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Laurence Matson | all galleries >> Galleries >> Just Switzerland > Snowstorm on Feb. 4, 2003
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Snowstorm on Feb. 4, 2003

We dug out the car and headed out for the train station this morning. By early afternoon, it was buried again. Wonderful soft silence in the air. You could hear the flakes fall on your skin.


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Laurence Matson08-Feb-2003 17:43
Brain,

Thank you so much for your long comment.

I am a bit surprised about your problems with sharpness. If you are not getting something at least as sharp as this image (hand-held, 28-70 zoom) then there must be a problem. How do your sharpness tests compare with the sharper things I think I have here?

Also, regarding the batteries. There seems to be a known problem with the standard battery pack in some models. Carl Rytterfalk returned his for this reason, and I believe that Sigma issued a recall of sorts. I am now testing some Duracell rechargables and keep a set of litium energizers as spares for when the slow charging is going on. (The lithiums are 100 grammes lighter for eight than the rechargables.) I ordered the Powerpack from the start. I have been getting very different results from different types.

I will be in Britain early next month, if you would like to get together. Your snowdonia address smells of Wales, where I studied. Drop me a note at my e-mail address.

Laurence
Brian SL Allen,Hon.FZPS,AHFAP 08-Feb-2003 14:40
Hi Laurence,

Have followed the dialogue on the dpreview forum but only posted a couple of messages (one was rude towards the pillocks who moaned and groaned yet had clearly never seen an SD9) under pseudonym "Zone8", though my profile said who I was, so I was not hiding.

I took delivery of my SD9 a week ago, after a five month wait - not many appeared in the UK. I opted for the 24-70 EX lens. I chose this camera because all downloaded samples from various cameras reviewed by Phil showed results from this to be the best for my own work - I mainly use 5x4 for my B+W work, so I was looking for exceptional quality. Also, being semi-retired, I have to limit my expenditure on other than essentials :-). The Canon D60 gave pretty good results but samples from the later full-frame D1s showed extreme colour fringing at corners, especially with the wider angle lenses.

I have found a few initial problems - one still unresolved. Have the latest 4 x 2000ma rechargeable batteries (the AA size ones) yet am only getting about 15 or so shots before recharging required. Awaiting Sigma's technical chap to contact me to try and sort this out. Also initially, would insert newly charged batteries only to find poor contact, as flashing indicator showed no charge. In and out a few times before camera became usable. Cleaned all the contacts on removeable holder with "Servisol" (electrical contact cleaner agent) and so far so good but the lack of throughput seems an oddity. The other batteries seem fine, although have only been able to shoot about 50 shots to date due work load and weather restrictions.

The other point is that images are very, very soft in definition. There appears to be excellent detail under the softness. Have tried Phil's Save As 8-bit TIFF, with 0.3 sharpening and at double-size - massive files that actually are no better than saving as same size JPEGs. My shots look as though taken through polythene bag!

My recent decent results have been via copying all RAW files to computer via Firewire (the USB took forever - around 2+ to 3+ minutes per file according to size) whereas the Firewire took 105 seconds to transfer 15 RAW files. Using the PhotoPro software, I have now found my best results, checked via printing out to A3 size (actually 16" x 10.667"), are by converting the RAW file into a JPEG at level 12 (maximum) at same-size, then upsampling to the 16" x 10.667" using PhotoShop's bicubic method (Standard Baseline) and setting the resolution to 360ppi. BTW, I have found through extensive research in the past that the best quality via my Epson printer is when the file is of 360dpi for printing at 1440dpi - the computer/printer combination works best when the file dpi is multipliable by a whole number. All this 200dpi does not give as good a result, especially when working for highest quality using only the black ink.

During the conversion, to get some sharpness into the image, I have found it necessary to set the PhotoPro sharpness to Maximum i.e. 2.0 or there is no chance of a sharp end image. Additionally, I find it necessary to also use Unsharp Mask in PhotoShop to boost this sharpness - and this needs care to balance between what appears to be a sharpening and an effect like solarisation to midtones. I should mention that all my shots were with camera on Manfrotto 055 tripod and apertures per subject test shot from f11 to f22 for comparison, with manual focus set for Depth of Field to suit.

As mentioned, am awaiting contact from Sigma's Technical chap to discuss all this as I feel sure there should not be any need to do all this post work to achieve sufficient sharpness. It is always possible that the lens could be the culprit yet I feel there is more to it than that, based on reading of others experiences. No doubt, too, I am a bit super critical :-) having always strived for the highest quality - and having taught such techniques for many years on conventional - and more lately digital - techniques, though until now have been scanning from 5x4 and 6x9 B+W negatives.

Anyway, thought this shot of yours was very nice. Bit of colour fringing at corners but not enough to spoil the picture - only making this comment as you asked for comments! When I am able to get out and do some "proper" images, instead of urban house shots for lens testing, I will try to post a couple on one of my websites and will let you know. Not sure how I stand with my server as regards large files so will have to investigate.

Many thanks for yoiur helpful comments on the Forum. With yourself, Geir and Rytterfalk giving freely of information, it has been a most useful source - just a pity about the crap written by some people. It made me wonder about the chap who claimed to be a professional working in colour who claimed all the colour output from SD9s was rubbish. As a semi-retired pro, who even formulated colour solutions even as far back as 1958 for specific purposes, I regarded his comments as those of "an incompetent" and would question his abilities and what his customers thought of his output. I don't remember him actually posting any of his wonderful work - though perhaps he produced those of the "toilet and washbasin" syndrome :-)))))

Must get on but thought would take this opportunity to say "Thanks" and give you some additional feedback.

Brian