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Author Topic: MR's open letter the Sigma's president  (Read 4568 times)

KirbyKrieger

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MR's open letter the Sigma's president
« on: September 24, 2012, 08:31:43 pm »

Hear!  Hear!

Agree 100%.  The one limitation of the Merrill DP's that the user cannot overcome -- be that user maven or pussy -- is that the sensor data must be converted and optimized using the (imho) embarrassingly-flaccid Sigma Photo Pro software.

The other limitations are (mostly) in the hands of the photographer.  I hope Sigma listens and removes this unnecessary impediment to making the most of their remarkable pair of cameras.

And Here's to Michael for highlighting the topic.

BarbaraArmstrong

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Re: MR's open letter the Sigma's president
« Reply #1 on: September 24, 2012, 10:13:42 pm »

As the owner of three recent Sigma foveon cameras, I too hope that Sigma will take steps to enable the opening of their raw files in major third-party software.  Kudos to Michael for his open letter to Sigma, expressing a wish/need very much felt by many of us.  --Barbara
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photodan

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Re: MR's open letter the Sigma's president
« Reply #2 on: September 25, 2012, 01:46:30 am »

If Sigma were to adopt at least one of the two major alternatives Michael suggested, then I believe it would probably eventually add more profit to Sigma's bottom line, via increased camera sales.  I hope Sigma gives serious consideration to the points in the open letter, for my own personal photographic benefit.

Hurray for Michael's open letter - it was to the point and beautifully worded (as per usual)!

Dan
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fiatlux

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Re: MR's open letter the Sigma's president
« Reply #3 on: September 25, 2012, 05:36:24 am »

Do all other manufacturers really collaborate with Adobe?

It was my understanding that Adobe reused some of David Coffin's dcraw open source code. Not to demosaic the raw data, but to decode some raw file formats. The X3F decoding part is marked as restricted but Adobe can certainly afford to buy a license from Mr Coffin if need be.

As it happens, the latest version of dcraw officially supports SD1 Merrill files, and even decodes DP2 Merrill files. So, if Adobe still uses David's code, they could easily add support for the recent Merrill cameras, it would "just" be a matter of designing the right camera profiles.
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David Hufford

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Re: MR's open letter the Sigma's president
« Reply #4 on: September 25, 2012, 05:58:11 am »

According to Eric Chan of Adobe in the recent LL video, most manufacturers do cooperate with Adobe, and that cooperation has been increasing over the last 5 years or so.
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dreed

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Re: MR's open letter the Sigma's president
« Reply #5 on: September 25, 2012, 06:51:56 am »

Another solution here is to have someone like Leica use Samsung as the OEM for the sensor and build their camera around the Foveon sensor.
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OldRoy

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Re: MR's open letter the Sigma's president
« Reply #6 on: September 25, 2012, 01:27:29 pm »

Let's hope Michael's tactful letter arrives at Sigma before a copy of Lloyd Chamber's blog does. I'm sure he'll forgive me if I post a quote from the latter. Sensitive souls should avert their eyes now:

"Intriguing unusual sensor with tremendous resolution and potential (and a lot of noise and funky color). World’s shittiest slowest “best high school science fair” autofuckus in a crappy plastic body. World’s second shittiest LCD (after the Leica M9/M). Same crap I tried last year, just wrapped around a far better sensor. Sigma should go hook up with Sony and put that interesting sensor in a body with a high-res LCD and proper focusing. And chill on the discounted plastic bulk purchase."

Roy
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PierreVandevenne

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Re: MR's open letter the Sigma's president
« Reply #7 on: September 25, 2012, 04:46:18 pm »

Without disputing the comments about Sigma's software abilities, it seems that those two Sigma cameras, for all their shortcomings, are growing on their users.

But Sigma has a (well more) big problem(s), I went to my store today, where I picked the FZ200. The same store that a few years ago was kind enough was kind enough to do not one but two swaps on unsatisfying 12-24mm lenses (the third one is as good as I want it to be). Since I am a good customer, they usually try to please me. You should have seen the incredulous look on their faces when I told them I wanted one of those new pocketable Sigma as well... Why would a person they knew until then as a perfectly sane buyer of L lenses suddenly be interested in what they obviously considered crap. They don't plan to stock it.

Also, when I exchanged my 12-24s, I was told not to worry, that Sigma was fully aware they had QC issues, on which they were working hard, and were very flexible in terms of exchanges. That was something like 6-7 years ago I believe. 

But did I read again this year, in some Photokina coverage, that they had just decided to focus again on QC?

Dumb strategy (the recent pricing blunder), extremely poor software, an ever improving but never decent QC process, wobbly screens in 2012 on expensive cameras, etc...  What are they thinking?

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kwalsh

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Re: MR's open letter the Sigma's president
« Reply #8 on: September 25, 2012, 06:28:39 pm »

I've followed Foveon with great interest for a number of years.  The DP1M and DP2M reviews would have me seriously considering getting one despite all the UI issues.  However, the software is a non-starter for me.  SPP is the sole reason I'm not buying one of these cameras.

Ken
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KirbyKrieger

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Re: MR's open letter the Sigma's president
« Reply #9 on: September 25, 2012, 07:49:06 pm »

Let's hope Michael's tactful letter arrives at Sigma before a copy of Lloyd Chamber's blog does.
"World’s shittiest slowest “best high school science fair” autofuckus in a crappy plastic body. "

Perhaps it will help some to point out that the user can reduce the size of the auto-focus area by pressing the focus-area selection button (bottom of the four-way) and then rotating the top dial counter-clockwise.  With the auto-focus area minimized, I have not had any problems auto-focussing my DP2M.
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