Sigma DP2 Merrill: Have any of you tried it?

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Herb1911
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p.35 #1 · Sigma DP2 Merrill: Have any of you tried it?

glacierpete wrote:
douglasf13 wrote:
Good points, Millsart. The DP2M at $699 would be hard to resist.

Douglas

Out of a marketing perspective, I am puzzled with Sigma's pricing. Consumers don't complain over 3K for a Sony RX1 because it has a Zeiss sticker on it, knowing the lens is made by Cosina.

Sigma tried to improve its reputation by putting together a world class lens with a unique sensor. I guess they choose the 1K price proint after their experiece with their Sigma SD1 pricing. It is a very low price for this level of technolog and image output. The camera output is not far behind a Nikon D800e with the best lens.
The Sigma DP2M lens is better than my Leica Summicron 50.

May be they made a mistake by choosing this kind of cheap brick look design, and people are mistaken by the Sigma sticker on it. BUT this camera at the current price level is a steal. I say this after 30+ years of photography with medium format and later digital.
It might have been better to choose a 2K price point from the beginning, make the body look better, make SPP better and most importantly do a better marketing for this incredible pice of technology.

Just my 2c

Glacierpete,
I basically agree with you. Although I think that a lot of people are already complaining about the RX1 pricing.
I do not like marketing, but manufacturers need it and have to use it properly. What I mostly not like about it is that it often confuses a lot of people who, in the end, are not able to choose the right tool for them. Proven by the fact they sell their equipment very fast or let it collect dust on the shelves. I think that Sigma's marketing is improving with the DPx Merill's. But it is clear it is not an easy task to sell even a brilliant product. And it is maybe even more difficult to establish a price point.

Herb

Nov 09, 2012 at 03:25 PM

inglis
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p.35 #2 · Sigma DP2 Merrill: Have any of you tried it?

Herb,
Such a cute pano head. Is it the Really Right Stuff PCL-1: Panning Clamp topped with an Mini-Clamp Package? Do you know what the two brackets are? I am not finding them on the RRS website. Do you like this? Love the size and that you can use different cameras on it.
John

Nov 09, 2012 at 10:19 PM

carstenw
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p.35 #3 · Sigma DP2 Merrill: Have any of you tried it?

It looks like straight RRS stuff, but note that the slider only allows for corrected sweep panos, not row/column stuff.

Nov 09, 2012 at 10:29 PM

millsart
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p.35 #4 · Sigma DP2 Merrill: Have any of you tried it?

Nice pano rig but if its a mini view camera as you state, then why the need for the hood loop ? My 4x5 Toyo field camera doesn't have a VF, it as a ground glass display, which other than showing an upside down image, is just like working from a LCD display

One item I'd suggest changing, as someone who does a lot of pano's, is the RRS panning clamp for an indexing rotator. You can get some Ebay ones for $100-150 depending on number of intervals you want around.

It makes pano shooting SOOOOOOO much easier. Just set the overlap amount you want, and then its as simple as click the rotator to the right or left, snap the shutter, click the rotator to the next position, take the shot.

It makes it error free and much quicker, especially when you have the tripod positioned in such a way that you can't easily view the LCD display or the degree markings on the clamp.

Also, in the event you want to do a second pass for blending of two exposures, (after the DP2m buffer has finally cleared!) it makes it very easy to go back to the first position and shoot it again.

Nov 10, 2012 at 01:07 AM

millsart
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p.35 #5 · Sigma DP2 Merrill: Have any of you tried it?

carstenw wrote:
It looks like straight RRS stuff, but note that the slider only allows for corrected sweep panos, not row/column stuff.

DP2M isn't that well suited for mosaics I've found because the buffer takes so long to clear after 7 shots, especially if you shoot raw. Cloud motion and changing light become a frequent problem.

Being that its only a 45mm equiv lens too, unless you want to capture something insanely wide, your just not going to have enough focal length to isolation each bit of scene for a mosaic.

