The long awaited Sigma SD15 is finally announced. Again.

Here is the brochure with camera specs and a brief history of the Foveon sensor: http://www.sigma-imaging-uk.com/pdfs/SD15%20Brochure.pdf

On paper it looks like a decent upgrade, most of the critical flaws of SD14 fixed, or at least there is some improvement. The camera buffer was increased to 21 RAW files, maximum ISO to 3200 (which probably means usable ISO 800), thew new LCD is 3" and 460K dots (just like my favourite Canon G10!). SD15 shares the same TRUE II image processing engine with DP2 which means better white balance. Everything else is about the same: it still has 4.6 megapixel sensor that is equivalent... not to 14, of course, but about 10 megapixel* of traditional Bayer sensor.

Nothing really exciting and tempting, which is GOOD news. I am not planning to buy any photo gear in the foreseeable future and can patiently wait for prices to drop. Hope it will not take another year before SD15 hits the shelves.

Sigma also announced several new lenses, mostly stabilized versions of existing ones, but there is a unique one with crazy focal length of 8-16 mm! It is the widest rectilinear lens ever made for APS-C cameras. Looks really cool, but I am afraid the price will be prohibitive for amateurs. I think my next lens will be 17-70 OS.

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*I mean equivalent in resolution only. Besides resolution, Sigma photos have some unique quality, so called Foveon Look™ that no other digital camera nor good old film can match.

The Canon G11 review

The review of the Canon Powershot G11 is finally up: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canong11

It confirms what I suspected: the G11's high ISO quality isn't dramatically better than G10's. The difference is about one stop and it is achieved by more aggressive noise reduction rather than by better sensor quality. If you shoot RAW with both cameras, run the photos through the same noise reduction program and downsize the G10's photos to 10 MP you wouldn't see much difference. However, at low ISOs the G10 has visible resolution advantage. I still think producing a camera with G10-like sensor and articulated screen makes sense. Well, until more micro 4/3 cameras come out and their prices start to drop. Notice how much better the Panasonic GF1 is in terms of image quality! Of course, it HAS TO BE given the 2X price difference, but I'm sure in the next couple of years the m4/3 cameras will kill the G series, unless Canon puts a much larger sensor in it.

Camera Chow, Picture Wow!

Kevin Spacey advertises the Olympus PEN to low-tech snobs (video): http://www.dpreview.com/news/0912/09121102spaceyvid.asp

The new Nikon sees in the dark

Nikon announced the new D3S with 12 megapixels and base ISO 12,800 that can be pushed up to astounding 102,400!

http://imaging.nikon.com/products/imaging/lineup/digitalcamera/slr/d3s/sample.htm

Check out the pictures of yak and bear shot at ISO 12,800. They don't look very beautiful but are usable, unlike anything I've seen before shot at this ISO.

The megapixel race is over and the ISO race began? Canon, your move!

Canon G10 with a flip-out screen?

As I have written already, the most significant improvement of the G11 over G10 is the flip-out screen giving a photographer much more creative flexibility. However, not everyone would want to trade it for 4.7 megapixels, especially landscape shooters who appreciate every extra pixel under good light and don't care much about low light performance, which, however good, still sucks in comparison with a DSLR. Not to mention 10 years of "the more megapixels the better" propaganda has taken its effect that cannot be undone overnight.

I think Canon should make something like Powershot G10 Mark II with flip-out screen and the same 14.7MP sensor. No doubt, it would be a great hit!

New samples from Canon Powershot S90

Dpreview.com has published a gallery of S90's photos: http://www.dpreview.com/news/0909/09091802canons90gallery.asp

The pictures don't look exciting to me – noisy, not very sharp and with quite a bit of purple fringing. PF was a plague of my old G5 and I'm happy that G10 almost doesn't have it. It's an unpleasant surprise to see it again.

Of course, it's good that ISO 800 and 1600 are usable now, but at low ISO pixel quality isn't any better than G10's, maybe even worse, and it's 10 MP, not 14.7 Since S90 and G11 share the same sensor and image processor, I expect similar quality from G11. Probably better, because of sharper lens, but not MUCH better.

Of course, those are JPEGs from the camera, not RAW conversions, but Canon's in camera processing is so good that I wouldn't expect much better results from computer RAW conversions. Maybe better and less aggressive noise reduction and little more detail.

