Sigma Quattro revised to interchangeable lens design --> worth a look

[ahsanford]

While we were preoccupied with the 50-100 f/1.8 announcement, it looks like Sigma's Quattro brand has been huffing paint again:

http://www.mirrorlessrumors.com/surprise-sigma-announces-the-sigma-sd-quattro-and-sd-quattro-h-sa-mount-mirrorless-cameras/

You can look at this two ways:

[list type=decimal]
[*]Sigma took the nutty Quattro platform -- heretofore a futuristic concept car built to show off their Foveon tech (with very few adopters) -- and took it apart. Quattro is now an interchangeable lens mount system, or...


[*]This is what Canon might look like in some alternate universe if it put out a mirrorless rig with the full EF flange distance*.
[/list]

*I know someone will call me out on the particulars of APS-H vs. FF, the SA mount vs. the EF mount, etc. but please drive past that for now.

So as much as this is not what Canon mirrorless devotees want in specifics -- Foveon lacking high ISO, nutty ergonomics, even nuttier Quattro styling, etc. -- at a really high level form-factor-wise, this isn't that far off, is it?

- A

 

[ahsanford]

My motivation for this are two prior polls I ran on Canon FF mirrorless, where this forum seemed to be looking for:

1) Canon's future FF mirrorless to have the full EF mount to use any EF lens natively on day one, and

2) Canon's future FF mirrorless to have a chunky grip (with the grip in the 70D - 5D3 neighborhood).

So this hot mess of a tech project Sigma continues to resuscitate and revamp is not terribly far off -- again, at a really high form-factor level -- from what this forum is asking for. (Maybe the grip is a little too tiny, but it's not that far off, is it?)

- A

 

[9VIII]

Is that APS-H!
Did I just see a flock of pigs fly past my window?
*Rubs eyes, looks again* Yup, flying pigs are definitely a thing now, and we're getting another camera with an APS-H size sensor.

If they can sell me either of these for under $1,000 I'm getting it.

Look at that back screen, it's actually two screens, I've been thinking for a while now that it would be awesome to use a smaller touchscreen for adjusting settings.
But of course we have no indication that it's a touchscreen, we can only hope.
Edit: Nope, no touchscreens at all.

The only thing I would really want to change on this is it should be a rangefinder. This has got to be the weirdest viewfinder placement in history, but at least the eyecup is big so it shouldn't be uncomfortable.

 

[ahsanford]

Is that APS-H!
Did I just see a flock of pigs fly past my window?
*Rubs eyes, looks again* Yup, flying pigs are definitely a thing now, and we're getting another camera with an APS-H size sensor.

If they can sell me either of these for under $1,000 I'm getting it.

Look at that back screen, it's actually two screens, I've been thinking for a while now that it would be awesome to use a smaller touchscreen for adjusting settings.
But of course we have no indication that it's a touchscreen, we can only hope.
Actually it could even just be a touch pad, these things don't need to be screens.

The only thing I would really want to change on this is it should be a rangefinder. This has got to be the weirdest viewfinder placement in history, but at least the eyecup is big so it shouldn't be uncomfortable.

I trust you've read up on Quattro sensor tech before you started foaming at the mouth for the coveted APS-H?

Expect pedestrian ISO levels. I saw an earlier generation of this (perhaps in line with the 5D3 as far as when it was released) that effectively went to hell around ISO 400. In a video review I saw, the reviewer gave up with handheld shooting and relegated it to a tripod.

Also, I seem to recall -- I'd admittedly quite uneducated on this -- that compiling/processing files off of the camera required some proprietary Sigma software that was really slow.

Not trying to shoot you down at all, but this thing looks only a superhero one day per week to me. Historically, there has been lots of issues / tradeoffs / baggage with this platform, and I'd (personally) want to see a glowing review before I gave this a try.

- A

 

[9VIII]

Is that APS-H!
Did I just see a flock of pigs fly past my window?
*Rubs eyes, looks again* Yup, flying pigs are definitely a thing now, and we're getting another camera with an APS-H size sensor.

If they can sell me either of these for under $1,000 I'm getting it.

Look at that back screen, it's actually two screens, I've been thinking for a while now that it would be awesome to use a smaller touchscreen for adjusting settings.
But of course we have no indication that it's a touchscreen, we can only hope.
Actually it could even just be a touch pad, these things don't need to be screens.

The only thing I would really want to change on this is it should be a rangefinder. This has got to be the weirdest viewfinder placement in history, but at least the eyecup is big so it shouldn't be uncomfortable.

I trust you've read up on Quattro sensor tech before you started foaming at the mouth for the coveted APS-H?

Expect pedestrian ISO levels. I saw an earlier generation of this (perhaps in line with the 5D3 as far as when it was released) that effectively went to hell around ISO 400. In a video review I saw, the reviewer gave up with handheld shooting and relegated it to a tripod.

Also, I seem to recall -- I'd admittedly quite uneducated on this -- that compiling/processing files off of the camera required some proprietary Sigma software that was really slow.

Not trying to shoot you down at all, but this thing looks only a superhero one day per week to me. Historically, there has been lots of issues / tradeoffs / baggage with this platform, and I'd (personally) want to see a glowing review before I gave this a try.

- A

Oh yes, I read all the hands on stuff with the Sigma SD1, it certainly was a complete mess.
But their second revision of Foveon got a bit of high ISO back by using only two colours per pixel. The APS-C version here has less resolution than the SD1 did, so it'll be interesting to see what exactly they're doing with the design. At the very least I think it's safe to say they aren't using a four year old sensor.
I've been shooting on an 1100D for four years now so ISO 6400 that's only printable to a postage stamp is normal.

As long as they don't give it a weak battery I'm not terribly worried.


Even more interesting is the rumor that they're working on an EF version.
According to Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigma_SA-mount Sigma uses the same protocol as the EF mount. It would be really something if they manage to make a body that focuses well with both their own lenses and Canon lenses. It might just be possible given that this is mirrorless and that Sigma has been manipulating Canon's programming for decades now.

 

[ahsanford]

More 'What if Canon Did This with Mirrorless?' porn for you:

http://photorumors.com/2016/02/23/new-sigma-sd-quattro-mirrorless-cameras-with-foveon-x3-sensor-and-sigma-sa-mount/

- A

 

[9VIII]

http://www.photographyblog.com/news/sigma_sd_quattro_sigma_sd_quattro_h/

Dust protector on lens mount

To prevent the intrusion of dust and debris into the camera body, the lens mount features a dust protector sealed with optical glass. Additional sealing around the mount further lessens the chance of dust entering the camera body.

Well that's interesting.
So it looks like they have a clip on dust protector inside the lens mount. Basically a replaceable surface for the sensor. As long as they don't let dust in at the factory it actually sounds pretty good.

10 frame buffer for APS-H and 15 frames for APS-C. 3.5fps burst. Not great but I don't partciularly find 3fps limiting on my current body.
They also mention 5fps in "low" mode with one quarter the resolution. It seems like they're binning pixels but they're claiming to write that into a RAW file. I've never heard of that being possible while maintaining actual RAW data, but that might have something to do with the use of the Bayer filter where colour data is based on pixel location.

http://www.sigma-global.com/en/cameras/sd-series/features/
Their explanation of the current Foveon implementation is pretty interesting.

So, red and blue channels are recorded at 6 megapixels, and they use the top layer at 25 Megapixels to give a high resolution luminance map. And I'm guessing blue is deduced by subtracting green and red.