SIGMA CAMERAS

SIGMA CAMERAS & LENSES [ YES ]

CAMERAS: DP1, DP2 & DP3 Merrills, SD1 Merrill, dp0 Quattro
LENSES: 10-20/3.5, 12-24/4, 35/1.4, 70/2.8 M, 70-300/4-5.6, 500/4.5
ACCESSORIES: 2x Teleconverter (SD1M), DP Merrill EVF, DP1M Optical Viewfinder
ACCESSORIES: DP2M Optical Viewfinder, DP3M Close-Up Filter-Lens
ACCESSORIES: LVF-11 LCD Viewfinder (dpo Quattro ), Really Right Stuff “L” Brackets

The Sigma DP Merrill cameras entered the photography scene with a scream. They were destined to be cult cameras with their small size, Foveon sensor, and 45-megapixel look. Pictured above is the DP 1 Merrill. You can see just how small the DP Merrill cameras are when placed next to a color checker. Being a small camera has its good points and its bad points.

The DP Merrill cameras have been popular cameras since their introduction in 2012. The DP1 Merrill & DP2 Merrill cameras were announced in February 2012, along with the SD1 Merrill. The DP3 Merrill was announced in January 2013. I must make the distinction when writing ‘Merrill’ because these are the series of cameras named after the inventor of the Foveon sensor, Dick Merrill. They have the same 15x 3MP APS-C Foveon sensor first seen in Sigma’s SD1 but in a more compact design with a fixed lens. Before the DP Merrill series, Sigma produced other named DP camera models (DP, DPs, DPx), but without the ‘Merrill’ model name and with different specs except for the SD-1 Merrill, which was simply a re-branded SD-1. Moving forward, all mentions of Sigma DP1, 2, & 3 Merrill cameras in this article will be referenced as DP1 M, DP2 M, & DP3 M.

The DP1 M has a fixed 19mm f/2.8 lens (28mm equivalent field-of-view); the DP2 M has a fixed 30mm f/2.8 lens (45mm equivalent field-of-view), and the DP3 M has a fixed 50mm f/2.8 lens (75mm equivalent field-of-view). Sigma marketed the cameras as having a 46 Megapixel Foveon X3 Direct Image Sensor, but their effective pixels are 15 megapixels coming off of an APS-C (24 x 16 mm) CMOS (Foveon X3) sensor. In layperson’s terms, the sensor is made with three 15.x megapixel layers that Sigma adds together and calls a 46-megapixel sensor 3(15.x) ~ 46, but the reality is that we end up with only 15 megapixels (15.x) to work with.

Unfair marketing? Well, if you are a pixel counter at the time of post-processing, you might be disappointed. The cameras can produce shockingly sharp images that enlarge very well up to 13×19″ from my experience (without the aid of an enlargement algorithm). If the entire 15 megapixels are used from a correctly exposed and sharply focused image, that might be where Sigma gets to market 46 megapixels. Still, the 50-megapixel files from my digital back can enlarge much more with smoother gradations and allow cropping as needed (I crop to square a lot), so take the 15-megapixels as the true size for enlargement purposes. I have heard of photographers using programs designed to enlarge files beyond their initial megapixel capture size with these 15-megapixel Foveon files that were happy with results up to 20×30″, but I do not play that way, so I cannot recommend it as an alternative to larger prints. Do some research about the largest size a 15-megapixel Foveon file has been enlarged to, as I am sure someone has published an article about it.

To my eyes, the Foveon colors do not look CMOS. Their color depth and palette are something I have not seen produced by a CMOS or CCD sensor. My medium format 50 pixels back cannot replicate Foveon color depth, but the back-lit sensors in my Fujifilm cameras offer a unique look that a non-back-lit CMOS sensor does not, but still not Foveon color depth. There are many sensors in the APS-C size that can enlarge bigger than the Foveon’s 15-megapixel sensor, but then the size and weight of the DP Merrill cameras shine through. Put all this in a small, compact package with stellar lenses, and now we have a popular camera line for ‘some’ photographers. Oh, but there are quirks and drawbacks caused by this three-layer sensor and by the size and ergonomics of the camera bodies. Notice I have not called the DP Merrill cameras convenient to use. 

