One trick pony Locked

Shashinka73 wrote:

I followed this thread with considerable interest and amusement.

OK, first off, the original reviewer shouldn't be let near any camera with Foveon technology inside it. His sample photos are garbage and he probably just isn't intelligent enough to be trusted with something like Foveon.

I've handled the Quattro, and it feels...unusual, I think the word is. The resolving power seems pretty outstanding. The question is - how much more outstanding is it than the current DP Merrills?

I remember very well the first time I saw a DP2 Merrill file on my 21 inch Imac. I think I actually used an obscenity, in the good sense. As in, "f**k, look at that!".

My main doubt is that the Quattro improves upon that to the degree that the Merrill improved upon (in terms of acuity) any camera I had used up to and including that point. I can't see it happening; it would be a quantum leap - and I consider the DP Merrills to be a quantum leap ahead of Bayer sensors (at low ISOs, let me add).

Let's put this in context. I have a DP Merrill 3 and a Nikon D3. As different as you could possibly get; one camera which does one thing unbelievably well and one which does many things very well. I was shooting an indoor sports event today and, while I used the Merrill for a few creative-type shots, the Nikon got 90 per cent of the action, as it should have.

Yet, as entirely irrational as it is, I find myself considering selling the Nikon and getting the Quattro. Logically, this makes absolutely no sense - the D3 and the DP3 Merrill complement each other very nicely. Yet Sigma are starting to have a "Leica effect"; you want one, knowing full well that you don't need one.

My logical brain says "just get a compact for the wides" (I use a 70-300 on the Nikon, the DP3 Merrill is 75mm in 35mm terms, so I need something wide). My irrational brain says "get the Quattro".

The logical brain is winning at the moment, fortunately. I just can't see the Quattro being enough of an improvement on the Merrills. I don't doubt that they improve in terms of pixel acuity, but to be frank, the Merrills already have an almost obscene amount of that.

My better half dabbles in the stock market, and tells me that Sigma stock has recently shot up. They are presumably doing something right....

I recoup what you said. My main gear is D700 (or D800E) and the DP3 Merrill (I have a lot of other things but only for special things).. I must admit that I use more often the D700 than the 800 because of his fat pixels, because good fat pixels render things in a different way, a different "mood". Then the DP3m, the Best DP ever, versatile, just, awesome with a special colour and contrast signature that can't be created by other cameras. He have more MP but it is an original full foveon; each pixels is unique and full colors, not the case of the Quattro (whatever ppl try to preach).

You speak of "Qantum leap" and it is the correct term

I think, and it engage only myself, that we reached something with the DP3m. You can output some great photos only in SPP if you get it right. If you get a photo right with the DP3m, it do not need any PP, really. About printing, very "few" ppl are printing, around the planet. The DP3m print beyond A0 extremely correctly. It deserve beyond A0 to "smoothen" some high details. Strangely, it is the same with the D700 ! Nobody need more. For more, only huge pros are mandated to provide files for billboards. And they use an another kind of material to shoot...

All of this, by today standards, is a Quantum leap.

This Quantum leap, SIGMA didn't seen it, at all. If they want to improve the Foveon technology they should go full frame 24x36. This is for me the only way to enhance the real X3 foveon and making SIGMA a legend in imagery, at the same level as Leica. They can transform Leica in a rich joke to the eyes of photographers. 24x36 foveon and Sigma lenses ...

But they are kind of conservative and are stuck somewhere. The Quattro is not any-more an X3. The top layer might contain white pixels on purpose, like a front illuminated sensor ... The Quattro is enable to provide the richness of the Merrill, the pop of the Merrill. It is a fact. The Merrill (in his DP3 shell) is the pinnacle of the foveon sensor. It is the pinnacle of APS-C imager even today. So they traded off originality and design for more ease of use ?? They putted money on an assembly line to make the so called "ergonomic" quattro ?? while they already have all the plans and data for the Merrill line ?? There is space in a DP Merrill.

This is wrong SIGMA. Your users care more about the inside than the outside. Your users care about the foveon !! It is THE point.

If you listened a bit your user base and supporters, if you wanted to make something bigger in design, you should have made a Zoom DP, stabilized, around the Merrill. Battery are a problem for a zoom on DP ?? Change just a little bit the design or make a sealed battery grip who use the battery door and the SAC 3 charger. If that is hard to design, change design team. You can now make zooms who are close to the best zooms on this planet for APS-C.

Well you took a way, SIGMA, and for me it is the bad way.

Hopefully we can prove it by the images. Images do not lie.

I just bought a 3rd DP3 to modifies it.