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Sigma DP2 Merrill shots

ascotinitaly

New member
Hi all,

Here's a post from another forum, probably should have posted it here in the first place, since many of us are more interested in photography first and gear only as a means to an artistic end...

In response to the question "Why did you choose Foveon?..."

******************************************

It's the only camera I have that captures -- quickly -- what I see.

I'm often with clients and have only a few minutes of free time (and no tripod) to get what I can.

Nothing else comes close.

I just opened a pbase gallery for photos that came out the way I imagined them (with the DP2M) but were disappointments with others (Nikon, Sony and Fuji in my case). I don't have any interest in digging around for, and then posting photos that I *didn't* like, so I won't.

What I posted (and will add to as I dig them out) are photos that I have *tried* several or even many times before and always gave up with because the results didn't match what I saw or wanted to see in the finished file.

Let's say that only 2 cameras still keep me excited about opening up the files, while everything else is usually a disappointment. Merrill is the king for anything but people or low light (the other is the original Fuji x100 -- not for Merrill-like sharpness, of course, but for the flawless color and beautiful character wide open for portraits, high ISO champ and very organic, non-digital look).

In any event, I know more or less when the Merrills are going to be at there best:

1. anything with water is more realistic, the reflections, the depth

2. anything with fabric or fine texture is better, more palpable

3. atmospheric haze, smoke, fog, smog is rendered incredibly realistically

4. anything with intense color will hold detail AND saturation if metered right (so flowers or gold mosaic tiles or brightly colored fabrics don' blow out to nothing

5. trees and foliage have better depth/3d pop etc

6. subtle contrast between very similar colors

7. highlights contain color, and the right color information

8. and *obviously* the ability to resolve detail waaaaay beyond any other bar of soap out there!

note: the original 16 bit tiffs are spectacular, the 8 bit full size jpegs are great, the reduced quality jpegs are still pretty impressive but....in order to get a few dozen onto pbase I had to shrink some, so they are pretty "watered down" by this point. Some are still at full size, so set that as a default

link to full gallery: Foveon Favorites Photo Gallery by ascotinitaly at pbase.com
 

Quentin_Bargate

Well-known member
Hi all,

Here's a post from another forum, probably should have posted it here in the first place, since many of us are more interested in photography first and gear only as a means to an artistic end...

In response to the question "Why did you choose Foveon?..."

******************************************

It's the only camera I have that captures -- quickly -- what I see.

I'm often with clients and have only a few minutes of free time (and no tripod) to get what I can.

Nothing else comes close.

I just opened a pbase gallery for photos that came out the way I imagined them (with the DP2M) but were disappointments with others (Nikon, Sony and Fuji in my case). I don't have any interest in diggingposting photos that I *didn't* like, so I won't.

What I posted (and will add to as I dig them out) are photos that I have *tried* several or even many times before and always gave up with because the results didn't match what I saw or wanted to see in the finished file.

Let's say that only 2 cameras still keep me excited about opening up the files, while everything else is usually a disappointment. Merrill is the king for anything but people or low light
...
I pretty much agree (except I think they are good for gritty people shots) and would add that the Merrills are superb for B&W work, and stitched panoramas.
 

ascotinitaly

New member
I pretty much agree (except I think they are good for gritty people shots) and would add that the Merrills are superb for B&W work, and stitched panoramas.
+1 to all of that. It is good for portraits (though my wife runs away when she sees me pull it out! LOL) and BW.

The stitched panoramas are in a league of their own! I'd tried my hand at stitched panoramas with other cameras -- I'd put 3 or 6 or 12 mushy pics together and wind up with.....200MB of mush! Between the slow, inaccurate alignment software and the unspectacular result, I threw in the towel.

THen I saw some of your panos, Quentin, as well as the others of you who have more time and patience than I generally do, and gave it a shot.

Well, the Merrills catch every bit of the texture, smoke, glass, water, color etc. And the newest version of Microsoft ICE is fantastic and fast, aligns some shots that give other programs trouble, and even has an "auto-complete" feature that sometimes works (if you don't have bits near the edge that are unique, so works best with foliage, roads, wood, etc) I can't believe I'd ever say this, but I Microsloth has made a finished product that works and works well.

I don't have time for Nodal Ninja, and can't usually carry a tripod with me, so exact alignment of the shots in the series is solved with my decidedly "ghetto" solution: a 2-meter yard of twine that sits in my camera bag. Luckily, the DPM no-parallax point is pretty close to where the lens and body meet, so I attach one end of the twine to the barrel there, then stand on the other end. Being careful to rotate the camera level around that vertical gives pretty good results (as long as I don't have anything in the immediate foreground).

Some of the panoramas are original size, best seen by clicking on "original" under the first photo you look at, then it remains the default size.

In any event, I tried attaching a screenshot of my pbase gallery to the original post, but it didn't work.....is it not possible to insert links from that site?

Here's a pic of the gallery, it's here:
Foveon Favorites Photo Gallery by ascotinitaly at pbase.com
 
Last edited:

furtle

Active member
A cold, windy and cloudy day in London yesterday. A few pics, en route to a meeting, so, the weather was what it was. The DP2M fits in my messenger bag a treat.

Busker at the South side of the Millennium Bridge. This is cropped in quite tightly.

https://flic.kr/p/qWd1Mqhttps://www.flickr.com/people/80621138@N05/

Looking East from Blackfriars road bridge. Stitched pano.

https://flic.kr/p/rAJMHphttps://www.flickr.com/people/80621138@N05/

Looking East from the Millennium Bridge. Stitched pano.

https://flic.kr/p/rAJQNThttps://www.flickr.com/people/80621138@N05/

St. Paul's from the Millennium Bridge

https://flic.kr/p/rAJTCkhttps://www.flickr.com/people/80621138@N05/

The steel drum busker again but less of a crop. In front of the Tate Modern.

https://flic.kr/p/rT7AhFhttps://www.flickr.com/people/80621138@N05/

St Paul's from the South of the River under the Millennium Bridge

https://flic.kr/p/rAB9Wmhttps://www.flickr.com/people/80621138@N05/

Blackfriar's Railway Bridge taken as a B & W

https://flic.kr/p/rAK4Ephttps://www.flickr.com/people/80621138@N05/

And finally, The Black Friar boozer.

https://flic.kr/p/rySxoghttps://www.flickr.com/people/80621138@N05/
 

bifi25

Member
Germany - Cologne ...Again, incredible details, viewing 100 % full resolution...developed with sigma photo pro, adjusted in LR5...
 
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