The Anti-Leica

Christmas Presents to Myself: a Weird Novel About the Death of Roland Barthes (The Guy Who Wrote Camera Lucida) and a Sigma SD Quattro

I love quirky things, whether it be cameras or motorcycles or cars or music. Or people, women in particular. If I were to buy another motorcycle, it would have to be a KTM RC390. Cool little 390cc one cylinder 40 hp “thumper” engine in a dedicated lightweight track bike package that will smoke a liter bike (1000cc) when the roads start to bend a little. Maximum fun in a small, affordable package. Let the 20-somethings with their 180 hp Kawasaki’s and Yamaha’s snicker; I’m happy to leave them for dead when the pace heats up and the road turns twisty.

Likewise with cameras. You’ve probably noticed my penchant for the much-maligned Leica’s in the M series – the M5 and the M8 – and the quirky Ricoh GXR with its modular lens system. Great cameras all. The GXR is my absolute favorite digital camera of all-time. I absolutely love it. It’s the KTM RC390 of digital cameras – small, light, produces beautiful files with a certain character, performs great in the real world as opposed to on the spec sheet, and it’s different in a cool way. I much prefer it to both the D3S and D800 I’ve owned, the D3S too bulky, the D800 with unnecessarily massive files. The GXR hits the sweet spot. Of course, by an iron logic inaccessible to me, this also meant that it would be a commercial failure, which it was (general consensus was that it was a good idea in theory, but in practice just didn’t cut it for some undefined reason). There’s something about the “general consensus” that always gets my contrarian juices flowing. “Common opinion” is just that: common. Look up the definition and get back to me if you think that’s a good thing.

As far as digital cameras go, you can’t get more “much-maligned” than the Sigma Foveon cameras. They are glacially slow (as a friend says – “slower than a wet fart”), basically useless at any ISO over 400 (just like film), produce huge files and most require proprietary Sigma RAW software that runs at a snail’s pace and frequently crashes. They also, when used correctly, produce stunningly sharp and nuanced Black and White images that rival the best Medium Format. Of course, given the above, I had to have one.

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You might remind me that I’ve spent years denigrating the obsession with photographic “IQ” and wonder about the inconsistency and why I appear to be doing an about-face now. Guilty as charged. As a general rule, I am of the opinion that a 12MP APS-C sensor is sufficient for most any photographic need short of massive prints larger than 20×30 inches that need to hold fine detail. 12MP files from my GXR certainly can hold their own against fine-grained 35mm film negatives (Panatomic-X for instance) carefully shot with Leitz or Zeiss optics, and in most instances,  medium format 21/4 negatives as well. I’ve got a 40×60 inch print of my quirky wife hanging over our bed (the print is hanging over our bed, not the wife), taken with the 16MP GXR APS-C Zoom lens module. It’s stunning, even at that enlargement, the detail even when viewed close up really amazing. Why any general interest photographer would need more is beyond me. I just don’t understand the point of 36 or 42 or 50MP sensors given how people generally view and display their photos; detail in even a ‘middling’ 24MP full frame camera cannot be fully articulated on a 4k monitor or in any reasonable size print. 12MP is more than enough.

Taken with a 16MP APS-C Ricoh GXR and printed at 40×60 inches. Looks Great.

I will admit, however, there are times, very infrequent for me and I suspect for most everyone else, when you simply need the most resolute image you can get. Back in the day, you’d grab a 6×9 MF camera like a Fuji 690, or you’d rent a 4×5 or larger view camera to get what you needed. You certainly wouldn’t use your 35mm Leica, even with the sharpest Summicron. Medium format cameras were often bulky and a pain in the ass to shoot, usually requiring a fine grained film and a tripod, but when you nailed it the results were stunning. The resulting negative could be printed as large as you wanted with minimal loss of quality. That need does still exist today, even more so given the massive print sizes made available to even the most casual happy-snapper with the use of inkjet printing, at least for those absolutely needing to print big. Of course photography is not just about IQ, but it is nice to have maximum IQ in these certain limited instances and for the money, Sigma Foveon cameras offer eye-wateringly sharp images at ISO 100-400 that MF systems costing 10x as much would envy. The SD Quattro, Sigma’s latest Foveon camera, can shoot DNG and thus does away with the need to use Sigma’s abysmal RAW software. Interesting camera, cheap too.

