MarkWW
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Contributing Member
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Posts: 881
Re: Raw files for download .x3fs for download
3
Sam- Thanks for these!
I've reprocessed a couple of the images (my but SPP is slow) with the following settings:
- Color mode Standard
- Everything set to 0
- Highlight Control set to 0 (neutralize)
- Noise Reduction set to 0 (less)
Except for the Quattro I set Sharpness to 1, and for the Merrill I set Sharpness to 0.
A few people have said that the Quattro has all the detail of the Merrill and could be sharpened to show that detail, so I've decided to put that to the test.
There's no point in saying we can increase sharpness in photoshop, as we can do that with any photo from any camera, not just Foveons.
Saved as 8 bit TIFFs and opened in Lightroom to do a side-by-side comparison.
At the start of this, I'm on the fence about Quattro. Smoother than Merrill sounds good for portraits and I love the 50mm field of view, but why not go for the Sony a7 with a sharp 50 instead - I'll get more versatility, video, low light capability, etc. etc.
Merrill is on the left, Quattro is on the right.
It really looks like the microcontrast from the Merrill is simply not there with the Quattro.

Except when it is. The Quattro traffic light has more detail, but the sign behind it has more detail in the Merrill.

Quattro has more noise in the sky and the Merrill has more detail in the buildings - they have individual bricks whereas the Quattro has just flat walls.

Neither treats the red Amalgamated Bank sign well (I wish you got the parking sign in both the Merrill and Quattro) but the Quattro desaturates the red in the shadow less than the Merrill.
But again, you lose the texture in the gray areas above the sign, the Quttro washes detail that the Merrill picks up.

Straight lines pop more - look at the one way sign and the metal bands holding the sign & the stop light up. They pop more in the Quattro.
But look at the reflection of the building - the Merrill has bricks where the Quattro doesn't.

It seems to me that the Quattro is its own camera, distinct from the Merrill. Crisp lines, but without the grit. There is no way simply sharpening a Quattro image will give you the detail of the Merrill - look at the bricks, there is no detail there to sharpen.
What I want to see is how the Quattro handles people in two specific areas.
- Given how important red is for skin tone & how it's the blue/green channels that have all the nasty bits we try to eliminate, will the reduced red and green channel acutance make people look that much better, or will the overall Quattro smoothing that we see even in gray pavement make people's skin look shinier/smoother.
- Given the lack of detail I'm seeing in bricks, how will the Quattro handle hair? Will we be able to see each individual strand as we do with the Merrill or will they blend together, especially if someone has red hair (especially artificially colored red hair which will have a narrower frequency response than natural red hair).
But realistically, without infinite funds, I think the Sony A7 with a fast sharp 50 makes more sense to me than a Quattro, because the Quattro won't do high ISO, video or shallow depth of field, and I'd rather have those as options than the smooth crisp look of the Quattro. (and maybe pick up a cheap Merrill for when I want that super detailed look, but since I already have one - why do I need another?).