I generally do multi row stuff around 150mm+ with my Gigapan head.

Besides, with the sheer resolution of the DP2m, even with a single row pano you can easily produce a very nice looking 40" print

Nov 10, 2012 at 01:11 AM

nandadevieast
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p.35 #6 · Sigma DP2 Merrill: Have any of you tried it?

Nov 10, 2012 at 10:28 AM

nandadevieast
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p.35 #7 · Sigma DP2 Merrill: Have any of you tried it?

Nov 10, 2012 at 12:11 PM

nandadevieast
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p.35 #8 · Sigma DP2 Merrill: Have any of you tried it?

Nov 10, 2012 at 12:12 PM

john_edwards
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p.35 #9 · Sigma DP2 Merrill: Have any of you tried it?

nandadevieast wrote:

This image is copyrighted by the owner

This is one cool shot-----great.

Nov 10, 2012 at 01:32 PM

nandadevieast
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p.35 #10 · Sigma DP2 Merrill: Have any of you tried it?

Nov 10, 2012 at 01:45 PM

nandadevieast
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p.35 #11 · Sigma DP2 Merrill: Have any of you tried it?

chairs shot is ISO 800

Nov 10, 2012 at 01:46 PM

Tariq Gibran
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p.35 #12 · Sigma DP2 Merrill: Have any of you tried it?

Nice work!

Nov 10, 2012 at 02:33 PM

inglis
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p.35 #13 · Sigma DP2 Merrill: Have any of you tried it?

Great shots on this page!

Millsart, do you only use the indexing rotator for pano shots or do you add a pano head of some sort?

Nov 10, 2012 at 06:11 PM

sculptormic
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p.35 #14 · Sigma DP2 Merrill: Have any of you tried it?

Fine stuff nandadevieast! Especially the factory shot. Great scene!

One from my series.

This image is copyrighted by the owner

Nov 10, 2012 at 06:17 PM

millsart
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p.35 #15 · Sigma DP2 Merrill: Have any of you tried it?

inglis wrote:
Great shots on this page!

Millsart, do you only use the indexing rotator for pano shots or do you add a pano head of some sort?

Honestly with modern stitching software like PTGui or Auto Pano Pro I hardly ever even bother with entrance pupils, focus rails for nodal point adjustment etc. Just extra gear (and expense) you don't really need, especially for doing single row pano's.

I have a generic L bracket I put the DP2M onto though so I can shoot vertical frames but really thats its, ballhead, then indexing rotator and L bracket.

Nothing wrong with using focus rails etc, but probably 99 times out of 100 I'm just not going to have anything in the foreground that the software can't manage to correct.

My advice is always start out without it, and then only if you see specific problems add more gear, if and only if those situations arise

Nov 10, 2012 at 06:32 PM

glacierpete
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p.35 #16 · Sigma DP2 Merrill: Have any of you tried it?

millsart wrote:
inglis wrote:
Great shots on this page!

Millsart, do you only use the indexing rotator for pano shots or do you add a pano head of some sort?

Honestly with modern stitching software like PTGui or Auto Pano Pro I hardly ever even bother with entrance pupils, focus rails for nodal point adjustment etc. Just extra gear (and expense) you don't really need, especially for doing single row pano's.

I have a generic L bracket I put the DP2M onto though so I can shoot vertical frames but really thats its, ballhead, then indexing rotator and L bracket.

Nothing wrong with using focus rails etc, but probably 99 times out of 100 I'm just not going to have anything in the foreground that the software can't manage to correct.

My advice is always start out without it, and then only if you see specific problems add more gear, if and only if those situations arise

Millsart,
I use a simple MiniKiss2 nodal point adapter made for the DP2M. Nothing to adjust in the field. It is made from magnesit, weight is around 60 Gramm.

A nodal point adapter is helpful when something closer to the camera is included in the image. It looks like the one for the Lumix on their website.
http://pt4pano.com/de/products/restbestand-minikiss
I a not affiliated with them, just a happy customer.

