imaging sensors

much has happened in two months since the german digital photography tradeshow photokina. finally, but only in japan, the sigma SD9 is shipping, the greatest imaging camera on the planet, including all 35 mm cameras. if you shoot medium format, you don’t have to worry yet.

kodak and olympus announced a new DSLR standard initiative. they realize that the large 35 mm film plane is too great for future CMOS development, and companies know how to cram more transistors into smaller spaces, not larger spaces, so yes you’ll have to buy all new lenses, but at least they should work across multiple digital bodies (nikon, canon, pentax, etc.) so you can work similarly to 35 mm today. i like it. read about how in 2001 these two imaging companies announced that they will share patents, and in 2002 how they will make the new standard. i like kodak E100VS and E100SW ektachrome film very much. i still have a few rolls left, just enough to get me to the foveon or i hope the 4/3 system of kodak/olympus/fuji. still shoot good old film until august 2003!

the future is now. reading a press release from tomorrow, foveon along with sigma finally announce the availability of the SD9 digital camera. this is the first device of it’s kind using the X3 pro sensor. if you’ve seen the foveon technology, i hope you realized that this is the most significant introduction in 15 years, as the CCD chip is dead, and the CMOS sensor is the state of the art. this chip can both process still photography, and by grouping pixels together, also support video photography. imagine a dual support chipset for HDTV or SDTV along with fantastic stills. this is not the future. this is happening today (well 17 november 2002). while at comdex i hope to take some foveon images of myself to share with you. read a review at imaging resource.

now an even better comparison of foveon technology, take a look a side by side comparisons under controlled lighting.

good news from adobe.com! not only will adobe.com photoshop support foveon X3 native file formats, much like it does kodak.com photoCD, but they just announced in a future version, raw CCD capability! this means those fortunate souls to have a nikon or canon CCD based still camera with RAW format, can now process the original data using the awesome filters of photoshop, instead of the compromised internal solid state hardware you find inside the D1, EOS1, or D60. good going photoshop!

at just 3.3 MP, the sigma SD9 might seem like old technology. both nikon.con and canon.com both have 6 MP cameras, but no one on the planet has a full color imager other than sigma, a silicon compliment to film. a new sequence of SD9 images recently appeared on a german website. now under studio conditions the lighting and exposure can be very well controlled, but the hair detail and othe facial characteristics would translate to my type of photographs. i can’t wait until this foveon X3 chip is in a better camera!

for now foveon only exists in one product, a still image camera from sigma-photo.com, but soon this imager will be in a video camera. the chip premiered february 2002. as a still imaging system, the $1600 SD9 from sigma, is the greatest camera ever made. it has an effective pixel count of 6 MP, and the images are stunning. take a look at some samples:

there have not been any announcements of the progressive video camera version yet, but in january/february 2003, expect something from foveon.

i think every videographer and imager need the heads up on this upcoming technology.

i’ve been using mac OS X since september 2000 (public beta), and then bought into the lie that in march 2001, the OS was ready. only since september 2001, did apple have a functional OS, and now with 10.2, i can do some work. the audio apps and video apps are mature, but the arcane command line is still here to stay. running “fsck -y” is like rebuilding the desktop. “top” in terminal to see system performance. fix your permissions regularly.

it’s time for breakfast. over the next couple of days i’ll add information on digital imaging including the foveon X3, progressive scan DV, and other topics i see fit. if you have a question i can answer e-mail me. foveon and panasonic AG-DVX100