Sigma SD Quattro-H interchangeable lens, APS-H sensor

lynnb

lynnb

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Not quite full frame, but 1.3x APS-H crop is not far short. With adapters this could be quite an interesting alternative to Sony's offerings.

Lots of articles on the web, here's dpreview and Sigma.
 
I have three SA mount lenses that are pretty excited about this camera. :D
 
Yep...

Dang.. I was gonna ignore the sd1q and wait to c what else they would do only last week.. Sigma threw a monkey wrench into that one by announcing the sd1 in APS-h format :p. THEN added an evf :D --> Now I got to save up as I wait to hear the price and the initial reviews.

They also announced the mc-11 e mount to SA mount adapter as well today. So sigma gonna get a bit of my savings to say the least.

Gary
 
Quite an ugly camera. However as said, I would like to test it against my Nex-7. I am happy with EVF of Nex-7 and camera's performance but I used to have Sigma DP1 in the past and I liked the resemblance of B/W images from favoen sensor to film.
 
Don't know about it. It ticks a lot of exciting boxes but on the other hand just as many disappointing ones. I have a DP1m and DP2m and love the output from them. But was waiting for an ILC. Right now I'm not so sure anymore. Such a lot of contradictions in a single product is really frustrating.

Just to clarify: foveon is great when used in 1:1:1 and not above 400 iso. Now the 400 iso I can live with as with medium format slide film I have hardly any at that speed left. That the camera is slow is also not a big issue.

But the combination of foveon, SA mount and aps-h makes little sense. The sensor is great for landscape but in SA mount there are hardly any primes below 24mm. On a aps-h that gives 32mm, that isn't that wide. (I'd consider that a normal lens) If it had been FF then 24mm would have been limit for a wide angle.

Likewise foveon is great for architecture. But there are no tilt-shift lenses in SA mount. Neither are there any stabilised primes (nor hq zooms) while the foveon could use that help in low-light situations. So the only way out right now are adapters. But there isn't that much to adapt except old manual lenses.

With the choice of aps-h you also need to go to the ff lenses as the SA mount aps-c ones don't cover aps-h well.

And then the aps-h hasn't 1:1:1 raw support. I suspect they can do that through a firmware update.

Going with an evf is understandable but at the same time a problem. Foveon sucks battery like nothing else. The DP's get noticeably hot when you let them on a few minutes. And this doesn't help noise either. Add to that a evf that consumes battery as well isn't going to help getting more shots out of a battery.

So a possible great camera but hardly any lenses that would really do it justice. And that with a camera made by what is primary a lens making company.
 
lynnb said:
Not quite full frame, but 1.3x APS-H crop is not far short. With adapters this could be quite an interesting alternative to Sony's offerings.
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I first saw the news about APS-H and thought this is very interesting. Then I saw the news about the use of SA lens mount. Eh.
 
Spanik said:
So a possible great camera but hardly any lenses that would really do it justice. And that with a camera made by what is primary a lens making company.
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While Sigma started out life producing crappy low cost lenses (I know, in got one in Nikon mount from early 80s), they've come a long way.. Their new art series rivals some of the best stuff out there IMHO. Don't get me wrong, it still gets beat but not by much and in real world shooting it's good enough for me. Lensrental.com has done some interesting test during their time evaluating sample variations...its shows performance that are rather good given the cost difference between it and something like a Zeiss.

Gary
 
Lss said:
I first saw the news about APS-H and thought this is very interesting. Then I saw the news about the use of SA lens mount. Eh.
Click to expand...

As much as I wish they had done a redesigned mount for mirrorless or use some existing one and create an adapter like their new emount to sa mount mc-11, u can't blame them for deciding to stick w/ their own sa mount that they have had since the start of the sd line.

Gary
 
GaryLH said:
While Sigma started out life producing crappy low cost lenses (I know, in got one in Nikon mount from early 80s), they've come a long way.. Their new art series rivals some of the best stuff out there IMHO. Don't get me wrong, it still gets beat but not by much and in real world shooting it's good enough for me. Lensrental.com has done some interesting test during their time evaluating sample variations...its shows performance that are rather good given the cost difference between it and something like a Zeiss.

Gary
Click to expand...

Sure, but in the art series there isn't a single stabilised one and the widest ff is a 20mm. So nothing wider than 27mm eq. Some like the 18-35 would be nice, but that one doesn't cover aps-h. So if you want something wide then you have to use the older 12-24 which isn't up to a foveon. They would need something like the 14mm in the DP0q. But at the prices of the art series you are probably at the same price as a set of DPq cameras.

I do get the reason for the register distance, it uses phase detection as well, so probably there is a mirror and phase af module sitting there.

But then they could just as well put an EOS mount on it. At least you could get a couple of wides and teles outside of the Sigma range. They already use the dataprotocol and the distance is also similar. And it wouldn't matter if they sold their own lenses in eos or sa mount.
 
Point..

In terms of the 18-35 or for that matter any of the branded apsc sigma lenses... We'll only know for sure about how much vignetting if any and which lenses if and when sigma publishes a compatibility list..

I think the other consideration is the future lenses that will now be coming to support APS-h.

Gary
 
From reading comments on another forum, particularly by those who have owned the previous SD foveon sensor cameras, the opinion is that they don't play nicely at all with non-SA Sigma lenses. Adapted SLR lenses result in noticeable and difficult to correct color shifts, I guess like the problems Leica digital M cameras have with some older symmetrical lens designs.

So if this is your intent, to get a Quattro-H and adapt lenses to it, I'd definitely do some research and maybe wait and see how things go for the early adopters.
 
Hi!

Some of us would say "at last!"

But is always rather ambigous....

The cameras has a wrong mount and a wrong grip.

They must cut a few mm´s in order to attach the correct glass to it.
 
rscheffler said:
From reading comments on another forum, particularly by those who have owned the previous SD foveon sensor cameras, the opinion is that they don't play nicely at all with non-SA Sigma lenses.
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+1. my problem with SD body and adapted Takumar lens was cameras exposure measurement, which often seemed like random. stopped trying soon after getting so many unusable shots. using same lens on Canon had more expectable behaviour, although even then it wasn't as reliable as native EF-lens would have.
 
Spanik said:
The sensor is great for landscape but in SA mount there are hardly any primes below 24mm.
Click to expand...

This certainly can limit those nature photographers who depend on wides. This could be starter for a poll "your most used FL for nature shots". I bet many would tick values over 100mm.
 
btgc said:
This certainly can limit those nature photographers who depend on wides. This could be starter for a poll "your most used FL for nature shots". I bet many would tick values over 100mm.
Click to expand...

21 for both pano crop and deep forest
24, 35 and 50 for general
70-200 for isolation

The range from most of my shots fall between 50 to 200. Other than 24 is not that much outside of that except for pano crop.

Gary
 
I really like the 1:3 crop version ... I can see that replacing my SD1M. I have the 18-35 zoom (ART) which would become a 24-47 f1.8. Nothing much you cant do there and it's a superb lens optically.
 
The 18-35 never really excited me on apsc..but the fov on APS-h has me interested combined w/ the 50-100 puts it in the sweet spot on my photographic needs. The only question is the image circle of the apsc offering good enough to handle to slightly large sensor. Keeping my finders crossed.

Gary
 
So .... any guesses at the price? I remember when they dropped the SD1 on the market at some crazy figure ... we all thought they'd lost their marbles. I note now that a brand new SD1M can be bought here in Oz for $1200.00. In other words absolutely no point in attempting to sell mine. :p
 
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