I think Sigma Foveon sensors are the technology of the future and it’s only a matter of time until they solve the few remaining issues (like low quality at high ISO). That said a Chinese company promises right now that they can modify your [shoplink 38063 ebay]Sigma DP camera[/shoplink] in an interchangeable lens camera for every mount. On the picture you see the Leica M-mount version.
Just send in your DP camera at Taobab (translation here) and ask for the mount you want. The full modification costs you round $300.
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Ohh what they do it.
At base ISO the Sigma is capable of beautiful results unfortunately image quality falls apart quickly after that , it has several other issues to contend with before it could be considered mainstream .The biggest problem with the current offerings are the truly horrendous Sigma bodies { performance , style, build quality etc}. A “fixed” Foveon sensor in an E-M5/GH3 style body would be a potential joy to behold ,
are the MFT lenses going to cover the APS-c sensor area?
I doubt it. MFT lenses are designed to cover a MFT sensor area. But perhaps they could crop the current Foveons to MFT size.
No need to think all of this heavy gutting of camera. If sigma could just offer an optional EVF on its dpm aand an option to shoot RAW in 4;3 ratio
This is a mod to the original DP cameras which have a 1.7 crop sensor not APSC. Wouldn’t alter mine though as the fixed lens is just fine as it is.
+1
Funny idea. But what about image quality? As I know all manufacturers work hard on optimizing the combination sensor – processor – lens.
How many times this has to be repeated?
Sucktastic efficiency is inherent feature of Foveon’s stacked photosite design, not something you can tweak out.
That design is this “good”:
“The way it works is that a red photon can be absorbed by any of the three layers, at random. The red layer actually has the least probability of absorbing the red photon.”
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/36405363
It’s this kind pixel level beam splitting design which has about hundred times more promise of actually having any efficiency to talk about.
http://www.43rumors.com/foveon-like-sensor-patent-from-panasonic-flash-sync-patent-from-olympus/
Yes. Foveon sensor was a radical new path back then but it has turned out to be a dead end. This technology has been standing face to wall at the farthest corner of the dead end for many years now.
-p-
“it’s only a matter of time until they solve the few remaining issues (like low quality at high ISO).”
It has taken them many years — it is unlikely to be improved, it is a flawed idea.
Panny’s colour splitter has more hope to be viable. Let’s wait and see.
The few issues are essentially everything except good resolution and a lack of colour moire (the Foveon’s are not immune to non-colour moire).
They have inherently limited quantum efficiency due to how they work. So noise will never get much better, especially in the red channel. This will also limit the dynamic range of the sensor to being well behind a comparable traditional bayer sensor.
They have absolutely awful colour separation. There is massive overlap in the sensitivity range of each colour sensor, this is inherent to the material so you can never get good colour out of these sensors. Yes, Sigma gets some pleasing colour renderings in certain situations from post-processing in the proper fashion, but the metamarism index is awful (makes Canon APS-C look superb) and you get very unpredictable colour in a fair amount of situations. Foveon eliminates colour interpolation but instead delivers lousy colour separation.
Essentially what Foveon gives is a high pixel density sensor without any of its advantages. A traditional bayer sensor with comparable number of sensor sites could be constructed and would completely demolish the Foveon in performance. The current 45 Million sensor site Foveon’s deliver a little better resolution than 24MP Bayer. Sony or Nikon/Toshiba/Aptina could simply come out with a 30MP sensor on current tech and once again relegate the Foveon’s advantage in resolution to non-existent.
Foveon survives for two reasons, the first is that killing it would embarrass the management at Sigma (and therefore they won’t until it starts to seriously affect the bottom line), and second that even lousy IQ by current standards is good enough to deliver some excellent photographs. Yeah, a 24MP APS-C body will deliver significantly better IQ in every regard except resolution compared to the current Foveon’s, but the latter do provide great resolution and adequate IQ. If lousy IQ was a camera-killer Canon’s APS-C line would have been dead a couple years ago, that 18MP sensor was crap when the 7D came out and it’s complete crap now.
Admin, the new Pasasonic colour splitter is the technology with future.
BTW really exciting news couple of days before G6 announcing. 😛
if everyone would prefer B&W images, how much simpler it all would be.
I would love to see a monochrome sensor on an MFT body! Resolution would be awesome!
Presumable you want to use physical color filters to get a decent B&W image.
Yup… But plain filters are interchangeable unlike Bayer mosaic.
WTF is that? They absolutely serious?
Wow! Talk about a hideous design! This Frankencamera retrofit takes the prize!
The weird right side curve with the sharp corners. Nice ergonomics. Do they include a box of bandaids with it? The cut-outs for graphics are pure nastiness. And the exposed screwhead in the grip? WTF?
The brown ones look as if they came out from a Kalashnikov factory.
I’ll take one of those instead. 😉
We know you are in love with the style really its just silver lenses you can’t take!
Somebody please tell them to stop bothering with Sigma, and do the fUJI x100s next.
These mods look as if they sticked an iPhone case on that poor Sigma.. Steampunk style but failed.