peterlee10
New Member
- Location
- Orange NSW Australia
I have recently joined Serious Compacts and am enjoying reading the comments of other Sigma Merrill users.Not much is said about Sigma Photo Pro and to my mind nothing has changed much since Michael Reichmann of Luminous Landscape wrote to the Sigma CEO begging him to work in with another 3rd party software developer to provide decent raw support.To my mind the easiest option would be to allow files to be exported in DNG format. The Merrills have been around for some time now and I suspect that the window of opportunity for 3rd party raw support has passed, especially as sales of Sigma cameras have stalled .This is a huge disappointment to me as I wonder how much better the images would be with raw support from Adobe , DxO or Capture One.I have adopted Michael R's approach is SPP - do the basics only and reprocess in Photoshop.The future I believe of Sigma cameras is not good which is said because my most valued material possession is my DP2 Merrill.
So whats wrong with SPP ? Their website states "Lets you craft masterpieces of photo ...... the result, we believe is the finest digital darkroom available today". They carried on with the same crappy marketing hype with the Sigma SD1 which originally sold for over $9,000.00 - what a disaster.
Back to SPP -
(1) no way to set meaningful black and white points (vital to ensuring the images is exported from the raw developer with a good tonal range).(2) The Highlight Correction slider , if moved to the left it actually desaturates the image - if trying to tone down a sky it bleaches it out.
(2) Colour correction wheel - a hit and miss affair at the best of times - slider as in all other mainstream software would be far better.I often use a grey card in my initial images and fix the colour balance in PS.
(3) Noise reduction filter - at 100 ISO it simply doesn't work ( I have examined images @ 100% and 200% and can see no difference on or off).The Foveon sensor oftens leaves some noise and artifacts in the sky which I remove in PS.
(4) CA correction - it is possible to induce CA with the Merrills especially when shooting backlit subjects and SPP does nothing to remove it - easily fixed in PS.
(5) No curves panel – this is a simple editing feature available in all most other imaging software and again integral to setting up a good tonal range and balance. I do this in PS as well.
(6) No selective tools whatsoever – how do you "craft masterpieces" without these basic tools.
I wont even talk about the new Black and White feature in SPP. Few serious black and white enthusiast would be happy with this "feature" - even with PS it is harder to produce exhibition B & W images than with a traditional darkroom.My own feelings are that SPP is suited to "happy snappers" or people that just shoot JPEGs ( in saying that I acknowledge that not all people who shoot JPEGs are "happy snappers" otherwise they won't be reading these forums.
I have voiced my complaints to Sigma Support and their Engineers and they have taken the approach that their software is world class and refused to accept its shortcomings.I am taking a leaf out of Michael R's book and will forward my concerns to the Sigma CEO ( Michihiro Yamaki) .It took some finding but his e-mail address is intl@sigma-phot.co.jp. ( I have yet to test this but will also back it up with a letter (Company address on website).
On another issue I have had problems with the latest firmware updates for the DP2 and DP3 Merrills.If using manual white balance ( essential for stitching images) it muddies up the images , with a heavy warm bias and they are not as crisp as before.I have asked Sigma Support for the former firmware downloads but they refused.
If anyone does have them could they let me know - is should have kept mine.
So whats wrong with SPP ? Their website states "Lets you craft masterpieces of photo ...... the result, we believe is the finest digital darkroom available today". They carried on with the same crappy marketing hype with the Sigma SD1 which originally sold for over $9,000.00 - what a disaster.
Back to SPP -
(1) no way to set meaningful black and white points (vital to ensuring the images is exported from the raw developer with a good tonal range).(2) The Highlight Correction slider , if moved to the left it actually desaturates the image - if trying to tone down a sky it bleaches it out.
(2) Colour correction wheel - a hit and miss affair at the best of times - slider as in all other mainstream software would be far better.I often use a grey card in my initial images and fix the colour balance in PS.
(3) Noise reduction filter - at 100 ISO it simply doesn't work ( I have examined images @ 100% and 200% and can see no difference on or off).The Foveon sensor oftens leaves some noise and artifacts in the sky which I remove in PS.
(4) CA correction - it is possible to induce CA with the Merrills especially when shooting backlit subjects and SPP does nothing to remove it - easily fixed in PS.
(5) No curves panel – this is a simple editing feature available in all most other imaging software and again integral to setting up a good tonal range and balance. I do this in PS as well.
(6) No selective tools whatsoever – how do you "craft masterpieces" without these basic tools.
I wont even talk about the new Black and White feature in SPP. Few serious black and white enthusiast would be happy with this "feature" - even with PS it is harder to produce exhibition B & W images than with a traditional darkroom.My own feelings are that SPP is suited to "happy snappers" or people that just shoot JPEGs ( in saying that I acknowledge that not all people who shoot JPEGs are "happy snappers" otherwise they won't be reading these forums.
I have voiced my complaints to Sigma Support and their Engineers and they have taken the approach that their software is world class and refused to accept its shortcomings.I am taking a leaf out of Michael R's book and will forward my concerns to the Sigma CEO ( Michihiro Yamaki) .It took some finding but his e-mail address is intl@sigma-phot.co.jp. ( I have yet to test this but will also back it up with a letter (Company address on website).
On another issue I have had problems with the latest firmware updates for the DP2 and DP3 Merrills.If using manual white balance ( essential for stitching images) it muddies up the images , with a heavy warm bias and they are not as crisp as before.I have asked Sigma Support for the former firmware downloads but they refused.
If anyone does have them could they let me know - is should have kept mine.