Sigma How many DP Merrills?

grdglass

New Member
I've been following Lloyd Chambers recently. He advocates fixed lens cameras for best image quality. Do people on this forum have one or more Sigma DP Merrills? How many and which models? Or, do you use one Merrill as a supplement to a more extensive camera system? If someone knows how to make a poll from my questions, please do.
 
For landscape work I carry the three DP Merrills all fitted with Sigma lenshoods and John Millich L-Bracket/Grips.

I carry a Gitzo Traveller tripod with Gitzo ball head/Novoflex Arca Swiss clamp/panorama rotator plus a lightweight custom panorama bracket.

I use a Cokin 75mm filter holder and hood for grads plus 52mm ND400 and pola filters with 49 - 52mm step up ring

I also carry a total of 14 batteries :eek: and sometimes an Anker 10,000mAh power pack with Sigma dummy battery lead.

I kid myself that this is a lightweight landscape rig but at 6 kilos it's probably not much lighter than my old MF gear :(

Approximate useage for each DP Merrill: 20% DP1, 50% DP2 and 30% DP3.
 
I have the Sigma DP2 Merrill and DP3 Merrill. I'd buy the DP1 Merrill too, but a line has to be drawn. I'm not Roy :tongue: (At least I still have the original DP1)
 
I have zero fixed lens cameras, but I do see the attraction. (Former X100 owner). If something around 90mm is ever available that is good for casual portraits (non-studio) I'd be very tempted to use it and a 35mm equivalent option in a two camera kit.
 
Right now I have the DP2S, but I'm plotting what to sell to get the Merrill. Anyone else get a weird greenish vignetting on the earlier model? Usually it's not a problem, even when it shows up, but occasionally I have to create a magenta mask at 12% opacity or so and erase the unaffected areas with a very soft edged brush. It hasn't diminished my regard for the camera, which I like a lot, but it makes me all the more want that Merrill, on which other people who have experienced it say the issue does not exist. I'm even thinking --- Gulp! --- of selling my lovely PL25 f1.4 to get to the Merrill goal. People who like these cameras seem to really like them, me included.
 
Dunno about really liking them Larry. Truth be told, I run the risk of entering into something of a love/hate relationship with the damned things.

I think it may have been Longfellow who got it in a nutshell: 'when she was good, she was very, very good, but when she was bad she was horrid'

Getting reliable results from the Foveon chip is sometimes a bit like squeezing blood out of a stone. Even though I shoot RAW, I always bracket whenever the shot includes a lot of shadow area. I've found that it's desperately easy to get lumbered with the dreaded green and magenta mottled shadows we've all grown to know and detest, and recovering detail in underexposed areas often also involves saying goodbye to a sizeable chunk of chroma.

'Challenging', 'Niche market', 'Acquired Taste', 'Not for the Faint-Hearted'. I'll go along with any and all of those.

The camera I actually enjoy using most is my Fuji X-E1. It's well behaved, much easier to use and rarely puts a foot wrong. But - terrific though it's IQ certainly is and fine though the Fuji X lenses undoubtedly are - at base ISO, those pernickerty, infuriating little Sigmas just keep on besting almost any result it's capable of.

At the moment I'm mired in the middle of a load of Sigma RAW files that need processing. I just know that coaxing worthwhile results out of some of them is gonna drive me mad . . . but then again, I'm also sure that most of the rest will confirm the faith I continue to have in these little monsters.
 
Until I got the Sigma, the last time I shot at iso 50 was using Fujichrome quite some years back. I'm disappointed the Merrill doesn't retain it, but by all accounts it really doesn't need to, and it does better on the high end than the previous models, though still not the camera to buy to go shoot in the subways of New York or Boston.
 
I've bought a Sigma DP2M last friday and I shot pictures with it during the weekend, beside the exceptional clarity, I am really delighted by the natural look of the images.
The camera is not an easy one, has limitations but the first impressions I got after taking about 200 pictures are that it is a kind of specialized camera and a proper photographic tool that has personality and can give very high and distinctive quality images
 
I have the DP2M as my main camera. I'm waiting to see the performance of the Quattros as i'd like the 50mm macro. If the Quattros take off, the DP3M may drop in price and i might snag one of those instead
 
I only have the DP2M. I really like the camera and the awesome IQ, but the FOV is a bit too long for me in the city so I usually carry a GR (+ GW-3) or a RX100 for wider shots and when the light becomes too low.
 
Three Merrill camera bodies with 5 equivalent focal lenghts primes are mine, including 21, 28, 34, 45, and 75mm. The 21 and 34mm thanks to the Ricoh GW3 wide angle converter which works like a charm on the D1M and DP2M.
 
Three Merrill camera bodies with 5 equivalent focal lenghts primes are mine, including 21, 28, 34, 45, and 75mm. The 21 and 34mm thanks to the Ricoh GW3 wide angle converter which works like a charm on the D1M and DP2M.

does the GW3 screw directly onto the sigma lens?
 
I have a DP1M, a DP2M, and the DP3M is in the post :) These are not 'do-it-all' cameras, but what they do well, they do very well.

That's cool and I understand that very well!
I got a DP2M last week and I am really so impressed that I am already wondering whether to expand the set, but I am trying to be thoughtful and resist compulsive buying
:)
 
Back
Top