December 2010 Update

[Johnny]

Bob,

We are glad to hear you are not dead or abducted by aliens. Although we have seen some forum activity lately we could not be sure if that was you writing or the aliens 

Seriously: It will be interesting to hear what you have to say about the Sigma 18-50 OS and the Tamron 70-300VC lens but personally I am more interested to hear what you have to say about the 60D. Will I get better IQ compared to e.g. the 50D?

I hope Sigma will send you the SD1 next year so you can do a review. I sounds very interesting on paper. But so did the earlier models. At some point the Foveon sensor will hopefully mature and prices will come down. It certainly is an interesting concept.

[Bob Atkins]

I can tell you that the Canon EOS 60D  will give you marginally better IQ than the 50D, but you'll only really see the difference in large prints. The 60D has slightly better resolution. The main reason to switch from the 50D to the 60D would be to get HD video and the tilt/swivel screen (and maybe the electronic level!). The 60D alkso gives you wireless control of an external speedlite.  Noise, dynamic range, color etc are pretty similar.

So the bottom line is that if you decide to upgrade from a 50D to a 60D, you'd do it for the added features, not so much the image quality.

So far I can't really say I'm a huge fan of the Sigma Foveon sensor cameras. I've seen large prints from them and they are great, but I've seen similar large prints from Nikon and Canon cameras which were equally great. Of course I haven't seen 4ft x 6ft prints of the same subject in the same lighting with Sigma, Nikon and Canon cameras. That would be the test (and it's not one I'm likely to do myself).

There's nothing wrong with the Foveon sensor cameras per se, just that I've yet to see their real advantage. They also lock you into Sigma (and only Sigma) lenses. Again there's nothing wrong with Sigma lenses, but it's nice to have a choice.

[Johnny]

I see. I was thinking about a different body. I do mostly B&W, using available light. I often have to shoot at 1600 iso and sometimes 3200. At 1600 iso I think the 50D start to struggle. It looses edge sharpness. I was thinking the 60D had better detail at higher iso´s but maybe I have to think about a 5D? I am not sure how the "old" 5D handles this compared to the newer version? Did you review the Mark II ? Have to check your photography site.

I forgot that you´r locked to Sigma lenses if you buy one of their cameras. But that is maybe not very surprising, I can´t think of anyone else making lenses to fit their cameras. Tamron maybe. The thing about the Foveon sensor is the color rendition, they say. Sigma users claim that the color rendition and color purity is much better than what you can get from a Bayer sensor.  I don´t know. It could be true. But I guess post processing plays an important role no matter what camera you have.