Foveon rising?

[Sidebyte]

Originally Posted by Mr. Pickles

The supposed price structure is around $1400 us. Some are saying it is the obituary, but others are saying they are buying. The smart ones will wait for some more and real examples, and the smarter ones will want to see the "raw" files and play with them in the new software.

If everybody thinks a camera needs to be better and cheap to be a success, then they don't get it.

Maybe true but in order for any manufactured item to be a success it has to sell. If they price theirselves out of the market regardless of technical ability, it will die on the vine. "Atomic powered mousetraps" may be a technical marvel but not salable. I considered the K/M 7 to be a superior build and feature wise was terrific but they didn't sell and look what happened to them, HISTORY?

[Mr. Pickles]

The SD9 and SD10 didn't really sell either, but there is "cult following" and a lot of owners swear by their camera, and the Foveon sensor. I wonder what the percentage is of people who buy stuff, like a DSLR, based solely on looks? And looks includes the name that is stuck on the body. If you took all the guts out of a Canon XTi and a Sony A100, and swapped them and reassembled, would the Sony be a "hit"? Probably because it would say Canon on it and look like the others.

If I had money, I'd certainly line up for a SD14 LONG before I lined up to get that gawd awful looking Olympus E-1 replacement. Is that a good thing? Is that baseing it all on looks? There are things I like about each of them, and things I don't like. Making arguments for one over the other can also bring in some other body into the argument.

Until the SD14 sales numbers roll in, and images from them start appearing, it is all speculation anyway. But I think the Foveon sensor is better at things than a Bayer one, and some of them should be more important to buyers, like image quality.

[Kevin Barrett]

The tech is hopeful, but I think Foveon will need another Marque (other than Sigma) to garner
meaningful market-share. With that said, they might be perfectly fine occupying a niche'.

Personally, I'm waiting for the upcoming Canon sensor re-design coupled with DiGiC III processing
as a hopeful place to hang my hat for awhile.