So the only actual advantage of the new G11 is flip-out screen, which is very useful, but cannot really justify an upgrade from G10. Soon we will see whether my conclusions are true...

How the Camera Controls Should Be

Look on top of your camera. What do you see? If it is a DSLR or advanced point & shoot you see a shooting mode dial with the letters: P, A (or Av), S (or Tv) and M. You know what it means: Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority and Manual. In Program mode the camera determines the aperture and shutter speed automatically; in Aperture Priority you turn some on camera wheel to set aperture value and the camera determines shutter speed; in Shutter Priority you use the same wheel to set a shutter speed; and in Manual mode you either use two different wheels (as on the Canon 20D-50D) or have to use one wheel and press some obscure button to switch between aperture and shutter adjustments (as on the Sigma SD14). A bit confusing, huh? Especially for beginners. Eventually, every photographer gets the hang of it, but I must say, it's not nearly the best possible layout.

Now look at the new Leica X1:




No mode dial! Just aperture and shutter speed dials. Simple, logical and brilliant! This layout makes the whole concept of shooting modes unnecessary. Set both to A and let the camera control exposure for you, or use all possible combinations to control it yourself. This layout saves you at least one extra movement every time you change settings. You don't need to look into the viewfinder or at the status LCD to see the exposure settings, one quick glance at the camera is enough. You can even adjust it when the camera is off. Just turn it on and shoot!

And finally, the medium format Pentax 645N:




In addition to aperture and shutter speed dials, it has the third dial – exposure compensation, which allows much finer tuning. This is by far the most logical, straightforward and easy control layout I have ever seen. It alone makes me want to buy this camera, even though I don't need it that much :)

Leica Needs an Autofocus

I am not a Leica owner and will never be. Even if I had lots of money, I would find a better way of spending it. However, looking at some early sample galleries I can tell that the new full frame Leica M9 is a remarkable achievement not only in expensiveness and coolness but in actual image quality. No kidding. Especially wide and super wide angle shots are stunning. But... some photos are just not sharp enough. It seems to me the new 18-megapixel sensor outresolves... Leica's rangefinder. It was fine for film, but just isn't precise enough for hi-res digital.

Leica needs an autofocus with live view, contrast detect, central magnification and all that stuff – in addition to the rangefinder. Of course, they will have to make a new series of autofocus lenses and dig more money out of rich snobs' pockets.

Wonder if the M10 will be the first autofocus Leica M?

The New Canon Powershot G11

Canon announced its new flagship compact camera.

The new G11 features an articulating screen (Great!!! Finally!!! Why the hell didn't they put it on G10? :(( and a new sensor that is only... 10 megapixels instead of G10's 14.5MP.

I think reducing megapixel count makes sense only if it dramatically increases high ISO quality and dynamic range. Canon claims 2 stop ISO improvement, whether it is true remains to be seen. Only 3 full size photos have been published so far, all shot at ISO 80. Pixel quality in my opinion isn't much different from G10's and there is still some noise in shadow areas. Under good lighting G10 will probably outresolve G11 and some people (esp. landscape shooters) may prefer the older model. I wonder if Canon will discontinue G10 or continue to produce both models.

Although 14 MP is good for large prints and cropping, 10 MP is enough for most applications, and the rotating screen gives lots of creative possibilities. If they manage to make ISO 800 and 1600 usable, it will beat Panasonic LX3 and will be a viable competitor to the new Olympus EP-1 (at half price!). But... there is one important thing missing that LX3 and EP-1 have – HD video! Both competitors have 720p and the G11 only has 'lousy' 640x480. Why they omitted it I can't really understand...

Canon G10 shooter VidarNM on Dpreview.com describes his image processing workflow. IMO it's too much trouble for casual shooting, but if you want maximum quality, this is the way to go: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1010&message=30052640

1,474 Megapixel Inauguration Panorama shot with the Canon G10!

