The lastest DSLR camera from Sigma, the SD15 with a Foveon sensor. The Sigma SD15 is the successor to the Sigma SD14. Both are characterized by their use of a Foveon sensor.
Unlike the sensors in most DSLRs, which use separate pixels to detect red, green and blue light, in a Foveon type sensor each pixel generates a red, green and blue signal. Read More »
I'm sure my recent columns have had something of the flavor of a zealous conversion.
It's been a much more gradual thing than that, really. I think what accounts for my
enthusiasm is just that I experienced a good week of shooting. I hadn't had a good week in
a while, and it was nice to get a rich lode of good shots in a short amount of time again.
When I'm not doing well with my shooting, it always feels like I have no idea where the
heck the next good pictures will be coming from, or even if they'll be coming.
It's always a pleasure to have a good stretch.
My friend Oren Grad alerted me to a rumor about JOBO USA. If
it's true, it's too bad. My friend Sam Proud worked for JOBO USA for years, and the head
guy, Ricke Stauffer, ran a tight ship — a very ethical and
service-oriented guy. [editorial note: JOBO sell home darkroom equipment]
But really, if there's a canary in the coal mine, color RA-4 print processors had to be
it.
Consider this message I got from another friend in the same batch as Oren's:
This weekend I am going to be photographing much of my analog camera gear in
preparation for sale. Most of the Leica M glass will go including the Bokeh King 35/2
Summicron IV, the 28/35/50 Tri-Elmar-M, and the Summicron 50/2. I have not yet decided
whether to sell all of my Olympus OM gear. 'Tis a sad day, but I must face reality. I am a
digital man.
I almost hate to say it, so fond am I of the old ways, but the K-M 7D has tipped me
over into being a digital man. The practical advantages of anti-shake and high-ISO for
shooting are just too great. Consider the following picture: that's just one
not-very-bright light bulb lighting the scene, and the camera was hand-held, and the lens
(a mere ƒ/2.8 zoom, for heaven's sake) wasn't even wide open. I know what I can and
can't get with a 35mm film camera. I just could not have gotten this shot to look this
good with 35mm.
Lest you say I could have gotten the same or better picture with a tripod, you have to
consider how the shot was made. It's a true candid. It was taken in the space of a few
seconds, literally in passing, as I walked into the cabin. The three people in the picture
weren't aware of my presence (or, if they were, they were so used to me snapping about
that they ignored me). It's true that if you start out with the idea of a picture
like this one, and you set it up and pose the subjects, and take the time to put the
camera on a tripod and all, you'd get a technically decent shot with film, or a digicam,
or using a DSLR without anti-shake. But what you'd end up with would be a different
picture. The accidental details matter to me; I'm not about creating little pictorial
simulacra, I'm into recording the way things actually look. I don't start out with ideas
of what I want to end up with; I want to shoot found scenes and then see what works as a
picture.
And here's another one. I'm not the most talented apple in the basket, and I'm not the
most technically adroit guy around, either. But I've been a photographer for a lot of
years now. I photograph my own way and have gotten some good examples of the type of
picture I like to look at. And at some point, the whole point of technique just comes down
to what works best. The bottom line is, I just don't think that I would have gotten either
of these pictures, looking this good, with any other kind of camera. The good news is not
digital, necessarily, or the Konica-Minolta 7D of which I am lately so enamored, or
high-ISO DSLRs in general — the good news is getting shots we
like. That's pretty much the whole ball of wax, right there.
