Sigma DP1 Merrill Review | 108 Data compared

The ePHOTOzine review of the Sigma DP1 Merrill highlights a camera designed for exceptional image quality, featuring a 46-megapixel APS-C Foveon X3 sensor and a 19mm f/2.8 lens that produce stunning resolution, superb color, and medium-format-like clarity. Housed in a robust aluminium alloy body, it is praised as a powerful tool for landscape and architecture photography, offering a dedicated lens-based manual focus ring and an intuitive user interface. Conversely, the review notes significant limitations, including very slow file writing speeds, a shallow 7-frame buffer, and poor high-ISO performance that restricts, usability to daylight shooting. Additional disadvantages include short battery life, lack of image stabilization, and a required, slow RAW processing workflow using Sigma Photo Pro.

The Sigma DP1 Merrill and DP2 Merrill compact cameras excel in delivering outstanding image quality, remarkable per-pixel sharpness, and three-dimensional clarity through their 46 Foveon-Megapixel APS-C sensors. The 30mm f/2.8 lens on the DP2 Merrill is highly corrected and exceptionally sharp across the frame from f/4 onwards. Additionally, both cameras produce some of the finest, most texturally rich black and white digital images available. Designed with simple, intuitive physical controls and straightforward menus, the overall operational setup offers a refreshing, no-frills shooting experience well-suited for relaxed or tripod-mounted fine-art landscape photography. However, these cameras suffer from severe usability drawbacks, most notably an incredibly poor battery life that yields only 50 to 100 images per charge from the standard BP-41 battery. Photographers must rely on the proprietary Sigma Photo Pro software to process RAW files, which is criticized as slow, unstable, and highly un-user-friendly. In terms of optics and performance, image playback is locked during file writing, the slippery brick-like bodies lack ergonomic grips, and the LCD desaturates heavily in low light. Furthermore, the DP1 Merrill’s 19mm lens is weaker than...

The Sigma DP Merrill series (DP1m, DP2m, and DP3m) consists of niche, compact cameras built around a unique APS-C sized X3 Foveon sensor that delivers medium-format-beating image quality and exceptional per-pixel sharpness at base ISO values. The cameras utilize fixed prime lenses matched perfectly to the sensor, offering a choice between a 28mm-equivalent wide-angle (DP1m), a 45mm-equivalent standard lens (DP2m), and a 75mm-equivalent short telephoto macro lens (DP3m). Key advantages include an incredibly realistic acutance that avoids an airbrushed look, natural and rich colour reproduction, a silent leaf shutter that allows for rapid flash synchronization up to 1/2000s, and a highly discreet, lightweight aluminum build ideal for documentary or street photography. However, achieving these spectacular results requires enduring major compromises in performance and usability. The cameras suffer from abysmal battery life (often yielding under 125 shots per charge), very slow file-writing speeds for the massive RAW files, and a slow, hunting autofocus mechanism in low-light environments. Furthermore, low-light performance is poor, limiting shooters to ISO 100 or 200 for quality results before digital noise significantly degrades the files. Photographers are...