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WTB: Sigma DP-2

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PIXIllate

Guest
Been trying to convince myself to buy a DP-2. I own and love the Ricoh GR-D II which I use for lots of B&W street shooting both as a 28mm and a 40mm. It's MUCH better without the conversion lens. Lots of my shots here:

http://blackandwhiteviews.blogspot.com/

I shoot all manual and RAW with zone focusing so I think I might be able to live with the downsides of this camera but I'm just not sure. With the likely hood of more large sensor compacts coming to market this year (and a rumored replacement for the DP2) anyone out there have one at a great price that might take me off the fence?
 

madmaxmedia

New member
Have you ever zone-focused with a larger sensor camera? The DP1/2 have a really nice manual focus wheel, but I wonder about zone focusing with a larger sensor.

I like the post-processing on your GRD II shots-
 
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PIXIllate

Guest
Good point and one that I wonder about. Right now I shoot the GRDII at f/4 which is the maximum diffraction limited aperture. Set to ~1M I get everything within 15-20ft in focus. I figure with the DP2 I'll need to shoot at f/5.6-f/8 to get similar DOF.

Processing is done with ACR then NIK Silver EFX. Thanks.
 

madmaxmedia

New member
I don't mean to hijack your thread, but this is an interesting subject.

Using an online DOF tool (http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html), the hyperfocal distance for GRD II (with 5.9mm lens) at f/4 is 4.78 ft., so your latitude should be even larger than you indicated- set focus at 5 ft. and roughly everything from about 2.5 ft. to infinity should be more or less in focus.

For a Sigma DP2 (24.3mm lens) at f/11, the hyperfocal distance is 10 ft., so everything from ~5 ft. to infinity. At f/16 the hyperfocal is 6.8 ft., still longer than the GRD II.

I think more useful than hyperfocal (since we are talking about zone focusing), is to take a typical subject distance and camera settings, and calculate your DOF or zone focus 'margin of error'. I used to have a GRD, so I'd plug in these numbers to see how close I needed to be with close subject distances.

Another option (unless you really prefer 40mm to 28mm) is to try a DP1 which is cheaper and has more DOF due to 16.6mm lens (of course DOF changes with subject distance, so if you find yourself get closer to subjects at 28mm to fill the frame then DOF will probably be similar to using the 40mm lens and stepping back a bit.) But at f/11 the hyperfocal distance on DP1 drops all the way to 4.5 feet.

The DP1/2 have much better manual focus control IMO than GRD I/II though. I think if you are good at estimating distance then it might work, especially with the DP1 (too bad about RAW write time.) The GRD III is also pretty good since you can easily adjust snap focus distance (too bad about the price.)
 
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PIXIllate

Guest
I usually find those calculators to be best guess at best. In my experience the GRDII is good enough to not worry about at around the 1m@f/4 setting on the cameras scale. Unfortunately when you use AF to focus on something 1m away and then switch to MF the things says it is set to 3-4 meters away. So there does not seem to be any real correlation between the cameras scale and the real world. Trial and error is one thing digital is good for. I would imagine it would be the same for the DP2. After using it for 2-3 days I'd get a handle on it and then it would become second nature. I love the 28mm focal length but to be honest I'm quite happy with the Ricoh for that. When you put on the 40mm adapter lens things take a big turn for the worse. I mean it's a cheap thing and is OK considering but it flares like a bitch and it isn't what I'd call sharp. Since I only use all these portable camera for street shooting my demands may be different than some. I still have a D300 and a bunch of primes for shooting portraits and such.
 
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PIXIllate

Guest
Well I found one, bought it , received it, and then found it had a hot pixel at all shutter speeds and all ISO's.

I guess I'm looking again because I really loved the files.
 
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