When searching for a high resolution reasonable cost camera, to complement my film Leica's I use for people and street photography and my Fuji's I use for very low light work, I came across this extraordinary camera.
Just a bit of background. I shoot for fun and relaxation, nothing professional here .... however I have shot with many cameras and systems, virtually all brands (except Samsung!). I appreciate the following things:
1. Feel and quality. Although this sounds funny, if I don't get pleasure from holding and seeing the camera then it does effect whether I want to pick it up
2. Picture quality with a bang (of course different folk have different ideas what constitutes IQ for them personally). Can't get over this one. I need sharpness, detail and good colours from digital. IMHO the lens is more important then the sensor for absolute IQ. I actually usually pick the lens first and then the camera that can mount it. Luckily Sigma has some of the most desirable lenses on the market at the moment (along with Leica, sony and Zeiss!). This is why I picked the APS-C version and didn't hold out for the APS-H one. I want to use the 18-35 and 50-100 ......
3. Workflow as a tool. Does the camera get out of my way ?
As a keen M film shooter and occasional M digital shooter I am used to manual focus and also keeping ISO low. Its the reason I normally only use primes under f2. With Sigma you also have the choice of zooms with prime quality.
BTW not saying that I don't make use of AF when I have it - nice to let the system take the strain occasionally
My only previous experience with Sigma was the SD1. Although this beautifully made camera made astonishing photos, I never got over the problems I had with the AF. Not only did it sometimes indicate something was in focus when it wasn't,
it also, a significant amount of the time, simply refused to focus at all. I sold it on this basis. My view is also that MF with DSLRs is just not worth it IMHO. With CSCs and focus peaking its a whole different story.
I don't care if focus is slow, as long as its very accurate, and if the camera wants to give up, it fesses up to it!
So the day arrived and the big box finally came (I bought a Sigma SD Quattro kit from photospecialist.co.uk). I love Sigma's plain white box. Very classy. Also nice that the lens came with the usualy high quality Sigma pouch. The first thing that struck me was the quality of construction of the 30mm f1.4 Art lens. I had been led to believe that the 30mm was the black sheep of the global vision series/Art family. Not at all. The sharpness is fantastic and the bokeh is surprisingly creamy. Its really an excellent lens.
So I mounted the lens, charged the battery and fitted the obiligatory lens protector and LCD cover.
The first thing I did was run downstairs and take some photos of my wife's face whilst she was sitting on the sofa watching TV - not very well appreciated! I then ran up to look at them on the computer. The ultimate judge of a camera is if a smile crosses your face when you first look at an unedited photo. I took a series of photos at ISO 100 (I don't intend to use any other ISO setting) at f1.4 and f2. The f1.4 photo blew me away - sharpness and incredible detail with no artefacts I could see. I was worried about the lens but no longer! I was looking at a quality of photo at least in the same league as the D810 and the M240, quite easily. The bokeh of the lens was beautiful.
The next thing that struck me was how useable SPP is. Another sacred cow! Now I know this thing is not going to work for processing 100s of photos in an hour, that'll need batch processing and a few individual edits in LR or PS, but with all the doom and gloom here about SPP I found the latest version is quite fast enough on my computer to edit individual shots. Its not fast, and it crashed out a few times - very annoying, but generally I think it will be faster to use then to edit individual shots through SPP and then export to LR and finish off there. The detail slider is quite amazing in terms of how it processed and how it broughtout hitherto unseen detail. There is nothing in LR quite like it.
However some additions to SPP would make it much more useful, for example a simple crop function please! Which means I still have to export and trim
The camera is very well made and manages the cross between being being weighty enough to feel solid and yet light enough to not be a burden. The buttons are very well placed and have positive operation. The two selector wheels, particularly the front ones, are very ergonomic and lovely to use. I really like the split screen on the back. I have the rear LCD turned off, and only use it to review shots away from the shooting scene, but having the secondary LCD displaing camera settings is extremely useful. Better then having this display on the top as the back is where I am looking more naturally. I have the rear screen off, and thus the LV feed not constantly fired up, keeps the sensor cool, avoiding noise and over heating.
Sometimes I think the Sigma Foveon sensor is similar to an opera diva. High maintenance and attention is needed, but once you get it right it delivers in spades!!
Lets talk about the workflow. Firstly the EVF is fine for framing, judging light and, with focus peaking turned on, focus. It is laggy and because of this blurry. Obviously the Quattro sensor is just not geared up for LV. This is a key development point for Sigma. The camera also takes a few seconds to record a shot during which time it doesn't allow you to fiddle with anything. Definitely not a camera for the spray and pray crowd! The rear screen is very sharp however and for reviewing photos its fine.
Focus was another surprise. Its not going to win any awards but it pretty ok for me. Its certainly a step up from my sony RX1 and xpro-1. I am used to pre-focus using MF and I use the same technique with the SD Quattro for moving subjects, e.g. focus locking on a split between paving stones, and taking the photo when the subject crosses the threshold (of course taking care to simultaineously exposure lock at the right level). The focus is very accurate.
The controls are intuitive and I worked out myself how to reduce the size of the focus spot and choose which one to use.
The metering I am still working out. Mostly it is very accurate, I have had some unexpected cases of overexposure with evaluative and centre weighted metering.
Going back to my initial criterium. for feel and construction quality its an easy 8 out of 10. For IQ, taking into account the cost, I'd say its a 9. For workflow, I'll doc a few points for the camera being unresponsive whilst writing files, SPP not being the fastest and the lack of some basic editing tools, such as crop, so lets say a 7.
In summary, IMHO this is an excellent value high resolution system capable of delivering MF/razor like acutity, colour and 3D pop with world class lens quality. Its not a camera for the beginner, probably for most people not their only camera system and needs a bit of babying, but when it gets it right it delivers something very special. The kit is half the price of Leica's cheapest lens or an X-T2 body, and less then a third of the price of the Sony AR7II or Canon 5DS body on its own (not to mention half the price of a single top sony lens). The fact I found it great for street shooting is probably just something weird about me
