Monthly Archives: September 2010

Sigma SD1

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Sigma just announced their new flagship DSLR the Sigma SD1. They have a microsite showing the history of the company and foveon as it relates to Sigma DSLRs.

46 megapixel 24×16mm APS-C X3 Full-colour image sensor
The 46 megapixel (4,800×3,200×3 layers) 24×16mm APS-C X3 direct image sensor featured in the Sigma SD1 captures all primary RGB colours at each and every pixel location, ensuring the capture of full and complete colour. Using three silicon-embedded layers of photo detectors, stacked vertically to take advantage of silicon’s ability to absorb red, green and blue light at different respective depths, it efficiently reproduces colour more accurately, and offers sharper resolution, pixel for pixel, than any conventional image sensor. Since colour moiré is not generated, the use of a low-pass filter is not required, meaning light and colour, generated by the 46 megapixel APS-C X3 direct image sensor, is captured with a three-dimensional feel.

I have said this before and I’ll say it again… the foveon sensor has amazing dynamic range. That used in conjunction with their proprietary raw processing software (included free with their cameras) gives you access to a unique slider unlike any other raw processing app which acts like a tonemapper on the raw data.  This makes the SD14 an amazing tool even today in 2010 (I shoot with both a Nikon D3 and Sigma SD14).  I can’t wait to see the images off the Sigma SD1.

Specs aren’t out yet, but if they at least match the AEB capabilities of the SD15 which shoots 5aeb, I’ll be thrilled.

Nikon D7000

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Nikon D7000 = Two steps forward, one giant step back (for HDR)

The Nikon D7000 is limited to 3aeb.  BUT! Nikon in their infinite lack of wisdom has decided to further cripple HDR shooters by making that 3aeb limited to maximum steps of only 1EV between frames  (see update *****). Hence “one giant step back”.

***** 36 hours after the D7000 announcment, Nikon updated their website and marketing PDF to reflect a mistake on their part.  The mistake was forgetting to show that the max EV step for the D7000 was 2EV not 1EV as they had previously reported.  The below still applies to attempt to get in three bursts what you can get natively in a D300/D3/D700.

So why did I say “Two steps forward”?  Because the main dial on the top of the camera has dedicated U1 and U2 settings for custom settings.  One could set their U1 dial to have exposure compensation set to -3 and the U2 dial set with exposure compensation set to +3.  That way with three 6fps bursts and two spins of the dial you can end up with a 9 frame bracket from -4 to +4 equal to the bracket you get natively with a D300/D3/D700. Slightly out of order and messy to deal with in LightRoom, Bridge, etc., but at least covers the scene.

One should be able to initially set up a 3aeb with 1EV steps and fire off a bracket at 6fps to capture the frames at -1, 0, +1, then turn to U1 on the dial (previously set for -3 exposure compensation) to capture -4, -3, -2 and then turn the dial to U2 (previously set for +3 exposure compensation) to capture 2, 3, 4 to complete a series from -4 to +4 with 1EV steps.

Simple?  Clean?  No, but at least its an option (based on how I am reading Nikon USA website and camera settings).

1-3-2011 Note:
New Post on Nikon D7000 HDR here…
http://hdriblog.com/nikon-d7000-hdr/

Pentax K-r

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Pentax just slipped a DSLR in between their K-7 and K-x models.

Introducting the Pentax K-r

NOTEWORTHY MENTIONS

  • 6fps for continuous shooting. Very nice for quick HDR captures.
  • New Night Scene HDR Mode
  • Improved HDR Mode (adds auto alignment in camera and better blending modes)
  • Same 921,000 resolution and 3 inch LCD like the K-7
  • 1/6000 shutter speed
  • 100-25,600 ISO

PENTAX USA K-r Product Page

———————————————-

PENTAX IMAGING USA K-r YouTube VIDEO

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaD3E2FtkJo[/youtube]

Also, I still have my Pentax K-x, but don’t use it often enough.  It’s a fun little camera and great image quality.  The K-r looks like it inherited most of the goodies of the K-x and even better goodies of the K-7.   My K-x reviews are:

HERE: http://hdriblog.com/pentax-k-x-review/

and

HERE: http://hdriblog.com/pentax-k-x-initial-test/

HDR and Hard Drives

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If you just started bracketing for HDR, you’ve no doubt you are starting to think more about storage and hard drives.  Here’s something that just happened and I’ll share it in case you didn’t know yourself and hopefully save you the pain I just went through.  It’s logical, but I missed the logic myself.

Don’t buy 2 or more identical hard drives (exact same model) from the same company at the same time.  If the company received a batch of bad drives from the manufacturer, then you’ll be buying into that bad batch (this just happened to me). So either buy a variety of drives at once from one wholesaler or buy the same drive from multiple sites.

Lesson learned the hard way for me.  I lost my main OS drive a couple weeks ago.  I quickly ordered two highly rated hard drives from Newegg.com and had them rushed out to me.  I used one as new OS drive and one as new data drive (internal).  Both failed in the first week of use.  Lesson learned.  I should have bought two different drives at once as a bare minimum.

I have been told that most drives will either fail in the first 100 hours or after several years. I had heard various take offs of the early failures, but this is the first time it ever happened to me personally.  Never a new drive, its always been after I beat the heck out of one for years.

Good news is that when I tweeted this mishap, I found out about Macsales.com from a few folks who took the time to email me.  Because I’m both PC and Mac based I had always used Newegg for purchasing computer parts, but I’ll now try OWC out as well.

THE REAL RAW

I’ve ripped through close to 40 hard drives in about 5 years.  All but six drives are still alive and working.  They are mostly retired to USB external enclosure kits I’d put together and house them in for data retrieval once I’ve nearly filled them up as internal drives in either my MacPro or PCs. In the land of HDR, you’ll rip through hard drives.

For me personally, the true raw file is the merged .HDR/.EXR/.PSD(32bit) file.  This may shock some of you, but for all my architectural shoots I destroy the raws about a month after the shoot is delivered.  I usually do the following…

Merge all brackets and save as a 32 bit file.  I lean towards .EXR, but if I did the merging in Photoshop I’ll first save a 32 bit .PSD file and then save as to a .EXR file.  I do all my tonemapping and editing and about a month after the finals are delivered, I delete the RAWs from that shoot and keep only the finals the client got and the .HDR/.EXR/.PSD(32bit).  Those 32 bit files are my “real raws” which I can go back and reprocess again and again.

Sometimes I’ll keep a middle exposure RAW just as a reference file, but not always.  When shooting interiors even the middle exposure is not very worth while as a single raw because you’ll still have deep shadows and blown out highlights in that same file no matter how much you edit it in LightRoom or Aperture.