Digital BW, The Print

Given the long time since announcement, there are probably some 
technical problems they are having to overcome. Silicon has an 
interesting property - depth in material = color filter. Given that 
Foveon is using this property the tolerances are very tight. This means 
one of two things, a) there is extensive filtering of the chips using 
only those that meet those tolerances ( and decreasing the yield ) or b) 
compensation will have to be determined on a chip by chip basis and 
processing employed in camera to compensate for color offsets.

In either case a lot of "touch time": is required. We are not talking 
about one'ies/two'ies where the Department of Defense will pay for this. 
We are talking about a consumer market where price is king and where the 
3 megs is already close to obsolete even if you multiply it by 3.

So I think the jury is still out on this one.

Truman

George Hartzell wrote:

> 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) 
> <http://www.robgalbraith.com/diginews/2002-09/2002_09_24_14n.html%29> 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). 
> <http://www.dpreview.com/news/0209/02092001sigmasd9price.asp%29.>
>
> 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.
>
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