New DP2Ms for $699 Amazon!!! FYI

[Chrisrw]

Yeah, I was put off from them for the price and how "sluggish" their whole process is, but the images captured by them! Wow! I couldn't resist trying one for myself. I may replace my GRDIV with the GR as prices drop. It's nice to have at least one simple, fast street shooter on hand.

 

[dfatty]

hey, chrisrw, how do you like it? 😀 people are starting to think you took a pic on friday and passed out while waiting for the red light on the back to stop blinking 😛

 

[Chrisrw]

Ha Dean,

I was just gonna take it out to play. I got it Friday and haven't had a real chance to set it up and shoot. Too bad because it was absolutely gorgeous in Seattle this afternoon when I got off work. I was kicking myself waliking around Greenlake with the gorgeous sunset and no DP2M :-( I did finish off a roll of HP5 with my new CV 75/2.5 Heliar though.

 

[pjmacd]

oh, and to the new merrill owners - you're probably read this somewhere, but in case you haven't, you can use the merrills for high iso black and white if you edit in sigma software and only use the blue channel in the color wheel. (basically, the lower red and green layers of the sensor are what introduce the high iso noise, so if you don't use those layers you have very good high iso capability). i've been happy even up to iso3200 in b&w, while others are happier at 1600. to me it makes the camera much more usable and less specialized.

Dean, can you elaborate on this a little further or point me to website that explains it? I have a DP2M and hadn't heard about this trick.

Thanks,
Peter

 

[GaryLH]

Here is a general FYI for first time foveon users..

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134149

Specifically here is the thread about high iso b&w

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=133467

Gary

 

[dfatty]

Dean, can you elaborate on this a little further or point me to website that explains it? I have a DP2M and hadn't heard about this trick.

Thanks,
Peter

Hi Peter - I think Gary has it covered (thanks, Gary!). Within the links Gary posted is this description about the foveon sensor:

"The layers of pixels are embedded in silicon to take advantage of the fact that red, green, and blue light penetrate silicon to different depths – forming the first and only image sensor that captures full color at every point in the captured image."

http://www.foveon.com/article.php?a=67

My understanding is that because of this architecture, the lower red and green layers receive less light and therefore have to amplify their signals (which represent the light sensed) more than the upper blue layer, which leads to the noise at high ISO. So by selecting only the blue channel data using the color wheel in SPP, you get rid of all the noise from the other 2 layers, which is generally a whole lot of noise. It's not problem free (e.g., banding is sometimes an issue), but it definitely helps a lot.

 

[dfatty]

Ha Dean,

I was just gonna take it out to play. I got it Friday and haven't had a real chance to set it up and shoot. Too bad because it was absolutely gorgeous in Seattle this afternoon when I got off work. I was kicking myself waliking around Greenlake with the gorgeous sunset and no DP2M :-( I did finish off a roll of HP5 with my new CV 75/2.5 Heliar though.

Wait til you get a load of the red blinking light, lol. You sound like more of a dedicated film shooter than I am, so you'll probably like the wait 😀 Just kidding, hope it went well!

 

[Chrisrw]

Yeah, I go back and forth with film and digital, so the blinking red light will at least let me know that's something's happening 🙂

And to everyone, thanks for all the tips and links to more tips about the Foveon experience! I am looking forward to producing some great images with it.

 

[GaryLH]

Yeah, I go back and forth with film and digital, so the blinking red light will at least let me know that's something's happening 🙂

And to everyone, thanks for all the tips and links to more tips about the Foveon experience! I am looking forward to producing some great images with it.

Even w/ the blinking red light, u can still take pictures until your cache is full. 7 shots max (jpg+raw)..

Just cannot preview or make any menu changes until cache has been flushed.

Gary

 

[Chrisrw]

Discovered that this afternoon Gary, thank you.
Also, do you typically shoot jpg + raw?
And what setting is suggested for B&W? Is it better to shoot ooc b&w or color mode and convert in pp?

 

[GaryLH]

I use jpgs only to preview and cull.. Then I batch process thru spp the keepers to get tiff16 files. Sigma jpgs maybe the worst jpgs I have ever seen when u compare them to the raw/tiff output. There is that much difference because they need to compress so much data. A tiff16 file can be around 80mb vs a typical Jpg at around 6-8mb. That is a lot of compression that is happening under the covers..

Gary