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Sigma DP2 Merrill shots

ustein

Contributing Editor
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kit laughlin

Subscriber Member
Re: shot of a Sigma DP2 Merrill

When I first saw Uwe's DP2M + stick (or whatever you call the handle you screw into the tripod hole), I thought it looked "dorky" (Uwe, no disrespect here; this is an Australian word that can be used affectionately as well as disparagingly!), but the fact is I found a similar one while tidying the studio yesterday.

The DP2M arrived this morning; first impressions in a moment, but I attached the stick, and voilà: the handling is transformed. Here it is:



Uwe: thank you, sincerely; it is a wonderful improvement and I was able to brace myself and the camera while making the obligatory cat shots this morning in a way that is simply impossible with a boxy P&S shape and size.

I can now report that using a Helios viewfinder for any work where you actually want to frame and focus on a particular part of the image will not work, at least for me! Maybe if I use a large-size focus area and am in a crowd or in public, that could work, maybe.

Overall, after an hour, I feel that this little toy has one of the most intelligent UIs of any camera I have owned (and like many here, that is a great many).

I particularly like the ease of changing and moving the focus point and exposure compensation.

Battery life... well, that's another matter.

I can't see this being the only camera I own, but the focal length is perfect, and preliminary checks of focus and colour accuracy are encouraging. More to come. Thanks so much to this thread here!
 
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ustein

Contributing Editor
>I thought it looked "dorky"

I have no problem with that. I look for results :)

>battery life... well, that's another matter.

Film had also only 36 shots :)
 
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kit laughlin

Subscriber Member
This site has an amazing habit of deleting posts if you have not checked to see if you are still logged in.

Anyhow.

The cat shot first, focus left eye:



In-camera, Neutral. Output TIFF and JPEG very accurate colour-wise. All settings SPP standard (I tried a few different colour settings; and left sharpening at standard), > TIFF >smart sharpen > crop > JPEG

I am not finding SPP unusable on a MacBook Pro (quad-core, i7, max RAM), so far, and no crashes. Hitting the Full Res button essential, though.

So far, so good.

Oh, (@ Uwe:); yes, re. number of shots—I shot MF film for years, and we would have killed for 36! Definitely not a problem for me. And I will be looking in to that little tripod, too. Cheers, kl
 
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kit laughlin

Subscriber Member
Hello BL,

1/80", ƒ2.8, ISO 200, +3 exp. comp., Auto WB, Neutral colour. ƒ4 would have been better (distance ~2'). This is a 'lilac Burmese'; very difficult to get the colours accurate (purple is one of the colours they display). Anyhow, this was my very first attempt using SPP, so happy with this. More to come.

BTW, to all, ISO 1600 is useable, I feel; take zero notice of the LCD display—it will look wildly grainy. The same image opened in SPP will look completely different, assuming you shot in RAW (and everyone here does!). It's sharp, but not fakely so, to my eyes. I am liking this little toy, I have to admit!

Cheers, Kit
 

biglouis

Well-known member
(I thought I replied to this but...)

Kit, interesting to get those statistics.

At f2.8 the lens performs very well indeed. At least as good as the sharpest Leica lenses I ever owned (including the 28/2.8 ASP which was razor sharp).

I've found that the transition from focus to out of focu areas is very well controlled on this lens as demonstrated by your cat picture.

I still don't get it. How on earth can this camera be this good?

LouisB
 

Michiel Schierbeek

Well-known member
Hello BL,

1/80", ƒ2.8, ISO 200, +3 exp. comp., Auto WB, Neutral colour. ƒ4 would have been better (distance ~2'). This is a 'lilac Burmese'; very difficult to get the colours accurate (purple is one of the colours they display). Anyhow, this was my very first attempt using SPP, so happy with this. More to come.


Cheers, Kit
Nice photo, but f4 or 5.6 and you could count all the hairs!

Michiel
 

kit laughlin

Subscriber Member
I have pretty much kept the lens wide open since I took the camera out of the box; and have kept all the settings inside SPP at default. This means that sharpening is applied, from what Herb and others have informed us, but for my tastes (in this image at least), does not look overdone. The original image at 50% looks as if it will print well.

Now, Herb's and other's interests here centre on landscapes—so the sharpening proposition is very different AND much of the images is focussed at infinity. As everyone here knows, at the kinds of distances I shot Suu Kyi (the cat) at, DOF falloff is rapid. So (now to Michiel), I will try ƒ4 and you will all be welcome to count the hairs!

I took this little toy out with me last night with a Cokin .9 grad and the Uwe stick (and a Hoodman loupe); in the end, the loupe stayed in the car. What an amazingly compact rig!!! Not a spectacular sunset, but I just wanted to get familiar with it all.

And the focal length is perfect for me for the majority of the 'beauty is everywhere but we move too fast to see it' kind of images that I mostly make for myself. There are two things that I absolutely love about this camera: one is the fact that IQ is my fault alone, and the UI: it is intelligent and something in me resonates deeply with this.

I am still getting the X-E1 (there are too many situations where I would be forcing the DP2's capacities, like a shooting a gymnastics workshop I am hosting this weekend plus I need video capacity which I think the X-E1 will be able to do), but it will be interesting to see which one I pick up each day. Cheers, kl
 

biglouis

Well-known member
Uwe

Great stuff. I really feel the DP2M excels at this type of close-up texture shot. Perhaps because you see such amazingly detailed patterns? Lovely captures.

LouisB
 

ustein

Contributing Editor
>I really feel the DP2M excels at this type of close-up texture shot.

Yes. I use it also to capture textures for my Texture Blending.

This uses the texture of the tire:

 

peterb

Member
Some shots taken at Washington D.C.'s National Harbor Tree lighting festival yesterday. The last two shots were at ISO 3200, converted to TIFF with just a little of LR3's NR applied (value=26).
 
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