[Klaus]

More speed and DNG support:

https://www.sigma-global.com/en/download.../firmware/

[JJ_SO]

Oooh yeah, I wet my pants.

 

• It has corrected the phenomenon that the AF Shooting button did not work while the camera was using AF Lock.
  
• It has corrected the phenomenon that adjustments on the marked images could occasionally freeze the software when the card has an X3I file in it.
  

 

That's the ancient type of bugs as big as a rhino. Freezes! Phenomenons! Probably Aliens involved massacring brains with 12 bit of buttery DNG raw.

[obican]

Do you mean they actually sold one?

[JJ_SO]

If they can sell them in Switzerland, they can sell them everywhere. All three, that is. Anyway, I saw an offer today. The 18-35/1.8 with Sigma mount for 400.-

[borisbg]

JoJu, there is sample gallery at DPR (probably you've seen it by now). The skin rendering is amazing. May be it is meant to be a studio camera after all. On other hand I noticed that even slight lift of the shadows shows good amount noise.

[JJ_SO]

After seeing the DNG-file sizes (around 145 MB/picture) my interest went south  <_< But I think, this is to be expected. I don't know if Sigma implemented the DNG support, but as their software department is not convincing me at all with their crashing and on Mac OS very slow app, I can't expect miracles. Going superbig in terms of file size will also affect data writing times and battery life (which already is nothing to write home about)

 

No, to me it's not a game changer and my current holidays in Wales are the first ever in my life I took a laptop with me because CaptureOne 10 beta with compressed Fuji Raw Support is a change in quality I was looking for. I thought about taking one or two Sigmas with me, but that would mean more chargers and always a tripod because of base ISO in a church.

 

I'm still a fan of the Merrills, but the Quattros might be the wrong way to go. Pity. Last time I was here, I brought some very nice pictures home from St. David's and I know I don't even need to try to get this results with the Fuji. It will miss details of which I know they can become visible. Marble structures so silky you can touch it. Or how about the textures on this dead animal?

 



 

But a studio camera for my non-existing studio? Hesitating.

[Klaus]

Isn't this (the DNG size) configurable (by storing in native resolution)?

[obican]

That's some seriously impressive texture on that dead animal. 

[JJ_SO]

Isn't this (the DNG size) configurable (by storing in native resolution)?

 

Don't think so. Native resolution would be 25.5 MP, according to DPReview. Sigma scales that up to 51, their voodoo calculation with being R and G normal layer and B 4 times the resolution, I really don't want to follow this kind of calculation. A normal Sigma Merrill RAW already has 50 MB. "Compression" is something which hasn't found it's way in the Sigma camera design. Okay, within the app. 150 MB DNG file is a 13 MB full res JPG.

 

But next to this heavy file size battle for me is the problem, the lenses DPReview used to produce the samples are all Art lenses, therefore the camera is merely an appendix to a fat piece of glass - and I'm not even talking about the latest monsters like 20/1.4, 85/1.4 or 135/1.8 (why didn't the y go the full f/1.4? 1 kg are or less, do they care about weight?). Makes me a little sceptical about the tripod thread or at least for the tripod head which has to deal with a lot of headweight.

 

I just know that the 50 mm Art was not beating it's 50/2.8 colleague on the DP3 Merrill. So, lens wise I feel on the safe side. Tech-wise the DP3 is hopelessly outdated - but at base ISO I don't see this kind of noise I can see in DPReview's samples. That might depend on the RAW converter, yes - just to say, the Quattro series sensors have not convinced a lot of Sigma owners.

 

But all theory is grey. Unless I haven't touched such a device, I can't judge if it's at the end more practical than I currently can think of.

 

At leat, that's one of the few mirrorless with lenses put to 600 mm 

[JJ_SO]

That's some seriously impressive texture on that dead animal. 

 

Yes, that's the big benefits of Foveon, textures and details. I could not imagine these sensors could survive otherwise with all their downsides. It just needs big patience due to the slow RAW-converter, but the results are outstanding if the subject also had patience.