Initial impressions Sigma dp2m

[GaryLH]

I just got the camera last night. It has the latest firmware update already.
Made the following changes already to the default values
- turned off all the sounds
- set auto iso from 100-400
- color space is adobe
- raw+jpg at highest quality
- priority af (means while acquire focus don't worry about LCD)
- af limit
- af/mf mode instead of plain af

Set display to optical finder mode and slapped my 40 bright view finder on it... There is a green focus confirm led next to right of hot shoe.. Works pretty well.

Af speed about where Fuji x100 was w/ version 1 fw. LCD ok, but decide to c if I can get better battery life w/ it setup using ovf style.

Largest raw is around 55mb. Jpg is running around 8.4mb. That is a lot of stuff going to sd card :eek

7 frame buffer w/ count down. U can shoot while fames being written to sd card. Using Sandisk extreme pro (95mbs) 16gb card, raw+jpg holds around 235. Takes a good 5-7 seconds per frame. Not playback until everything is sent to sd card.

Amazing amount of detail and info...In the converted from raw to tiff file.

Gary

[GaryLH]

I have iMac w/ 8 gb of memory and dual core i5 3.6ghz.

The SW has not crashed on me yet and was not slow until u did a save to tiff 16, then it was a bit slower than normal, but still not to bad.

Downloaded the latest from sigma website. No cd or DVD in package from sigma.

Gary

Ps. Here is link to sigma site where u can find their photo editor. I am mainly using it to convert to raw and import ack into Aperture to do the real work.
http://www.sigma-dp.com/download/photopro.html

[GaryLH]

The converted tiff16 file is 85mb

Gary

[bugmenot]

Good technical info and impressions. Now ... how amazing are the photographs?

[GaryLH]

Original out of camera jpg

[GaryLH]

Raw converted to tiff 16

Run thru my normal aperture enhancement script. The amount of detail shows up much better in the 85mb file then it does here in the 1024 limit files.

[GaryLH]

Tiff 16 converted to b&w

[GaryLH]

Center crop from converted tiff 16

[GaryLH]

The crop of the crop

[GaryLH]

This camera will never replace my Fuji xp1 given its limitations, but for situations where i can take my time, I don't think anything outside of a medium or large format cameras can beat the iq I am seeing.

Gary

[lam]

Great info Gary, please feel free to keep posting more insights!! This cam is on my list for the future..

[GaryLH]

Thanks bugmento and lam

Gary

[GaryLH]

Lens looks like it hits optimal at f4 and f5.6, but f2.8 is already pretty good. The picture above was shot at f4.

Manual focus feels pretty good. No auto-mag that I can figure out to set when u turn the focus ring on lens. Need to use ok key to go to magnification.

Dof bar info changes on the distance scale as u change f stop. W/ the limited iso capability and shallow dof of the 30f2.8 lens, I would not use this for street shooting where u are zone focused and shooting from hip.. U need to e at f16.. Got to have some bright sunny day to get fast enough shutter speed since there is no stabilization.

Gary

[kbg32]

Gary, the last file doesn't look very sharp to me. The crop of the crop. Possibly the f4 aperture.

[GaryLH]

Originally Posted by kbg32

Gary, the last file doesn't look very sharp to me. The crop of the crop. Possibly the f4 aperture.

It could be me this is hand held at 1/60 f4 iso 250. I exported the crop as a jpg and tiff from aperture library to double check, since Flickr is only using jpg instead of my tiff original.

It is not quite as sharp as the other, but it looks a tad sharper than the Flickr version...

The exported jpg is 557kb and an exported tiff ended up 4.2 mb. The tiff is showing more detail then the jpg.

I am not as steady as I used to be. The 1/focal length rules doesn't work for me any longer. My minimum these days is really 1/125th

Gary

[noimmunity]

Congratulations, Gary!

Detail is amazing. What are your feelings about the color?

I saw a reconditioned one at discount on amazon.fr and just had to.

Could be a damaging year with all those XF lenses coming, too

[GaryLH]

Originally Posted by noimmunity

Congratulations, Gary!

Detail is amazing. What are your feelings about the color?

I saw a reconditioned one at discount on amazon.fr and just had to.

Could be a damaging year with all those XF lenses coming, too

Thanks. The color looks real good to me. I know what u mean. My wallet is starting to hurt already

Preorder on the 21 and xe1 kit this year. 2013 i want the 23 and 28...

