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Sigma DP3M

Hulyss Bowman

Active member
One man already have it since yesterday in Europe (I don't know how) and his first impressions are :

"great lens like DP2M. Even less chrom. aberr. with 2.8. Very balanced in the hand"
His name is "arcaswissi" and here is his newborn DP3 gallery :

Sigma DP3 Merrill - a set on Flickr

Look like the lens is close to have an APO design. That's cool for what I want to do with the 3M
 
P

Pete_G

Guest
Now it's starting to look better. It seems Voigtlander do a 75mm viewfinder, don't know how accurate it would be.
 

Jorgen Udvang

Subscriber Member
I downloaded the last portrait from DC Watch, enlarged it to 5000 x 7500 pixels or roughly 36MP (bicubic smoother in CS6, USM 75/0.4/0) and made a crop. Here it is:



Taken with a camera that would fit in a pocket!

I keep trying to convince myself that I don't need any of these Sigma cameras, but it ain't easy. The three of them cost what? A little more than a D800? Obviously, photos from the D800 can be enlarged even more and that camera can do things that would be impossible with these tiny creatures. But a couple of these tiny things, I could bring anywhere, getting photos that a camera sitting at home in the bag would never capture.

Hmmmm, hmmmmmm and double hmmmmmmmm.
 

Hulyss Bowman

Active member
Some fresh news :

First, I will have my precious next week and I'm happy :) Will come with 3 batteries, SAC-5, lens hood, Heliopan SHPMC UV filter 52mm and so on ...

Second, and do not ask me how I know that, it seems there will a cash back outside Japan borders after all :chug: . It is just a bit long to set all the system, at least in Europe, and I speak for France. More news between the 1st and 3rd of March.

Now, about the actuals samples we can see here and here, and this is just my opinion and my photographer's eye point of view, it seems the colorimetric rendering is different than DP1m and DP2m, more realist and adjusted.
 

Hulyss Bowman

Active member
Yes :)

I go take my DP Monday afternoon. Thing is that the Lens hood will have some delay, it will be in stock around the 15th of March so don't worry if you can't buy it now.
 

csrgavh

New member
Yes :)

I go take my DP Monday afternoon. Thing is that the Lens hood will have some delay, it will be in stock around the 15th of March so don't worry if you can't buy it now.
That's good to know. Did what I thought was an exhaustive search for the hood last night and couldn't find anything other than the LH-3 name for it. I'll wait for it like I did for the hoods for the 1 & 2.

--
Craig
 

The Ute

Well-known member
Guess we'll find out soon enough if the DP3 is as sharp as the DP2.

If it is I see no point to having both.

I'll probably wind up w. a DP1 and either the 2 or 3.

If the 3 turns out as good as the 2 I like the 28-75 range I'd have between the 1 and 3.

That would cover 95% of my needs.

Looking forward to hearing the reports on the 3's sharpness throughout the frame, and how well it compares w the 2.
 

Hulyss Bowman

Active member
Guess we'll find out soon enough if the DP3 is as sharp as the DP2.

If it is I see no point to having both.

I'll probably wind up w. a DP1 and either the 2 or 3.

If the 3 turns out as good as the 2 I like the 28-75 range I'd have between the 1 and 3.

That would cover 95% of my needs.

Looking forward to hearing the reports on the 3's sharpness throughout the frame, and how well it compares w the 2.
If it wasn't as sharp as the DP2 Merrill, I wouldn't buy it at all. I say the lens is even better than the DP2m, ending in less chroma derivations over the frame.

Don't forget this is a little telephoto thus can't really compare with the DP2m. For example, if you shoot a bookshelves at f2.8 from 2 meters with the DP2m, you will have a sharp picture edge to edge, corner to corner. This is not true with the DP3m, and not because his lens is inferior, just because of the focal and DOF. With the DP3m you should go to 3 or even 5 meters to have the same flat plan sharp edge to edge, corner to corner.

Hope people understand my French.

Bear in mind that the DP3m lens is equal if not superior to the DP2m and better matted to the sensor (less chroma problems in the edges of the sensor). Telecentrism is easier with long focal than with short focal. Since the Merrill sensor work at his max only with real telecentric lenses ... you get my elementary conclusion :)
 

raist3d

Well-known member
Here's some Sigma DP3M impressions, as I had a chance to try one briefly last Friday:

-----
To my incredible surprise a friend of mine, that we have been both chiding each other about who will get a sigma dp Merrill first called me for a coffee and showed me the impossible- A sigma dp3m right in front of me. He revealed his secret- he just ordered it last Tuesday from Sigma ditectly and got it yesterday.

So a couple of impression from playing with it a scant ten minutes:

- lens seems sharp & good with nice bokeh

- manual focus ring feels real nice. Wasnt expecting that. Has enough resistance to feel "class" but not too much. I find it very nice.

- close up/macro distance is nice. Not super super macro but its nice.

- overall buttons feel "sturdy enough" that they don't feel bad but decent

- image quality - didnt shoot much but seems obviously good with color reproduction akin to what I remember my dp2. (Iso 100). Did not see any weird color artifacts that were obvious to me in the shots I tried.

Makes me wonder for aps plot secoi luff Signa had a chance to improve the low level pipeline for it or even the sensor tolerances (hard to tell with not so many shots).

- iso 1600 color (dayligh and shade ) looks O-K

- iso 3200 makes a leap to not much good at all. Could still use b&w

- iso 6400 in color was pretty horrible and b&w was bad (less horrible but still bad)

All conditions in good daylight with a mix of light and shade.

-----

Some samples (note: not 100% files so no 100% crops but you should get an idea of the bokeh)



Sample shot ISO 4000 in B&W (unfortunately daylight/good light high iso doesn't mean much)



- Ricardo
 

ggibson

Well-known member
Hey Ricardo, thanks for posting. The second shot looks kind of blurred. Did it misfocus on the hand? Hard to believe it's motion blur since the shutter speed is 1/2000.
 

raist3d

Well-known member
Hey Ricardo, thanks for posting. The second shot looks kind of blurred. Did it misfocus on the hand? Hard to believe it's motion blur since the shutter speed is 1/2000.
Remember it's ISO 4000. I am not selecting noise reduction but there may be some or just the way the data is at that ISO. Some of the noise and the way the tones are take a toll.

Also I used the blue filter (to reduce the noise). At 100% you can see some of the noise collectively probably makes the shot look a bit like that reduced. There's a mix of lack of detail but along with details in the 100% shot.

Finally some areas will also start to defocus, even at F5.6 due to the framing/distance and the 75mm lens equivalence (or 50mm full frame, etc.).


- Ricardo
 

Hulyss Bowman

Active member
At home :) Will try it out tomorrow if weather is ok. First impression : files do not have the same behaviour as the DP2m files, as I suspected. Better colour quality / accuracy. It's like going from SD14 to SD15... a step forward :)
 

Hulyss Bowman

Active member
So, do not panic, I'm actually testing the beast and now, with the new SPP, the new focal, the weather ... I take my time. I will take some days, no rush, to test it, a to give you a little report :)

So my first words, but I already said it : Colours are absolutely right, skin tones are absolutely right, nothing to compare to his little bross the DP2m.
 
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