Such a wonderful, wonderful idea. That sensor is special. IMO if you stay below a certain size the 4.7Mp print looks better than a Merrill. Unfortunately the rest of the camera/s are at best... tedious to use. :banghead:
As you suggest, they should have stayed the IQ king with the 4.7 and not chased low noise with the Q tech.
I think they could have jumped directly on a 24x36 15 MP sensor. A big up-scale of the Merrill. 4.7 MP is a bit low seriously. Or at least 12 MP. The Q tech introduce more noise than the previous sensors by the way. I prefer color noise at some places than luma noise everywhere on the photo...
Now the bad news is out of the way, anything good to report?
Yes ! SPP 6.4 is SLOWER than any SPP to date. You can interpret that as a + or a -
It is time to send a warning to SIGMA and stop any proselytism or fanboyism. The first generations of DP followed by the S series was just exceptional. I know a lot of leica users who bought a DP2 or a DP2s back in the day. It was unique, light camera and light files, superb IQ. The Merrill was a huge jump in rendering and resolution, more hard to master but still... you know ...
There were a time where many thought that SIGMA, with the DP line, might become a sort of Japanese leica. All was here : compact form, simple menus, 1/1/1 sensor and very good lenses.
They screwed it up big time, so hard that it is unbelievable. X3f files are now beyond comprehension necessitating round trips between SPP / PS / plugins ... while DP2s files was so straight forward good. There is a regression. Regression in compactness and file quality (resolutions isn't the main point here).
There is no way Adobe will integrate such a mess in there program, no way ever.
The sdQ is a lens sucker. Many will need the so famous dock (wtf...) to make lenses work almost correctly. Some will need nose surgery to be able to use the well placed EVF and of course, even if the AF of the SD isn't that much good, the Q af (same as DP) is a regression.
Sigma marketing say : " yea we are committed to our super user base, you know ... " WHO ??? Forum scientists ? Flower and cat shooters ? Speculators ?
Sure they need to start to avoid listening to them for good.
SIGMA it is time to go back to your roots. Go in the mountain with your team to think, over beautiful landscape and Japanese forests. Stop trying yourself at design to win TIPA awards ... Go back to drawing board and invest to resurrect the previous sensor at modern sauce. Invest in dev team to make a real raw developer. CHARGE us for it, many will pay. You betrayed your own quality now it's time to face it, to endorse it and to act. Camera isn't vital for you so take your time. We will be here.
You already have LEAF SHUTTER lenses. Why Hasselblad is able to do it when it is YOUR speciality ??? Craft us serious stuff please.