TaoSpace

Sigma PhotoPro issues

In my previous post I complained about Sigma PhotoPro (SPP), the default RAW software for the DP1. Now Carl Rytterfalk nails the primary problem with: performance. The good news seems to be that the Windows version is a lot better in that regard.

That still leaves a bunch of stuff though. Carl is, in my eyes, understating the problems:

• Loading the image still takes too long
• Thumbing through images does too 
• As does deleting or flagging an image
• Worst of all though you have to actually save your adjustments manually. In Aperture or Lightroom, you make adjustments and you move on. When you come back things are the way you left them.  
• Automatic adjustment mode often produces fake-looking images. This is probably X3F fill-light at work. This looks bad even with very limited adjustments.
• And so on and so forth    

Sorry to harp on about this, but SPP really lets done an otherwise great package!

Sigma DP1: so close...

The latest Sigma DP1 Firmware Update reminded me that I haven't yet blogged about my Sigma DP1. I bought it to replace the now long-lost Fuji F10, which at the time had the best high-ISO image quality around.

Overall I'm very happy with the Sigma. Its small, sturdy and takes amazing images. On manual focus it also does so instantly. It is a completely different way of shooting you'll have to learn though. Judging distances continuously while out shoot and trying to get ahead of the moment. Kind of fun!

Two caveats though, both of which hopefully fixable:

1. Sigma Photo Pro (the software you get with it) sucks monkey balls. There really isn't any other way of putting it, sorry. Even if we were back in 2003, the app would have been bad. In the bright light of 2008 it is a disaster of epic proportions. Please, somebody, add DP1 support to some other RAW convertor. Any convertor will do. You'll get my money immediately, if you don't have it already.
2. There is no hyperfocal mode. One can try and calculate the hyperfocal distance for each f/stop, but the focus wheel can easily be knocked off target accidentally. Come on Sigma! This cannot be that hard to add in a firmware update! The above firmware adds ISO 50 for example. If that can be done, hardcoding a couple of focus distances should be within the realm of the possible. A mode like would be insanely useful on its own, but even more so with the accessory viewfinder! 

  So do I recommend the Sigma? Not if you're looking for a point and shoot. Get a cheap SLR instead. But as many people have already remarked, as a backup/walk-around cam next to an SLR it does a fine job!

The Device, The Platform, The Service, The World

Looks like Apple has again managed to do what basically nobody expected: Create a 3G iPhone at half the price of the previous one.

But that's not the whole story. Not even close. As Gruber notes: its the platform stupid! Mobile Me is much more than .Mac with a new haircut. The push sychronization on offer (which like will also power the new push notification API announced as part of the SDK, to replace background process support), as well all the actual services, mean a package simply not seen before in the mobile space. At least that I'm aware of.

What Apple did before, by tying in iPod to the iTunes music store and later the video store, it has now done for everything else on your mobile device. All that's left is for Apple's operator partners to start offering the first year of Mobile Me for free. All of it can then work "out of the box": Mobile email, calendars, sharing etc.

Also note that with a service like, you'll be able to share all of these things with other users of the service. This will likely not be in place for launch, but will no doubt be on the roadmap for it.

By tying this together with a kickass, always-on device (iPhone, iPod Touch) you get close to an all-in-one solution, usable by most users. No desktop required.

Add a small degree of partner branding, and mobile operators could start saving big on no longer having to provide their own half-assed solutions in this space. Apple has become a lot more enterprise focused as of late (look at the Mobile Me logo...enterprise friendly blue...exchange support in Snow Leopard, enterprise apps and features in OS X iPhone 2.0, etc.), so I wouldn't put it past them.

The flip side of this all-round compelling package, of course, is lock-in at a scale Apple's never managed before.