Sigma DP Merrils Price Drop

ShawWellPete said:
Yes, these where all taken with PW's and a Nikon Flash. I think I have some 602's somewhere, I'll dig them out and see if it works










a quickr pickr post
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Thanks for sharing these Peter, very well lit and executed - and also like your nice healthy dinner in the frying pan. :)

Making it harder for me to say no............

Roy
 
lostsoulal2 said:
Thanks for sharing these Peter, very well lit and executed - and also like your nice healthy dinner in the frying pan. :)

Making it harder for me to say no............

Roy
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It's a no-brainer Roy! That middle picture of the dog is superb and exemplifies what the Merrills are capable of in terms of crisp high-resolution detail.
 
magicolor1 said:
It's a no-brainer Roy! That middle picture of the dog is superb and exemplifies what the Merrills are capable of in terms of crisp high-resolution detail.
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I know Simon! :D Quality / detail is not the issue, it's yet another camera to add to my collection and irritatingly another charger / ac adaptor (think I already have at least 9 ) life would be so much easier if every manufacturer used a standard battery / charger system :(
 
ShawWellPete said:
yep,it works fine with the 602s, a bit of a tight fit on the camera, but fine



Peter, Many thanks for showing the RF-602 works, interesting that the hot shoe was a bit tight, had read that elsewhere too. :ty:


a quickr pickr post
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Peter, Many thanks for showing the RF-602 works, interesting that the hot shoe was a bit tight, had read that elsewhere too. :ty:
 
lostsoulal2 said:
I know Simon! :D Quality / detail is not the issue, it's yet another camera to add to my collection and irritatingly another charger / ac adaptor (think I already have at least 9 ) life would be so much easier if every manufacturer used a standard battery / charger system :(
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I'm gutted I forgot my 4th battery, so only got 3 and charger with me at sisters, and my a77, instax and pink sprocket rocket, and 1020, but still..

and I quite like having a camera that's better than any canon camera in iq, in the right conditions ofcourse but still :)

these merrylls are great and fun :)
 
I've just received my DP2M and am struggling a bit with workflow so any advice appreciated. I am shooting RAW, importing to SPP5.5 and exporting TIFFs (16 bit) to Lightroom, all done on a mac. With most shots I have no obvious problems. With portraits - something not likely to be my main use for this camera but you never know - I sometimes get awful skin tones, a sickly yellowy/green tinge. But sometimes not, and I don't know why.

This what I do at the moment:
The camera lets me set the colour space (I use sRGB), SPP has colour space settings in the settings menu (again sRGB) and I assume Lightroom is doing something here too but I don't know. I import and export via SPP with no changes. Playing with WB in Lightroom can help but adjustments seem very shot specific, even out of a set shot in the same light, and the adjustments can be quite large. Sometimes I cannot get a good colour no matter what I do.

I don't know for sure as I don't have many observations to support this, but the problem seems worse at iso200 than iso100. All shots are natural light and I've tries AWB and sunlight settings in camera but it doesn't help much.

I see shots in this thread - especially from Pete - that look spot on so I am sure this is user error. If anyone can share the intricacies of their workflow I'd appreciate it, especially if they shoot people.

Update: I forgot to say that I have seen this blogpost, noted in this thread, and will have a go at it later:
http://fotogenerellinternational.wo...workflow-how-to-get-more-out-of-color-photos/

Update 2: I've now discovered the colour wheel in SPP and it gets me close enough to tweak later in LR. But each shot needs a different colour wheel setting in SPP which is annoying
 
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Hopefully someone with more experience than me will be along shortly, but I thought I'd add my experience in case it's any help. I don't shoot portraits with mine generally, so feel free to ignore me :)

I also use a DP2M and a Mac, and my workflow is very similar to yours. I open the raw files in SPP, but I do a bit of editing in that to get the colours looking right before exporting as a TIFF (into Elements in my case). I usually find the automatic settings in SPP don't give me the colours I want, so I'd start from the white-balance settings, selecting each one if necessary to see how it affects the colours. Once I get the closest match I then reduce the sharpen slider to the far left and then play with the fill light, exposure and contrast sliders to get the best look. I'll then export as a TIFF and do the rest in Elements. It generally only takes a short time to do the SPP tweaks, and getting it right at that stage makes the colours and dynamic range much easier to handle in the next stage.
 
ianmarsh said:
Thanks Simon, that is what seems to be the recommended approach. What colour space settings do you use in the camera and in SPP?
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I can't recall off-hand, and the camera's at home so can't check until tonight. Generally I used to set my cameras to use Adobe RGB rather than sRGB as it has a slightly wider gamut, but I've recently gone back to sRGB as it seems to have wider compatibility.
 