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So, in the spirit of Christmas (i.e. buy a bunch of shiny crap you don’t need) I took the plunge and bought a Sigma SD Quattro with massive 17-50 zoom attached. I bought it for one specific purpose – to shoot very large b&w prints for a documentary series I’m doing about the old Dorothea Dix Hospital grounds here in Raleigh, a beautiful historic state mental hospital complex that’s being bulldozed to make way for a city park. I live directly across the street from its entrance and have watched it transformed from a bustling hospital that treated our most vulnerable citizens to a decaying warren of unoccupied  buildings set amongst pristine grounds full of beautiful huge old oaks. All soon to be uprooted.

Like most good things, I suspect we won’t miss any of it until it’s gone, and then we’ll realize nobody thought to memorialize it. Nobody seems to paying attention to the fact this local landmark, so important in our city and state’s history, soon will be a memory. The few I see sitting in the grass while their dogs run seem too busy looking at their phones to admire the faded beauty of the place and the majestic oaks they’re sitting under. So, given my training as a documentarian, I’ve decided to shoulder the responsibility myself and make a record of the place before its gone, and given current visual culture, nobody is going to pay me any mind if I ultimately propose to exhibit 8×10 B&W silver prints; too small, not sharp enough, simply not cool enough. What they’ll want are huge, hyper tack sharp prints. Hence the Sigma SD Quattro.

It certainly lives up to its reputation: it’s slow, and quirky and produces eye-poppingly sharp photos you can blow up to massive sizes with minimal loss of detail. To my eye, sharper and more pleasing than the files from the D800. Would I use it as I would my Leica or GXR. No, those fit different needs. But when I need big and sharp, while you can’t tell it from a computer screen, it’s about as good as it gets.

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8 thoughts on “The Anti-Leica

    1. Leicaphila Post author

      It does in a certain way: you need to use the A12 M module which uses the Leica M Mount. Then you can adapt your LTM lenses to the mount with a LTM to M Mount adaptor which are pretty easy to find, and given you’re using live view you can use any adaptor you want i.e. it doesnt need to be the adaptor for the focal length you’re using; any adaptor will do.

  1. Aaron

    I read this with relish.
    I’m a fan of the Foveon sensor. In addition to the bite the files have, there is something about it’s rendering that is filmic. More so than any digital camera I’ve tried. Sorry, I by no means want to flog the dead horse that shall not be named here but for those of us of a certain age, film just looks right. I’m also a head over the heels romantic, pathologically attracted to “process.” Framed by the typical parameters the vocal majority of blowhards reviewing cameras use as reference points, the Sigma’s atypical personality traits might lack. BUT, for the rest of us with more “pedestrian” needs, the results can really delight. Digital camera as Swiss Army knife it is not. Nor is it the level of a weaponized camera (10+frames a second, 40MP+ chip, ISO sensitivity for the dark side of the moon) that pros might actually need and by extension everyone with pro aspirations and an internet connection does too. It is in contrast a scalpel. So very very good at what it does.
    I’m thrilled to see it’s differences appreciated and embraced here.
    As an only camera; probably not.
    As a camera that hits way above class, with files that give me the same thrill as getting really nice scans back? Yes.

  2. Ling Lee

    @leicaphilia thank you. And The sigma is fascinating. I use a Sony alpha5000 with a screw mount summaron f3.5. I set the camera to toy mode, which seems to cut the 20mpg sensor in the best way, and renders color beautifully and filmically along the lines of an Olympus XA with Kodak Gold, my favorite film formula. It has been my staple as far as digital, but I’ve been intrigued by the gxr for years. My only caveat with both is the lack of full frame. I estimate that a 35 with the Sony sensor renders at about 59 mm. With the Gxr smaller sensor Iimagine it would be closer to 70? Though I am uncertain of the exact arithmetic and could be off a bit.

    1. Leicaphila Post author

      Ling: The GXR’s M Mount Module is a 1.5 crop sensor. This means your 35mm Summaron will have an equivalent 52.5mm focal length on the GXR. I use a 35mm VC 2.5 as my normal lens with the GXR M Mount.

  3. Dogman

    Is this the “dp” or the “sd” quattro? I ask because you identify it as the “dp” model in the article but the accompanying photo shows the “sd” and you indicated you bought it with a zoom lens whereas the “dp” model is a range of fixed lens models only.

    Also, if this is actually the “sd” model, is it the APS-C or APS-H format? Either way the photos look great. You have sparked an interest in this camera for me, especially based on the B&W photos.

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