Nov 11, 2012 at 04:30 AM

nandadevieast
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p.35 #17 · Sigma DP2 Merrill: Have any of you tried it?

Thanks guys,
Here's what i'm up to:
http://dpmerrill.blogspot.in/

Nov 11, 2012 at 10:48 AM

sculptormic
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p.35 #18 · Sigma DP2 Merrill: Have any of you tried it?

Le Treport from above.
I took these shots many times with many different cameras and the difference in clearness, sharpness and detail is amazing. Today I took some shots with the NEX-7 + Minolta Macro 100/4 as well and the images look hazy and unsharp compared to these.
Could be the lens or me but I don't think so.

This image is copyrighted by the owner

Nov 12, 2012 at 10:09 AM

RickPerry
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p.35 #19 · Sigma DP2 Merrill: Have any of you tried it?

Here is a blog by Gary Mercer - an accomplished DP2 M user.

http://garymercerphoto.blogspot.com/2012/11/photographing-works-of-art-with-sigma.html

Nov 12, 2012 at 11:53 AM

Lawrence Beck
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p.35 #20 · Sigma DP2 Merrill: Have any of you tried it?

RickPerry wrote:
Here is a blog by Gary Mercer - an accomplished DP2 M user.

http://garymercerphoto.blogspot.com/2012/11/photographing-works-of-art-with-sigma.html

Interesting blog piece Rick, though Mercer clearly shows a complete lack of understanding about Bayer sensors that don't have AA filters, such as the Leica DMR, the Leica M8 & 9, Kodak SLR C, and all medium format sensors... to name a few. He states in paragraph 7: "There is NO bayer sensored camera that is capable of capturing the paper texture without blurring the details due to the anti-aliasing ( blur) filters on bayer sensors. Yes--I could use a bayer sensor camera sans the anti-aliazing filter, but the pattern in the paper would have created a moire problem."

This glaring lack of understanding misinforms and compromises the usefulness of the post and should be taken with a grain of salt, given this inaccuracy. I own both the DMR and the Sigma and love the Sigma for it's incredible per pixel resolution. I've shot both side by side with a lens on the Leica that comes close to approximating the fov of the Sigma and the Sigma kills it in terms of resolution! No contest. The Sigma has become my "pocket tech cam" because of it's superior resolution but the Leica DMR produces more accurate colors without question. It also captures paper texture beautifully with the 100 APO Macro or 60 Macro lens and there is no moiré in spite of the lack of an AA filter. Of course, both of the aforementioned lenses are better suited than the 45mm focal length of the Sigma to photographing flat art... but his test was about how the Sigma excels at photographing art.

The use of the 35 f1.8 lens on the Sony A77 is also a very poor choice for art reproduction as this lens is not designed for such. When doing a test where art reproduction is the goal it makes no sense to try and compromise the end results by selecting a lens for the Sony that approximates the focal length of the Sigma lens. A macro lens on the Sony would have done far better, since the artist Carlos Estevez commented on the superior image rendering detail of the Sigma.

The DMR or A77 with a macro lens are both far more expensive than the Sigma so I don't mean to imply in any way that this is a fair comparison, but Mercer states that there is NO Bayer sensored capable of capturing the details due to the AA filter on Bayer sensors, and this is clearly not true. Serious art repro photographers are using medium format backs for art reproduction, and the multishot backs excel at this type of work. The aforementioned have no AA filters and do a far better job of reproducing color accurately than the Foveon can.

That Mercer is very happy with his DP2M is obvious. I'm equally happy with my DP2M for landscapes... though the colors require adjustments in certain areas that I don't have to adjust on my DMR (though I'll gladly make these adjustments with the DP2M colors since the image is so much sharper and capable of being printed larger than those from the DMR). The glaring inaccuracies regarding Bayer sensors and the poor choice of lens on the Sony A77 reduce this review to one of fanboy enthusiasm rather than an accurate comparison,

Lawrence

Nov 12, 2012 at 04:04 PM

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