The Hot Import Nights car show was back in Seattle today and I had a blast. Not only did my shots from the last one (Vision Ent. will be using a few in their advertising for next years shows) get me press access, but I got to shoot this event with the above beauty. Nikon D100 with battery grip and 24-120mm D-lens (36-180mm equivalent on D100). Took 2 1GB microdrives with me. Filled one with RAW images (about 107 shots) and the 2nd one with Large Fine JPEGs (no idea how many of those there were -- thinking about 200-300). Too much fun. After the using the D100, I find it to be a really nice camera. Good feel. Intuitive as hell (I only had 1 hour to figure it out before the shoot and I had no problem with it). I still think the Canon EOS 10D is the top pro-sumer DSLR and it's the one that I'm going to get (I consider full pro D-SLRs to be Canon EOS 1D & 1DS, Nikon D1, D1h, D1x). -=>Donald

David - I was really high on the Sigma SD9. The Foveon technology made perfect sense to me. Back in school while studying for BAS (Elec. Engineering), we had an impromptu discussion during lunch break about how different light wavelengths travel through silicon and how you could apply that to imaging arrays. 4 years later, Foveon X3 comes out. Pretty slick for a bunch of guys who were living on Ramen, Poptarts, and 2-3 hours sleep a night. :) I see it as being a huge technology once it matures a little. Canon, Nikon and Fuji could probably have really put the technology through its paces with what they already know about digital cameras. Being Sigma's first one though, there are a few things that bother. The biggest is that you have a camera that was originally $1799 for the body that is now selling for about $1299 street. It's in the same price structure as the EOS 10D, Nikon D100 and Fuji Finepix S2 Pro. And yet, it has a maximum ISO rating of 400 with grain evident. The 10D is ISO 100-3200, D100 is ISO 200-1600, S2Pro is ISO 100-1600. Sigma's decision to also go with Uncompressed RAW only for their saved images boggles my mind. No internal JPEG, so you have to convert every image before you can save it for viewing by anything else. I think you give Sigma 2 more cameras and they will put serious pressure on the pro-sumer market with the 3rd generation Foveon. They'll have a tough time matching the pro DSLRs though. Canon and Nikon have a huge advantage in having produced the 1D and D1, respectively and then folding that into the 1DS and D1h/x. Look at the features of the 1D. Even though it's only a 4MP camera, I would take it over any prosumer camera any day. The thing is a work of art. 1DS is just plain scary. -=>Donald

see me turn green with envy :)

All I have (digital wise) is a cheap digicam worth $250. Camera's like that are out of my reach.

Can wait to see the results though, I expect it was great fun.

Donald, I am looking at the D100 vs the D1x because I want to use my existing Nikkor lenses. after this experience would you go with the D100 before the D1x? I am seriously working on getting one of these cameras as soon as I can but they ain't cheap! Any additional insite is GREATLY appriceiated! Magick Michael

Attached Link: http://www.foveon.com/press_national.html

Nice! [So, when do we see all the Babes?] Foveon is one of those technologies you just WANT to succeed because it seems so elegant. Foveon needed a huge influx of cash to implement the sensor technology. Sigma provided that, and gained exclusive right for some amount of time in order to break into the camera market. There was a press release in March about National Semiconductor signing manufacturing and distrabution agreements with Foveon, so maybe Sigma's exclusive time is running out? The only way prices are driven down, and improvements made, are when the volumes grow. So far, limiting only to Sigma has kept the volumes from growing. We can hope for some good things going forward.

Mike: There is no doubt that the D1x is a better camera all around than the D100 (D1x is based on the pro F5 camera, D100 loosely based on F80 consumer camera). D1x has the F5's auto-focus circuitry, has a top shutter speed of 1/16000 sec (D100 = 1/4000), etc. The question becomes, is it $2000 better than the D100 for your needs? :) I find the D100 to be a good camera. Ergonomics with the battery grip is good. Camera felt good in my hands, although not as solid as the EOS 10D (probably because the 10D has a more solid feeling magnesium alloy body). The grip also gives you a vertical shutter release and command wheels (the D100 has 2 command dials, Main and Sub). So far, I have only one complaint. This may be user error (remember, I only got to play with it for a bit before shooting this show), but I pretty much kept the camera in automatic mode. I was not completely impressed with the 3D matrix metering. It seemed somewhat inconsistent. When I'm shooting a full or 3/4 shot of a model with extremely dark background or lots of strobes/lights in the background then I can accept that the metering might be fooled a bit - but I wouldn't expect it with the 3D metering; but when I shoot a full face portrait type shot while standing less than 6 feet away with the model's face taking up probably 90-95% of the frame I expect the camera to meter correctly. What's weird is, there are several examples where a shot is very underexposed and the very next shot taken from the exact same spot a half second later is exposed correctly. I have read that at times, the computer in Nikon Speedlight's can get a little confused and need to be reset (something about pulling the batteries out while powered up and then do a reset. Of course, being a Canon guy, this sounded crazy to me when I read it. But, oh well - maybe it's something like that. -=>Donald

Misha - I agree. It just seems like THE way to go. No more blurring to mix the 4 R-G-B-G elements together to form 1 pixel. Let us all pray to the gods of high technology. Anybody have a nice, fresh virgin CCD array we can offer up on the alter? It'll be a while, though not as long as usual. Photo count from last night is 417 shots. :) But without having to scan, clean up dust and any scratches, take care of grain, etc. It should go fairly quickly. -=>Donald