Comparison: Nikon D700 vs Olympus E-3 vs Sigma SD14

[coolsigg]

Thanks to TS for the effort to post the comparo... :thumbsup:

 

[pisduck]

I got myself a D700.

preliminary tests shows that the SD14 has more dynamic range than the D700....

basically what I did was shoot 2 shots outside my window for each camera.

SD14 ISO100, f8, 1/100 and 1/800
D700 ISO200, f8, 1/200 and 1/1600

Basically I overexpose and underexpose the scene outside my window to find the limits of the 2 cameras.

I feel that the SD14 seems better. The D700 hold highlights marginally better but the shadow regions seems to be blocked...

here are the files for you guys to download and compare yourself.
http://www.keehian.com/d700/SDIM1798.X3F
http://www.keehian.com/d700/SDIM1799.X3F
http://www.keehian.com/d700/_DSC8550.NEF
http://www.keehian.com/d700/_DSC8551.NEF

 

[tomcat]

I got myself a D700.

preliminary tests shows that the SD14 has more dynamic range than the D700....

Aaah... Blasphemy ! 4.6M compared to 12M (FF) ! :bigeyes: :bigeyes: :bigeyes:

 

[twiki]

Tomcat,

I presume you're referring to the Sigma SD14 as having a 4.6M sensor, in the quote below.

I believe that the Sigma SD14 is advertised as having a 14 megapixel Foveon sensor (2,652 × 1,768 × 3 layers).
If you say it only has 4,688,736 pixels, the you are ignoring the other two colors of the sensor.

Let's take things into proper perspective here.

Of course the D700 is still much better... but not too shabby for an image from a 4.6M sensor, don't you think?

 

[tomcat]

Tomcat,

I presume you're referring to the Sigma SD14 as having a 4.6M sensor, in the quote below.

I believe that the Sigma SD14 is advertised as having a 14 megapixel Foveon sensor (2,652 × 1,768 × 3 layers).
If you say it only has 4,688,736 pixels, the you are ignoring the other two colors of the sensor.

Let's take things into proper perspective here.

I didn't mean a 4.6M sensor as defined and advertised by Sigma.
I meant a Foveon sensor that's capable of producing a maximum native (1,760 x 2,640) or 4.6M pixels image only as compared to D700's native (2,832 x 4,356) or 12M pixels image.

Even though the SD14 has about the same nos. of photosites (~12M) arranged in 3 layers as compared to those of the D700 which are arranged in one layer, the Foveon sensor of the SD14 is still only capable of producing a max file image of 1,760 x 2,640 or 4.6M pixels natively. If they could have made it produce a 12M image natively, I'm sure they would have done so instead of using such a convoluted way of convincing the public that it is a 14M sensor.