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The Sigma DP1 Merrill camera pictured above is what I lovingly called “My DP1M Transformer”. Why? Because when my son was little, he loved playing with Transformer Toys, and after owning the DP Merrills, I can honestly say I have owned cameras that were “little bricks” that I had to transform into cameras. They are cameras, but you cannot hold them to shoot or tripod mount them easily without adding an “L” bracket. And better yet, if you spend the $140 per camera for the Really Right Stuff “L” bracket with a grip, you will finally feel like you can steer these cameras where you want them to go; in hand, up to your eye, or sit on a tripod. Seriously, my DP Merrills looked like they were on steroids when they were ‘transformed’ for shooting. But these are Sigma cameras, and once you own a Sigma camera, you learn to accept its quirks and probable need for add-on body accessories due to its odd shape and poor ergonomics.

The fixed rear screen is the only view you can compose with and run through the menus, but if the sun shines on the screen, you cannot see anything except glare. And forget about looking at the screen in the vertical position; not gonna work at all! And the teeny-tiny optical viewfinders available for the DP1 M and DP2 M cameras are just a money bleed for a dream. What I used that worked best was a rubberized Hoodman Loupe placed over the screen. Amen, sister, ’cause I gotta be able to see. I mean, this is a camera to take PICTURES with, right?

Okay, just another 750+ dollars later, I got my three DP Merrills set up for shooting. The cameras all came with two little batteries. They were so cute, shaped like little squares; I never saw camera batteries so small. This is where we learn about battery capacity in small packages: they do not carry much juice. Now I am faced with two choices (or so I thought); I can either spend more money on extra batteries or learn to be conservative with my shooting. Guess what? I had no choice because the DPM cameras restrict you from pushing down the shutter button due to their small buffers after taking picture #9. Do I have to wait for the buffer to clear after taking just nine pictures? Really? It takes so l-o-n-g waiting for the !@#$%^& buffer to clear!! Forget about bracketing your shots out in the landscape, you’ll be gone from home for so long your family will send out a search party! I have never shot with a digital camera that demanded so much from me.

Ahhhh, but they say the images are worth it, right?

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FOVEON SENSOR SMEARING

When the DP Merrills played well, they did great. I found when I shot in the studio under controlled lighting (like the above image), I did not experience the problems of “magenta or green blotching and smearing” so many DP Merrill shooters report. Great images with magenta and sometimes green blotches usually appearing in the sky and trees are NOT acceptable. Trying to get it all out during post-processing was an impossible task and was not fair to those of us that dumped an incredible amount of money and time into these cameras.

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DP MERRILLS: THE DEAL BREAKER

Where I lost patience, in the end, was with Sigma’s RAW processing software you had to use at the time because Lightroom (LR) did not support Sigma’s proprietary RAW format. Adobe said it could not support the format because Sigma would not let them. Let me tell you that there were many negative write-ups about the Sigma Photo Pro (SPP) software. I think we all tried to get Sigma to see how bad it was by writing on photography forums across the web, hoping they’d update it, but with every update, just more disappointment. It is, to date, the slowest software program I have ever used. I used to think of the word slow whenever I thought of Sigma. I even posted a short YouTube video showing how slow it took SPP to upload images from a card. You know I am pissed if I do a video!

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THE NEXT GENERATION DP: dp0 QUATTRO

The dp Quattros were the next generation for Sigma’s DP series of APS-C sensors and fixed lens cameras. I purchased a dp0 Quattro with a 21mm equivalent lens and a 20-megapixel redesigned Foveon multi-layer sensor. The Quattro sensor still uses three layers to detect color information. Still, it only captures its full 19.6 MP resolution in the top layer, with the lower two layers capturing 4.9 MP of data each. The problem was that it did not have the Foveon color depth and palette I wanted. The files looked like CMOS files with no unique Foveon flavor. The ergonomics of the camera were not at all to my liking. The viewfinder was once again only the rear screen, but Sigma offered a hooded loupe that attaches to the camera base, which made viewing the screen just fine, but what an odd-shaped camera to hold and use after you put it all together! The dp0 Quattro set a new record for me as being the quickest camera I have ever bought and sold! My LR catalog says I made less than 200 images with it before I sold it. However, one good thing with the release of the Quattros was that Sigma finally got the message about their stinking SPP software and released this camera’s RAW files in DNG format.

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I eventually sold all the DP Merrill cameras because I stopped using them. According to my LR catalog, the total number of images I made with each DP Merrill camera is: DP1 M = 392, DP2 M = 1,081, and DP3 M = 445. That is a total of 1,918 images. That is a small number of images from three different digital cameras. If you consider, I sometimes chose to bracket with all of the cameras and owned them for more than a few years. But, I loved the Foveon sensor for its color depth, and during the time I had all three of the DP Merrills, I purchased a used SD1 Merrill and a few lenses to see if I preferred the DSLR Sigma with the same Foveon sensor, and boy am I ever so glad I did!

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