro.

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User Usee has showed me how great those “-2.0″ shots can look when proper sharpening has been applied using Silkypix Pro 5. He writes over at dpreview’s image gallery;

This is my post processed version from Carl Rytterfalks SD1 .X3F SDIM1547. Be aware that this version isn’t for commercial use and exclusively made for Carl Rytterfalk, due to his asking in this thread: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1027&message=38842496 …for showing the possibilities the SD1 offers, if it is used in conjunction with Silkypix Pro 5. The hint to the source (link above and Silkypix Pro 5 as post processing software) has to be made, if this version is shown. Thank You for being decent!

Sigma, please rethink how sharpening is done in Sigma Photo Pro 5. Why not have the Silkypix people make the future SPP but using some of your processing? Silkypix Pro with only Sigma support and let the user pay extra to get the extended version? :) Just saying..

Edit: I now use the free open source based software RawTherapee and even if it’s far from perfect it has great sharpening abilities. Here’s a dog shot from a couple of days ago..

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Colors did not come out as I liked them.. They look different in SPP5 and RawTherapee AND then in Aperture as well.. :) Something isn’t right here. But still. Detail is nice.

Salty tears by Kerstin Karlsson

I’m a bit sad (therefore sharing my little sisters latest song) to note that even if I save as Tiff and Apple RGB from SPP5, and later do my post production thingi on my Macbooks iPhoto, iPhoto don’t convert to sRGB, instead my published stuff remains in the AppleRGB color space. (I think).

But I will share a few shots from yesterday. All with the 8-16mm lens which isn’t perfectly suitable for the SD1. (at least not the one I have). I’m waiting for the new 12-24 which I hope will be a real sharpness killer!

As you know I’m on a laptop and I developed these in different light etc so just enjoy, don’t pick too much on the development. I used iPhoto as my post production software and iPhoto saves JPEGS either as super compressed or not compressed – the not compressed option creates JPEG’s of 15MB-21MB each so it’s really a no no.. So, jpeg artifacts can be seen quite easily. So beware! :)

Some shots from Kunming:

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Linn’s grandmother recently past away. Some shots from her grave and home.

My Chinese family, with mom and dad (in China, the custom says that when married, they become my parents as well.. So saying mom and dad to them feels awkward but nice. :)

70-200 in action! I’m not often keen on using it as it’s a bit heavy. But it’s really a nice lens! It’s the old version btw, without Macro.

Have to go, all at full size over at flickr. Please go there for more images and more info. I’m off now to the old parts of Dali.

Written over Dpreview about sharpness, profiles and such..
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1027&message=38817075

Make sure you read this one (or see). A comparison made between SPP5′s sharpening output and Silkypix pro 5′s output. Silkypix looks like a winner! Actually looks quite remarkable. Thanks Uli for the comparison, the picture he used can be found in my SD1 Raw pack nr 2.
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1027&message=38826090

Brian? Please bring Raw Developer to the table soon! :)

SD1 Raw pack 3, 250MB in size. Click here to download.

18-50 2.8 Macro. All hand held click and run exposures.. :)

You need Sigma Photo Pro 5 in order to load the above pack. get it here.

Again, Please try sharpness at it’s lowest possible setting – this time lower the exposure slider to somewhere around -0.9, add a little highlight, a little saturation (+0.2) and have X3 fill light at +0.2 as well..

Good luck! Please post your best results as a bit smaller in the comment section. True with all my RAW Packs.

SD1 Raw pack 2, 250MB in size. Click here to download.
18-50 2.8 Macro used and in most cases long exposures at night.

You need Sigma Photo Pro 5 in order to load the above pack. get it here.

Please try sharpness at it’s lowest possible setting – if you feel you need extra sharpening, please use PS or LR or whatever software you like. Especially try the daylight bridge shot SDIM1547.x3f and have a look at some truly amazing detail..