Sigma DP Merrils Price Drop

Bargain...on a side note love the little manfrotto pixie tripod,very well made.
 
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Glad someone on here bought that DP2M on facebook. It was very tempting and I really don't want to buy at the mo.
 
paulcamcas said:
Glad someone on here bought that DP2M on facebook. It was very tempting and I really don't want to buy at the mo.
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I would have got it if I knew of the group..will have to join that tomorrow lol. Had a brief play with the dp3,love the menus so simplistic and easy to navigate.No silly modes or effects just the basics which makes a nice change.Its also pretty customisable,more so than I thought it would be!
Praying for clearish skies tomorrow to try it out.
 
Well just a quick test shot nothing exciting lol..truely amazing how much detail it captures..
Original


untitled-0051 by StuartHowePhotography, on Flickr

and a very large crop


heavy crop by StuartHowePhotography, on Flickr

Its a lovely camera to use and feels nice in the hand,takes a bit of time to get used to the write speeds lol.As for auto focus IT IS Slow! But if your not shooting anything moving too fast it should cope ok.Will try get out and get some half decent shots later.It may be slow but the AF seems very accurate,this was at f2.8


untitled-0039 by StuartHowePhotography, on Flickr
 
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looking good..

well I have just gone through the first battery, numerous messing around in the menus, 48 pics and 2 mins of video.. that is the first charge of a new battery which if I read right somewhere batteries need a few charges/discharges to get up to spec??

anyhoo I went in to this knowing the battery life was abysmal compared to any other camera ever :) but I think I am happy with 50+ shots per charge
 
I am still on first battery and have done over 50 I think but as you say as long as I get 50 per charge I will be happy.
 
Some good advice there..have spoke to lars today on flickr regarding use of the marumi macro filter he uses on the dp3..he rates it highly and also has a good review on it as well.
 
Yeah the short comings are soon forgiven when you process the images! I am now trying to decide on a dp1 merrill or dp2 merrill
 
My DP-2 M arrived yesterday and I have been getting used to a work flow. I think I'll be doing fairly minor adjustments in Sigma Pro Photo, probably as a batch and then exporting as TIFF, then importing those into lightroom for editing. I am tempted to double the file size as I export but that makes the files HUGE. Amazing detail though...



Playing with DP-2 M by ShawWellPete, on Flickr

100% crop


100% Crop by ShawWellPete, on Flickr
 
Congrats Pete..thats pretty much all I do with regards to editing although I export as a 16 bit tiff. That 100% crop would make a decent photo as it is lol,the detail from these cameras is unreal.
 
I'm hungry now! :D

Certainly looks very impressive — don't know if I could hack the downsides though. It'll be interesting to see how the new models will compare when they are released.
 
They are certainly not a camera for everyone thats for sure.I contemplated waiting for the new models but the fact they will be double if not 3 times the price of the current merrills made my mind up.
 
I ordered a DP3M that arrived yesterday. Just about to start playing with the initial test shots I took on a dull afternoon's walk today.

It was a hard decision between the DP3M and DP2M.

Initial impressions of the device itself are that the metal case is nice enough but obviously slippy and in need of even a basic grip. The batteries are ridiculously small - and if they'd bothered to provide a bulge for the grip it would have been an opportunity to provide a larger battery compartment.

The manual focusing works better than I expected. Smooth and quite a low 'gearing' so it feels like it can be used quite precisely. And the other controls and menu seem fine. AF feels slow compared with a DSLR - especially if it's not limiting the focus range.

I ordered the lens hood with the camera - I really feel that at its original price that it's ridiculous that it wasn't included. I've ordered a couple of GGS 3.0 screen protectors in the hope that they will fit reasonably.

The shape of the D3PM is such that it doesn't really suit any of the smaller cases I have lying around and I'm not convinced it will be that safe along with other kit in my backpacks because of the way the lens projects. So I'm thinking about a small separate padded case.

My current intention is to get a lightweight pano head of some sort once I'm happy with the feel of using it and then use it for landscape and close shots.

I can't help feeling - looking at the small battery and lack of grip and then at the shape of new 'Quattro' that Sigma are a bit confused. IMO the obvious improvements to the physical design of the camera were minor and - it cries out for some sort of simple grip, a hinged LCD, a larger battery compartment, and a basic optical VF.
 
Look forward to hearing how well the screen protector fits as I have been looking for one but not found any specifically for the merrills.I like the GGs ones also so may try one.
 
Giottos SP8301L was mentioned in another forum. Bit didfficult to get in the UK.

I did some hunting and saw the 3.0" GGS was also recommended as fitting DP Merrills. The same size should fit one of my other compacts so I'm covered if it doesn't work out. I've got a GGS on one of my DSLRs and it's been fine.

I'm due to get them in the middle of the week. I'll post details of how good or bad things turn out.
 
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Thanks Steve.. Will take a look. Does anyone think that current Merrill will be discontinued...I really want a dp2m to accompany the Dp3 but concerned they will become hard to get hold of soon
 
I reckon they are gonners already Stu. I'd grab one while you can.
 
ShawWellPete said:
My DP-2 M arrived yesterday and I have been getting used to a work flow. I think I'll be doing fairly minor adjustments in Sigma Pro Photo, probably as a batch and then exporting as TIFF, then importing those into lightroom for editing. I am tempted to double the file size as I export but that makes the files HUGE. Amazing detail though...
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That workflow worked for me. Exporting from SPP into a Lightroom auto-import folder helps things along the way.
 
Yeah pretty much my thoughts and not many places have large stock at all of them.
 
Nowhere ever had large stocks of them! They've always been a niche product, not helped by the magazines and online reviewers always emphasising high-iso noise and calling them over priced.
 
magicolor1 said:
Nowhere ever had large stocks of them! They've always been a niche product, not helped by the magazines and online reviewers always emphasising high-iso noise and calling them over priced.
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True, but the magazines are right, for the average person it is a pretty terrible camera. I don't think I'd be that happy to have it as my only camera to be honest, but I love it as a 2nd (or 3rd!) system.
 
Yeah appreciate that Simon but been ringing around a few suppliers and most ,if any stock, are pre orders.Clifton seem to be going through them at a rate of knots and srs are selling their fair share rapidly!
 
ShawWellPete said:
True, but the magazines are right, for the average person it is a pretty terrible camera. I don't think I'd be that happy to have it as my only camera to be honest, but I love it as a 2nd (or 3rd!) system.
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I agrre pretty much Pete but for me at this time the sigma suits me down to the ground.I have no desire for a dslr and all the lens lust that goes with it etc,I just want a tool that can give me superb image quality when I want it. As long as the subject isnt moving and require a high iso...:D
 
StuartH said:
I agrre pretty much Pete but for me at this time the sigma suits me down to the ground.I have no desire for a dslr and all the lens lust that goes with it etc,I just want a tool that can give me superb image quality when I want it. As long as the subject isnt moving and require a high iso...:D
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Yes, my comment was a bit tongue in cheek, I think you could get away with only this as a landscape photographer. I have been playing with off camera flash, it is pretty good, the leaf shutter means that you can sync to really fast speeds, and it makes the camera far more usable indoors.
 
Yeah have read about the flash sync speeds not experimented myself but lots of potential there! Well looks like my fuji has sold so time to put an order in for the dp2 m...are these coming with the latest firmware or do they need to be updated?
 
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