Sigma USA announces price and availability of DP3 Merrill

The sample images elsewhere honestly look terrific, and ISO 800 is good enough to make money.

This seems to be a very serious camera!

For whom? Some have said this would suit wedding photographers as a backup. They are wrong.

Since it takes fantastic shots provided the subject doesn't move, since it's a dreary black, and since it's so expensive only someone that doesn't care about life at all would pay retail for it, this is an ideal funeral camera. Low light, dead subject, dead marketing and distribution channels for the gear, dead skin tones.

If you are also on your way out, all the better I suppose; you can't take the $1000 USD with you.

Seriously - $1000. Sigma maintain their sense of humour (recall the idiotic SD1 pricing...).

It LOOKS like a $35.95 toy camera!

these guys should hire a designer. pity.

I can see using the DP1M in combination with the Fujifilm X100s with wide angle converter so both cams shoot the same 28mm view and use one for speed and one for top image quality for street shooting.

I've written it before and I'll keep repeating it for as long as Sigma keep launching ever more fixed-lens versions of the same camera ...

I'm sure this will be another great little camera from Sigma. But, ahhh ... the price! $999 (£799.99 in the UK) is a lot to ask for these days, especially with compact APS-C cameras like Fuji's X series, Sony's Nex series and a whole zoo of MFT cameras around.

Provided the new Foveon sensor lives up to its promise of delivering excellent IQ, wouldn't it have been nice if Sigma had equipped the Merrill with a proprietary mount (no compatibility necessary) and supplied it together with a set of four high quality f/2.8 pancake lenses (24mm, 35mm, 55mm/macro, 85mm), all nicely arranged in a velvet lined gift box for, let's say, £1199.99? Am I asking too much?

There's no disputing that, for a leisurely shooting style, these three cameras can produce great results. Sigma have managed to find a way of potentially selling three cameras to a single user instead of a single body with interchangeable lenses which can be used on later versions of the camera. I suspect that this approach has influenced Sony. So these are effectively disposable cameras given the way in which incremental improvements in the technology drive an almost insatiable demand for the "upgrading" of still-usable cameras. Whilst Sigma are probably tailoring the sensor construction to match each lens, it's hard to believe that an interchangeable lens version couldn't be designed. No viewfinder of course....

dcwatch just did a review with numerous images. For people with just compare specs on paper, do yourself a favour and look at those images before slagging it.

http://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/review/newproduct/20130222_588809.html

Nothing this compact has produce such incredible details and like many said it's sitting side by side with full frame digital bodies mounted with their respective highest resolving lens. It may be a one trick pony but there's no other ponies like it.

at least they could give a f1.4 lens... come on sigma..

The greatest challenge of Sigma right now is a comprehensive Worldwide Distribution Network.

If this exact same camera were by the other top 3 brand names, these would be raining cats and dogs in sales...

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Fascinating cameras indeed! My next Olympus sidekick is either the upcoming X100s, the Leica X2, or one of these brilliant Sigma DP Merill... Looking at IQ alone, that would be an easy choice (FOVEON X3 ALL THE WAY!)

DPreview instead of doing another review of a 2 megapixel upgrade from Nikon and Canon, how about doing a review of DP1 or DP2? These cameras have been around for a long time offering a totally different sensor technology, but there is not a single beep out of this so called "Photography Review" website. I had to go on different sites to see how these cameras brutally crush the competition in per pixel detail.

this camera makes totally sense ... not ;)

What an exciting focal length. This camera is going to fly off the shelves.

75mm (equiv.) @f2.8 !!!! That's a good one. That "thing" is nearly unusable for anything else than portraits. What a crap. One really has to be a die hard Sigma fan to spend $1k for such a toy. Epic fail, sorry.

What an amazing line of cameras. Look at the images. Right up there with a blad, leica for nikon 800 for a tiny fraction of the price...and it fits in your pocket! Who wouldn't want all three, after reading reviews and comparing photos! Thanks Sigma for re-defining the price/quality matrix.

Check out the review on Luminous Landscape which says it all. While I dearly love the Leica brand, and have owned my share since 1969, this little camera produces superior images for a twentieth of the price. Yikes. (Yes these lenses, especially the one on the DP2, rival the holy of the holy Summicrons!)

In Europe they want 1099€ or what currently translates to 1447$
THAT is one big huge leap from the US price of 999$
Very reminiscent of the 3K$ vs. 3.1K€ for the RX1...

I may buy one Merril, despite all the horrible quirks it has. Being non-Bayer sensor, the rendition of foliage, for example, is just nothing short of amazing. Just need to decide what focal length would be best for me.

It's really a shame that Ricoh and Sigma are the only guys offering prime (fixed) lens compacts.

Having that said, these DP's offer remarkable quality.

It would be nice to have a high quality 35mm lens on something cheaper/smaller than the X100.

This is what Fuji should do with their X100 line (been wishing on that for a while). Three different bodies with 3 different lenses. I'd carry 3 X100's, each having a different focal length (35, 50, 85 in 35mm equiv), and never have to change lenses again.