GAS got the better of me on this dp2m

Gary

[GaryLH]

Noisiest af mechanism of any of my cameras. With all the sounds turned off, that is all u hear. The actual shutter is almost dead quiet.

AF does better w/ vertical lines. Sometimes works w/ horizontal ones but more often then not it will start hunting.

Interesting that where ever u last left off in terms of manual focus distance, if u switch to af for a while and then switch back to mf mode, it remembers where u left off.

Af limit just removes the check for distances shorter than 1m. Can be toggle active or off via the up arrow (used for all focus options). So far cannot tell if this has helped or not..

Gary

[noimmunity]

Originally Posted by GaryLH

Thanks. The color looks real good to me. I know what u mean. My wallet is starting to hurt already

Preorder on the 21 and xe1 kit this year. 2013 i want the 23 and 28...

GAS got the better of me on this dp2m

Gary

I hear you about GAS. The DP2M wasn't even on the radar for me.

My plans for the X system were originally set around the 14, 27 and 56, in addition to the 35 I already have. So far had exercised enormous restraint sticking to that one 35 (and M lenses) while waiting for the others. But with a DP2M coming, there might be a serious reallocation of resources as I think about a set of Lee filters, a really nice tripod, big cards, an external OVF, and maybe even a DP1M...

[GaryLH]

Here is set of 4 pictures. The first is full frame iso 100 @f5.6 tiff converted from raw, run thru my normal aperture default script. The other three are crops from that shot...

Btw the original tiff looks better than the Flickr web posted jpgs.

Also from my iso testing, 100 and 200 are best as expected. 400 next best but by 800, it drops off much more compared to 400. 1600 marginal acceptable due to color smearing. Converted to BW u can definitely c the noise.

Gary




Bottom middle



Top of wall



Side crop

[GaryLH]

The af focus point was dead enter of the wall btw.

Bottom right corner

[GaryLH]

Top left corner

[noimmunity]

Jaw-dropping resolution and sharpness across the frame. Whoa!

I'm trying to figure this out now. Originally everyone was gaga about Foveon sensors for their color rendition. With the DP2M, it seems the conversation has switched to the sensor-matched lens.

The verdict on the color seems to be hanging in the balance, as we hear reports of color drift, splotching, etc...

I was just sending all of my Velvia positives back to Taipei to get developed, but that is becoming unbearably slow. Were I to buy the film and develop here in western Europe, the price of a DP2M wouldn't even cover a year's worth (and that's not including scanning, which I can fortunately do myself).

I am really bowled over by some of the technical qualities of the DP2M images, enough to want to try it out. I wonder if I have the patience to make it work for me, particularly with regards to color???

[GaryLH]

Originally Posted by noimmunity

Jaw-dropping resolution and sharpness across the frame. Whoa!

I'm trying to figure this out now. Originally everyone was gaga about Foveon sensors for their color rendition. With the DP2M, it seems the conversation has switched to the sensor-matched lens.

The verdict on the color seems to be hanging in the balance, as we hear reports of color drift, splotching, etc...

I was just sending all of my Velvia positives back to Taipei to get developed, but that is becoming unbearably slow. Were I to buy the film and develop here in western Europe, the price of a DP2M wouldn't even cover a year's worth (and that's not including scanning, which I can fortunately do myself).

I am really bowled over by some of the technical qualities of the DP2M images, enough to want to try it out. I wonder if I have the patience to make it work for me, particularly with regards to color???

At iso 800 I can just barely c some color smearing. By 1600 it is noticeable and depending out what u are shooting, color drift . By 3200 forget it..

It is really a 100-400 iso camera. The out of camera jpg are ok up to 200, but to truly see what the camera can do u need raw.

I don't shoot color slide or neg any more only b&w. Develop and scan my own, mainly 120.

As I have said in other forum threads color is digital, b&w is film .. When I first started, I was using panatomic x, plus x and tri x (25, 125, and 400). This camera forces me to use techniques I have almost forgotten about.

Been spoiled by image stabilization and high iso capabilities of today's digital cameras.

Gary

[noimmunity]

There is a really interesting thread over at FM about PP challenges with the files from the DP2M. Guys using Cornerfix to fix up magenta clouds and cyan edges, as well as some occasional green blotching. Check it out!

It doesn't really motivate me all that much, and in some cases I actually prefer the imperfections. Go figure!

As for Velvia, I will continue to shoot some as long as it is available and I can afford it! Just love the look and haven't found anything like it in digital. Not necessarily better, but certainly unique.