It contains over 2GB of photo data and comprised of over 220 images shot from a Canon G10 Bridge camera on a Gigapan robotic camera mount.

http://gigapan.org/viewGigapanFullscreen.php?auth=033ef14483ee899496648c2b4b06233c

Via dpreview.com

Canon Powershot G10

After selling my Canon 20D and Mamiya C330, Canon G10 is (and will be for a while) my only camera. I bought it in the end of last October and paid early adopter's price, which I don't regret, because I got a chance to take some nice pictures before the end of beautiful Canadian fall.

When the first pictures of the G10 appeared on web, I liked it immediately. Its classic rangefinder-style design appeals to serious shooters. In real life it looks (and feels) every bit as good. Build quality is very solid and finish is nice (click on the image to enlarge). It is reasonably heavy to hold it steady, but not too heavy to carry all day in a jacket pocket.

Ergonomics is good and I especially like the new exposure compensation and ISO selection wheels. Very handy!

The new high-resolution screen is just gorgeous, and pictures look better than in real life, no kidding! It reminded me Apple iMac glossy screens, which I didn't like because of too much reflection, but for a small camera screen it doesn't matter. The viewing angle is very wide and it compensates a bit the fact that screen is not flip-out.

About image quality. Does it really have 14 megapixels? Good question. I compared my old Powershot G5 (5MP) with the newer A720 IS (8MP) and didn't find any difference in detail, despite larger file sizes. Here the resolution increase is obvious. Not sure if it's exactly 14 MP, but under ideal lighting it may be close. Of course, this huge resolution comes at a price of higher noise. It is a problem of all compact cameras and the G10 is no exception. Noise reduction is visible in shadow areas even at base ISO 80. To make things worse, G10's default sharpening is way too strong, which in combination with noise reduction makes fine detail look coarse. I set sharpening to lowest -2 and saturation +1, saved it as custom colour and got much better results. Unfortunately, in-camera noise reduction cannot be adjusted and custom colours are not available when shooting RAW+JPEG.

Is RAW really necessary? Only if you shoot something very important and want the highest possible quality, or shoot at high ISO and want to apply better noise reduction. Otherwise, if you shoot at ISO 80-100 and care to set correct white balance and exposure, your JPEGs out of the camera will be as good as you can get from a RAW converter.

My only gripe about G10's image quality is very pronounced chromatic aberrations in 28-50 mm range. There is no way to correct them either in camera or in supplied software, which is too bad, rival cameras from Nikon and Panasonic can do that. I hope the lens profile will be included in later versions of DPP program. In the meantime I'll have to use Photoshop 'Lens correction' filter.

Per pixel quality is not exactly as good as DSLR, but for prints it doesn't really matter and for screen preview 14 megapixels are just too much. I downsize photos to 8 MP and without sacrificing much detail get smooth and sharp pictures very similar to 20D. Photos taken at ISO 200-400 can be downsized to 5 MP with good results. As for ISO 800-1600, I think they are not usable for colour shooting at all. Though you can shoot RAW, convert to black & white and get pictures very similar to 35 mm film scans, not too bad :)

How does it compare to other digital cameras I used?

Canon EOS 20D  One can say it is not a fair comparison, but I think it is. In terms of image quality, focal range and maximum apertures, the G10 is almost identical to the 20D and Sigma 17-70, my favourite walkaround lens. Worse high ISO performance is compensated by the image stabilizer, which can gain extra 2 stops.

G10 advantages: Better screen, faster preview, movie mode, small, light, quiet, non-intrusive.

20D advantages: Much faster and more reliable autofocus, faster continuous shooting, interchangeable lenses.

Canon Powershot A720 IS  The G10 is simply better in every aspect. Its shorter lens (140 vs 210 mm) is compensated by higher resolution.

Canon Powershot G5  This is the most interesting comparison. How did the Canon's flagship compact camera change in 5 years?

G10 advantages: Much faster (start up, shutter lag, preview and everything), higher resolution sensor, large and higher resolution screen, wider lens (28 vs 35mm), no purple fringing, better ergonomics, more compact (lens is fully retractable).

G5 advantages: Faster lens (F2-3 vs 2.8-4.5), no CA and sharp corner to corner, flip-out screen, IR remote control. 

I miss the last two features most of all and think dropping them was Canon's biggest mistake. It is possible to connect the camera to an external display and buy the optional cable release, but it would be not nearly as versatile and convenient. Even smaller but flip-out screen and IR remote could make this very good camera really great.