SGIMA DP3 Merrill

This is review of using SIGMA DP3 Merrill digital cameras.

Gallery
Impression
Specification
Option
Reference links

Gallery

Impression
The DP3 Merrill is a new addition to the Merrill series, a single focal length compact digital camera equipped with a 50mm focal length (35mm version equivalent 75mm) medium telephoto macro lens, making it a unique camera unlike any other.
The lens is housed in a rather large lens barrel, and the camera is heavier than the DP1 and DP2 Merrill.
The inability to increase the ISO sensitivity is a common problem of the Merrill series, and this camera is very sensitive to blurring. Even if you hold the camera body and lens firmly with both hands, the style of framing and focusing with the rear LCD screen can produce blurred pictures if you are not careful.
No other company has released an external 75mm viewfinder, and the AF is not very good, so an EVF viewfinder would be desirable, but unfortunately there is no such option. The lack of a viewfinder is a real shame.
The FT-1201 1.2x teleconverter for the DP QUATTRO3 is a 58mm diameter screw-in type, so it can be used with the DP3 Merrill by using the 58mm to 52mm filter ring conversion.
When the teleconverter is used, the DP3 Merrill’s focal length of 75mm changes to 90mm. As of 2023, it is still in stock and available for purchase.

I bought it right after its release and gave it away without much use, but bought it again in 2019 and used it again. It is a very interesting camera, but as mentioned above, the ISO sensitivity cannot be increased, so I had to let it go after reaffirming that it is a daytime-only camera.

The DP Merrill series is a compact digital camera released by Sigma in 2012.
The DP Merrill series is not a bad choice for a digital camera with focal lengths of 28mm, 45mm, and 75mm (35mm equivalent), but the DP Merrill series also continues the tradition of Sigma compact digital cameras, with the drawbacks of poor battery life due to a poor electrical system and poor response time due to poor hardware.

Specification
Digital camera with 3rd generation Foveon sensor.
The sensor is the same APS-C size as the SD1, 14.5 megapixels x 3 layers.
The focal length is 50mm with a 35mm version equivalent of 75mm.
The BP-41 battery is compatible with the DB-65 used in Ricoh’s compact cameras.
The minimum focusing distance is 22.6cm, and only the DP3 Merill is capable of 1:3 macro photography.

Since this sensor only supports X3F for image recording, the image processing is very difficult, using only SPP. The DNP conversion utility is a freeware that converts X3F to DNG, but it was difficult to achieve the same quality as SPP without considerable processing of the image after conversion to DNG in the version used at the time. If I could get an image, I would use other software to fine-tune it, but it was a pity that this was not the case. However, since it is freeware, I have no reason to complain.
I found that I could develop the images with Affinity Photo, an image processing software, so I tested it on this page.

Items	DP3 Merrill	Note
Camera Effective Pixels	Approx. 14.06 million pixels (2,652 x 1,768 x 3 layers)
Lens focal length	75mm(50mm)
Image sensor	FOVEON X3®(CMOS)・23.5×15.7mm
Back LCD	3.0 inch /460,000 dots
View Finder	–
Minimum shooting distance	22.6cm
Battery	Li-on battery(BP-41)
Size(mm)	W x H x D 122 × 67× 81
Weight(g)	400
Release date	February 2013