DP2M: First Serious Outing

Thankfully, the weather was great here in Shanghai today and I was able to go enjoy a nice 4 hour walk with my DP2M.  What a long wait it was to finally see how this camera shoots in a real life situation rather than just sneaking shots at work or after.

Coming from many, many years of using Fujifilim cameras, particularly the last 2 years using the X100, the DP2M is a very very significant drop backwards with regards to the shooting experience. I SERIOUSLY missed the viewfinder.  More than I can say.  I love the X100's viewfinder and I hope Sigma can do something similar.

The entire camera was so different from what I'm used to that the first 30-45 mins of my walk were very unsettling.  No big deal there, new things do that.  By hour #2 I was starting to get more comfortable and the last few hours were very enjoyable.

I set off with 3 batteries in hand and a 16 gig Sandisk Extreme Pro card.  This turned out to be more than enough power.  I had 75% or more left on battery #3 and 75 shots left to take before the card would have been filled.  I came home with 182 shots on the card.

Now I am crunching most of them to TIFFs.  What an arduous process that is.  45 mins of processing and barely half done.

I have looked at many of the shots and I *REALLY* life what I am seeing.  Stunning levels of detail in the vast majority of images.  Some duff shots for sure and the one I REALLY wanted to work didnt as well as it could have.  The focus just didnt hit well.  Oh well.

The DP2M, lens aside (it's fantastic), is really a substandard camera.  I am 100% certain that without the peerless output, I would never use a camera like this one.  Just holding this camera feels so backwards compared to the Fuji X100.  The DP2M is just a brick.

No matter.  Part of me actually likes this because it fights against what is far too common here at DPR: gear lust.  I dont want to love the DP2M.  I want it to do its job and get out of the way.  Far too much time is wasted on gear love.  I want to do photography, not acquire and love gear.  So the fact that I'm not all that thrilled with the actual DP2M camera is surprisingly good for me.  I like that. A lot.

I found that most of the foibles of the DP2M did not bother me.  The slow card reading was never an issue.  The need to carry more batteries no problem at all.  The slow focus is not horrible compared to the X100.  I do think the LCD screen is very substandard.  It was VERY bright here today and I had a very hard time seeing it.  Oh how I wish the DP2M had a viewfinder!!

OK, that's most of my thoughts from this first outing.  Images will be posted in this thread as they are made available.  Almost 1 hour into the crunching of data now.  Wow my laptop is hot.

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9 years of Fujifilm camera usage, ended by rampant fanboyism.