The Sigma forum on the 'Big American Photography Website' has exploded with posters baying for the blood of the Sigma Executives. Everyone is discussing which brand they will jump ship to. At that price point I can understand their concern - for that money why not get a fully pro camera?

Interestingly some of the posts defending the price point are suggesting that the SD1 is priced to turn Sigma into a Leica-like brand, which echoes some of the comments on here about the price rises. To me that doesn't make sense because they don't have a range of Leica-quality lenses to match. Sigma do have a few great lenses but not enough. Who would want to buy a Leica body for £X'000s which you can only use with low-mid range lenses?

Unless this Foveon sensor is a real game-changer I can't see who will buy this camera.

Not wanting to clutter the topic but I can say that, having bought from Will in the past, if he says tip top condition then he means tip top condition. I had never seen such pristine secondhand lenses. I'm sure these are in just as good shape.

Very true. I think after learning to use GIMP moving to elements meant I noticed the things that were missing.

You could do what I did - someone on the forum recommended it. I had an old 2x teleconverter laying around that was very poor quality (loss of contrast and detail was terrible). Simply knocked out the lenses and hey presto, an extension tube. It works fine and I am now vaguely on the lookout for other cheap teleconverters to make a set.

If you look in charity shops etc then I'm sure you can find some.

GIMP is free and I've found it more powerful than elements. I tend to use it more than anything else and is capable of layers and mixing exposures (and a lot more). It doesn't do panos though (at least not that I'm aware of).

Thanks for all the comments. Can't wait to try the camera out again in the sun - need to think of a suitable location. I've already passed on the details of the guy who converted it to a couple of forum members via PM so we may see a few more people posting some IR pictures on here.

The tilt-y angles seem to have caused some controversy. Having looked over the photos I took I didn't actually take that many with a tilt but seem to have selected most of them for here. I guess that means I quite like the perspective. To me they seemed to add a bit of drama and quirkiness to the scenes. Not everyone's cup of tea though.

As a side note, I am impressed with how archaic and beautiful Wimbledon cemetery is. I didn't expect it. I'm quite keen to go again and see if I can do a better job of capturing it.

Thanks. I think the sun may have been in the right position (or out a bit more) so the leaves were emitting more light and hence the sky is less over-exposed.

The conversion would be reversible - the low pass filter had a scratch on it and so needed replacing. But instead of using a standard filter an IR filter was fitted over the sensor. So I can handhold shots and compose through the prism. if I wanted to convert back I would need to replace that filter with a standard low pass filter again.

A guy in China was recommended to me on another forum. He did the conversion really quickly and even adjust the autofocus for the IR spectrum. Can't remember the exact price but he was very reasonable. Had a bit of trouble with customs on the way out - DHL messed up the labelling and it was hit with a duty charge. Fine on the way back (sent by post). If anyone's interested I'll pass on his details.

Thanks to everyone for the encouragement. I need to improve the skies and work out a way to get the white balance consistently right but I'm quite pleased.

WG

And while I was there I thought I would try out the 43 Ltd as well!

Again, any comments would be welcome.







This one is a bit cliched (well, maybe they all are!) but I liked the way the gravestone seems to pop out of the photo.

Hi All

Quite a while ago I bought a slightly broken secondhand K10d from Mike-p which I got converted to infrared. It was winter by the time it was ready for use so I've only really tested it indoors or in the garden. This morning I finally checked the focus correction and headed out to Wimbledon Cemetery to give it a proper run.

Getting the exposure right was tricky, not sure if it was the difficult light or that is just the nature of IR. Also found it particularly hard to judge the sky. It may have been easier if it wasn't overcast.

Anyway, here are the results. I'd love any comments (including the processing).










and one in black and white...