Digital BW, The Print

John Luke writes:
 > Who's got Sigma lenses laying around? That's the only camera with this
 > Foveon chip.
 > 
 > Probably a better bet to get the new Kodak 14n wich uses all the Nikon
 > lenses.  13 megapixel full frame for a file size in the upper -30
 > Megabyte range.

Yeah, if you're looking at buying a camera *now*, and the Kodak does
what you need, and it's a the right price point, and [insert all of
the rational and irrational criteria for buying a particular tool
here], then you're probably right.  It's "street price" is rumored
(http://www.robgalbraith.com/diginews/2002-09/2002_09_24_14n.html) to
be over $4000.00 though, so it's not quite the same niche as the
Sigma, which is supposed to *list* at $1800
(http://www.dpreview.com/news/0209/02092001sigmasd9price.asp).

And anyway, size isn't everything.

The Foveon technology isn't Sigma dependent and it's a neat idea.  It
remains to be seen (in a *big* way) whether it'll succeed on it's
merits or not [or it's marketing for that matter, remember VHS
vs. BETA].  I think that if the chip matures well, it's likely you'll
find it in big-name bodies.

But, in any case, I don't think that a talk about the Sigma camera by
itself would be all that interesting.  I think that Wednesday *will*
be interesting though, because it's about an emerging technology for
digital capture that tries to solve a basic problem (bayer patterning,
etc...)  with the existing approaches.

<disclaimer>
And like I've said before, Steve's a friend of mine....
</disclaimer>

g.