The GetDPI Photography Forum

Great to see you here. Join our insightful photographic forum today and start tapping into a huge wealth of photographic knowledge. Completing our simple registration process will allow you to gain access to exclusive content, add your own topics and posts, share your work and connect with other members through your own private inbox! And don’t forget to say hi!

Sigma DP2 Merrill shots

Thorkil

Well-known member
Lee, I totally aggree that patience is a worthfully skill in this claiming-sensation-head-turning-world. "Magic" seems to turn up at every corner.
But I have a strong feeling that I could live with just a DP1M + the GXR (just wish a full-frame M-module would turn up soon for the wide M-lenses) + a GRD in the real pocket. And leave the DSLR-market for good.
Thorkil
 

fotografz

Well-known member
Thanks for all the info and images Quentin!

What a remarkable little camera.

Would it not be mind-bending if some MF company conspired and made a Foven MF sensor camera?

-Marc
 

Michiel Schierbeek

Well-known member
Lee, I totally aggree that patience is a worthfully skill in this claiming-sensation-head-turning-world. "Magic" seems to turn up at every corner.
But I have a strong feeling that I could live with just a DP1M + the GXR (just wish a full-frame M-module would turn up soon for the wide M-lenses) + a GRD in the real pocket. And leave the DSLR-market for good.
Thorkil
Thorkil, I am in the same boat getting filled up with little cameras. Love the Ricoh as well; your wish is my command. -Ricoh make that full frame M module right now-!
The NEX-7 still get used a lot. Ideal camera for an alt lens collection.
I am waiting for my DP2 M to see what I can do with it. I hope for you that the 19mm version lens is as good.

Michiel
 

Thorkil

Well-known member
Thorkil, I am in the same boat getting filled up with little cameras. Love the Ricoh as well; your wish is my command. -Ricoh make that full frame M module right now-!
The NEX-7 still get used a lot. Ideal camera for an alt lens collection.
I am waiting for my DP2 M to see what I can do with it. I hope for you that the 19mm version lens is as good.

Michiel
Yes that would be nice! If I leave Nikon I will badly miss the 15mm Voigtländer on a Full-frame to go wide enough inside and outside buildings.
I was about getting tempted by the RX100 but happily kept my hands in the pockets(not that it doesn't seems to be extraordinary good, but we are loaded with extraordinary things all the time...and they just might lack that edge...after 6 month...that keep on inspiring us to keep on going out in the real life with that friendly connection that will have to be the fundament). And there the Sigma+Ricoh-way might be the final solution for my part.
Thorkil
 

scho

Well-known member
Hi Carl

Did you mean to post two Fuji shots? Does not even RPP processed Fuji come close?

Lee
Lee,

I'm not sure what you mean by two Fuji shots. I posted one shot from the XP1 and another from the DP2M. RPP certainly helped with XP1 processing, but still can't match the acutance and fine detail resolution from the DP2M.
 

Sapphie

Member
Lee,

I'm not sure what you mean by two Fuji shots. I posted one shot from the XP1 and another from the DP2M. RPP certainly helped with XP1 processing, but still can't match the acutance and fine detail resolution from the DP2M.
Carl

No probs - it was too early in the morning and I mis-read the post. I am continuing to watch closely and look forward to seeing more images from you Merrill owners.

Best wishes
Lee
 

Quentin_Bargate

Well-known member
Thanks for all the info and images Quentin!

What a remarkable little camera.

Would it not be mind-bending if some MF company conspired and made a Foven MF sensor camera?

-Marc
Indeed it would. But it won't happen, sadly. At least not for a long time.

Quentin
 

pophoto

New member
Thanks for all the info and images Quentin!

What a remarkable little camera.

Would it not be mind-bending if some MF company conspired and made a Foven MF sensor camera?

-Marc
I agree, if it especially suited to capturing immense detail in low ISO situations... a dream at least!
 

scho

Well-known member
Old Meter
]
Very nice image. I love the detail in these grungy old meters. There was an old gas meter on an abandoned house that I used to shoot, but unfortunately the utility company recently removed the meter so I need to scout around for another.:(
 

Quentin_Bargate

Well-known member
Nice Texture.