Further experimentation suggests I can sort out the colours fine using the colour wheel in SPP. But each shot needs significantly different adjustment, which is a pain. Further investigative work needed I think
 
think ours are set to daylight and its been fine, if you doing flash + tunsteon or normal lights, then thats a recipe for pain for colour balance

higher iso does bad bad things giving u a red tint and banding..
 
I think I have somehow changed something fundamental in the camera/in SPP/in my brain as shots are suddenly easier to handle. SOOC through SPP to LR look generally fine.

There is a crazy amount of detail here. I now have to concentrate to see whether I am working on the full file or a 100% crop
 
i think with genuine fractals you might be able to double size it and not make it look too bad, maybe abit bayer looking
 
You can double-size the images straight out of SPP, but they don't look very good IMO - maybe GF does a better job?! The detail rendition from the Merrill sensors is completely unlike anything else :)
 
First serious shot with my dp2m. I'm still not 100% happy with the colour balance in the colour version so here is a toned B&W

13904212670_b660674da9_b.jpg
 
Thanks Paul, I am slowly getting used to it and at least it will serve as a camera I can carry everywhere with me. And I at last have an avatar as my son took a snap of me in the cafe this morning while I wasn't paying attention.

Trouble is, I am now tempted to get a DP3M to go with it...
 
ianmarsh said:
Thanks Paul, I am slowly getting used to it and at least it will serve as a camera I can carry everywhere with me. And I at last have an avatar as my son took a snap of me in the cafe this morning while I wasn't paying attention.

Trouble is, I am now tempted to get a DP3M to go with it...
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Do it! Especially since you were unhappynwith the colour rendition on your son portrait, the 3 does skin tone much better sooc.
 
Just got to find a DP3m at a nice price then...maybe some will come on the market when the quattros are released.

I set the skin tones quite happily last night in SPP then Lightroom, thinking I had done a good job. But when I looked at the shot on Flickr it came up next to a shot taken with my Fuji gear and the difference was stark - distinct greeny-yellow in the Sigma shot, much more red in the Fuji. Neither looked bad on their own, but next to each other the red tint was more pleasing. But having examined him in the flesh today I suspect the yellow of the Sigma wasn't that far off as he has an olive skin tone from his Italian mom.
 
The dp3s are very thin on the ground mate..Saying that I have a nice one sat here doing nothing..lol:naughty:
 
well if it is doing nothing and wants to be recycled into a fuji body, lens or even cash, pop something in classifieds (but warn me first please...). I understand a new shipment to the dealers is due next week too
 
lol who told you that clifton?..they have been saying that since they were first discounted.
 
Tbh mate you would probably be best off getting a new one as I would want pretty close to the new price if I did sell the dp3 as it is mint with official sigma hood and a extra wrist strap and marumi close up filter.Certainly wouldnt be same price as the dp2 I sold as my phantom lust has been cured lol
 
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I'll wait for something used as the Fujis will remain my main cameras. I got a decent deal locally for the DP2M so I'll keep looking for a 3. Several retailers still seem to have them at the old high price and I guess these will have to drop at some point, especially when the quattros finally appear.
 
Cant see the quattros pushing the already low price of £350 any lower tbh but you never know.
 
I've an xe1 and xPro1 and don't really need both so could be tempted to part with either for the right offer. If you are interested let me know and we can do it officially through classifieds.
 
I have been lucky enough to be able to put the DP-2 to the test in the Caribbean sun. Here are a couple of shots.


The main problem has been composing properly without a viewfinder. Has anybody tried a cover for the screen, something like this?
 
ShawWellPete said:
I have been lucky enough to be able to put the DP-2 to the test in the Caribbean sun. Here are a couple of shots.


The main problem has been composing properly without a viewfinder. Has anybody tried a cover for the screen, something like this?
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Awesome, although you could be shooting with a Vtech Kidizoom and I would still say 'Awesome' :) :D

The DIY loupe is on my list of things to do, seem to get decent write ups on the web.
 
ive partly tried a loop, ive sanded down the slightly sharp edge to the eyecup, and tried it briefly, the optics are pretty good :eek:, but the magnetic frame is longer than the glass bit, so will need to add a little bit of tape to get it all level
 
there's optical viewfinders that go in hotshoe, or things like what you linked, mine has a frame that's magnetic you put on the camera, with adheasive double sided tape. Bunch of versions, I may have gotten the non ideal type...
 
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