Stacking with the Sigma SD Quattro

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Macrero
Posts: 1166
Joined: Thu Sep 01, 2011 8:17 am
Location: Valladolid , Spain

Stacking with the Sigma SD Quattro

Post by Macrero »

Well, I finally put my hands on the SD Quattro and played with it this morning. It is too early to draw conclusions, but I will share my first impressions and the first test stack I did.

I must say that as for now I am pleasantly surprised with the camera. It is very well built, the most solid feeling mirrorless camera I owned. IQ is yet to be seen, but the first tests are promising.

For those unfamiliar with Sigma cameras, I'm not going to explain all the peculiarities of Sigma cameras and the Foveon sensor (they are quite a lot), but will just point out that they are not for everything and for everyone. So don't buy a Sigma camera before you have read about all that, it's not your typical do-it-all camera.

Here is the first test stack with Mitu 10 + Apo-Gerogon 150 at 7.5X on sensor. Shot in RAW, processed with Sigma Photo Pro, no sharpening or other retouching in PS, except levels adjustment.

Image

Center crop:

Image

Corner crop:

Image

See bigger:

https://images2.imgbox.com/e4/8f/sx7L09Ih_o.jpg

Download the original Tiff file:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eGiqYz ... sp=sharing

The major drawback is the fully mechanical shutter. I work with continuous light, so I had to increase the exposure time in order to avoid shutter induced vibrations. The stack above is at 2" and there still may be some effect, though not significant. More tests are to be made.

Best,

- Macrero
https://500px.com/macrero - Amateurs worry about equipment, Pros worry about money, Masters worry about Light

JH
Posts: 1307
Joined: Sat Mar 09, 2013 9:46 am
Location: Vallentuna, Stockholm, Sweden
Contact:

Post by JH »

This is interesting!
I probably have not fully understod the foveon sensor - but the picture looks clean and sharp. Beside the mechanical shutter - what is your impression of the camera for macro/micro photogaphy?

Best regards
Jörgen Hellberg
Jörgen Hellberg, my webbsite www.hellberg.photo

Macrero
Posts: 1166
Joined: Thu Sep 01, 2011 8:17 am
Location: Valladolid , Spain

Post by Macrero »

JH wrote:This is interesting!
I probably have not fully understod the foveon sensor - but the picture looks clean and sharp. Beside the mechanical shutter - what is your impression of the camera for macro/micro photogaphy?

Best regards
Jörgen Hellberg
Hi Jörgen,

I found the new Foveon Quattro significantly improved with respect to the first Foveon in the SD 14 and 15 I used back in the day, but there are still quite a few drawbacks.

The camera is slow, and when I say slow I mean slow, it takes 8-10 sec to write a RAW file, no matter how fast your SD is. It is virtually unusable at higher that ISO 200, that's something I was aware of before buying it though and that's not a problem for studio work.

The biggest issue for me is the fully mechanical shutter. I work with continous light, I find it much more convenient for stacking. So, in order to avoid vibrations I have to shoot at 4-5+sec. That, on top of the desperately slow writing speed makes stacking a pretty tedious task, given that I work with manual rail.

Here is a shutter shock test at 7.5X (Mitu10 + Apo-Gerogon 150):

1/5

Image

4 sec

Image

But that's not even the full sensor resolution since at 6" image shows even more fine detail, not a huge difference, but it's there.

I sold the camera a few days ago. If one day Sigma releases a mirrorless camera with electronic shutter or at least EFCS, I will gladly buy that one, but the mechanical shutter is a deal-breaker for me...

Best,

- Macrero
https://500px.com/macrero - Amateurs worry about equipment, Pros worry about money, Masters worry about Light

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