PS: I would crop off the pipes on the right though.
Agreed. This old meter is in Cannes in the south of France - downside is I am not on my regular computer (so a tad less editing and attention to detail until I get back home), but the upside is it is sunny and warm :D

This is a business trip...:toocool:

Quentin
 

scho

Well-known member
A few handheld snaps taken today down near the Farmers Market. Auto ISO (100-400) in A mode.

Fresh flowers

FULL SIZE
Onions

FULL SIZE
Hot peppers

FULL SIZE
Sweet peppers

FULL SIZE
Waterfront trail from market to park, Cornell campus on horizon

FULL SIZE
Sewage treatment plant on other side of fence in previous image, first time I've seen corner magenta shift on the DP2M

FULL SIZE
 
Last edited:

Sapphie

Member
Hi Carl

Thanks, keep them coming. My initial feelings about the Merrill images are somewhat mixed. That last one has fantastic detail but is this at the expense of some noise/grain? I see a lot of that in the second to last shot. Have you boosted the shadows? Oh, it's very fine 'grain' but is there, nonetheless. How much it matters, I don't know.

Some other samples I have seen do have great detail but are rendered how I might call 'thinly', like the lines have been sketched in with a very fine pen. Maybe this is just the sharpness that I am seeing and am not used to from other cameras.

Anyway, great shots and thanks for sharing those full size images!

Lee
 
R

raulb

Guest
This thread has been a revelation. Some of the shots are spectacular. The samples here, at clubsnap and the flickr dp2m merill pool single this sensor out. The foveon does seem to bring an extreme sharpness and clarity to the images, and you begin to miss it in other cameras.

I am about to put an order for this and wanted to get some feedback and opinion on 'people' shots. There are very few samples online, and those that are look a bit ordinary, with none of the 'magic' you see in landscape and architecture.

Would there be a reason for this or is it just that not enough folks have got their hands on the camera yet.
 

scho

Well-known member
Hi Carl

Thanks, keep them coming. My initial feelings about the Merrill images are somewhat mixed. That last one has fantastic detail but is this at the expense of some noise/grain? I see a lot of that in the second to last shot. Have you boosted the shadows? Oh, it's very fine 'grain' but is there, nonetheless. How much it matters, I don't know.

Some other samples I have seen do have great detail but are rendered how I might call 'thinly', like the lines have been sketched in with a very fine pen. Maybe this is just the sharpness that I am seeing and am not used to from other cameras.

Anyway, great shots and thanks for sharing those full size images!

Lee
Hi Lee,

This was my first "free wheeling" walk about with the DP2M, so no tripod and I wasn't being careful with exposure, etc. - just quick snaps and then later seeing what I could recover. The indoor market shots were poorly lit and outdoors unsettled and overcast. The last two shots were badly under exposed in the foreground and yes, I did pull up the shadows.
 

Sapphie

Member
Hi Lee,

This was my first "free wheeling" walk about with the DP2M, so no tripod and I wasn't being careful with exposure, etc. - just quick snaps and then later seeing what I could recover. The indoor market shots were poorly lit and outdoors unsettled and overcast. The last two shots were badly under exposed in the foreground and yes, I did pull up the shadows.
Hi Carl

Thanks for the update. Most of your latest batch were taken at ISO 200 or 250 and not particularly long time exposures. So, what I gather from info on this camera is that for the very best results you need to use ISO 100 and the better the light the better the result? That, in itself is not a problem - after all, back in film days I often used to shoot slide film at ISO 50 (actually rated at 40), 64 etc and rarely went higher than 100! It wasn't that long ago that ISO 400 on digital would be considered noisy. I guess we have become spoilt in recent years by the apparent noiseless 'wonder sensors' such as those in the Pentax K5, Fuji X100 and X-Pro etc, though I wonder if that isn't often some sort of in-camera trickery that reduces noise and in the process just mushes detail, even in RAW. (As an aside, wouldn't it be good if cameras had an option 'best detail' versus 'least noise').

In some threads, it may even be this one, I have seen some advice to expose for the shadows and then recover the highlights in SPP, which is counter-intuitive - how far can you go with this approach?

Best wishes
Lee

UPDATE: Carl, I have clicked through to look at the many shots you have in your pbase gallery taken with the Merrill - fantastic stuff! Most of them are noise-free and also taken at ISO 50 or 100. So it does look like the lower ISOs bring out the true potential of the camera ...
 
Last edited:
Top