During my last trip to Venice, as I mentioned in
THIS POST, I decided to bring along and use only small cameras, albeit cameras with a large sensor (APS-C), plus the new
Nikon COOLPIX P7700 which I was interested in testing in the field. Besides the
Sigma DP1 Merrill &
Sigma DP2 Merrill mentioned in the post linked above, I brought along my
Sony Nex-7 equipped with the
Sigma 19mm F2.8 EX DN &
Sigma 30mm F2.8 EX DN lenses which are, supposedly, very similar if not identical to the lenses built-in in the Sigma Merrill cameras. While working there, I thought it interesting to make a comparison between images created with the 2 Sigma lenses on the
Nex-7 vs. those created with the 2 Sigma Merrill cameras. As you probably know already, I am not a camera or lens reviewer, therefore you will not see here shots of charts, brick walls or the like. What I did was taking images with both camera/lens setups set at the same aperture (shutter speed might vary) from each location I worked; I subsequently processed, putting them through my usual workflow, the Merrills batch first and the
Nex-7 after (actually a few weeks apart) without having the other version in front of me to compare. Generally speaking, both camera/lens combinations produced excellent quality images; both lenses were very sharp all over the frame, both had very nice colours (albeit the Merrill showed an interesting green/magenta cast in some images). The biggest problem I faced was getting rid of chromatic aberrations/fringes: I used CA removal both in Sigma Photo Pro and in Capture One, but that wasn't always enough to get rid of CA - in some images, I had to further remove it in Photoshop. The main differences between the two sets turned out to be in the colours and in the acutance/sharpness: while the first is the result of both the cameras different colour renditions and of my post-processing approach, I attributed the latter to the different sensors and camera/lens system overall (the lenses being practically equal, as well as my chosen apertures). One last note: I went to Venice to create images to add to my
VIERI BOTTAZZINI FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY website and sell them as Fine Art prints, not to make a camera/lens review; I processed all the images from the trip with that end in mind and - as you will see - for each different scene I ended up choosing either images shot with the
Nex-7 or with the Sigmas, while for some scenes I selected images from both - or neither - without any prejudice other than trying and realise my artistic vision for each scene.
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| Riva degli Schiavoni - Sigma DP1 Merrill, 1 sec @ f8 |
OK, after this little teaser, let's jump into this juicy comparison!
As I mentioned before, the purpose of the trip was to create artwork for my
FINE ART website's catalogue; therefore, you will see here photographs taken at sunrise or sunset, with filters, on a tripod, in very controlled conditions. Thus, this comparison will mean something (if anything) to people interested in the possible application of large sensor, small cameras for landscape/cityscape work: for other kind of work, your needing and therefore your conclusions may be totally different. For all image pairs, I will show Sigma DP Merrill images first,
Sony Nex-7 after - please click on each image to see them larger.
To start, S. Giorgio Maggiore at dusk, after last light:
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| Sigma DP2 Merrill, 4 sec @ f8 |
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| Sony Nex-7, Sigma 30mm f2.8, 15 sec @ f8 |
As I mentioned in
MY PREVIOUS SIGMA REVIEW, images shot with the Merrill cameras might have some colour cast to them; when this happens, one can decide to edit it out, or play along with it. Here, the magenta spot clearly visible in the middle of the
Sigma DP2 Merrill image works OK with the subject matter, but the colours are generally closer to my vision in the
Sony Nex-7 image, which having been taken a bit later than the Sigma benefits as well of a longer exposure and a calmer sea to start with (incredibly, no boats passed by for a few minutes...!). A tiny bit of CA was present in both images, more so in the Sony's than the Merrill's, but was easily cleaned in Photoshop; both images show great, even sharpness over the scene, but even at this size it is clear that the Sigma image shows more detail, despite the disadvantage in Mp (15 vs 24). All said and done, here I went for the Sony image, which better expresses my vision of the scene - I could get the Sigma colours to match the Sony, but what makes the Sony's my image of choice are the longer shutter speed I used for it and the calmer sea.
The next comparison, again shot at sunset, shows S. Marco at dusk:
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| Sigma DP2 Merrill 2 sec @ f8 |
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| Sony Nex-7, Sigma 30mm f2.8, 2 sec @ f8 |
Here you can see two very different colour renditions; the
DP2 Merrill's green-magenta cast works well for me here and while I got rid of it in most of the image, I left it uncorrected in the water pool at the bottom of the image; as well, the warmer spot in the middle of the image works well with the clouds and S. Marco's bell tower. The
Nex-7 colours, on the other end, work well with the mood I was after at the time of the day it has been shot. CA was practically non-existant in either image, and again both lenses gave very sharp results over the whole frame; here too the Merrill image shows more detail than the
Nex-7 one, despite the difference in Mp. Both images work for me here, the Sigma giving a more "active" feel, the Sony a more "peaceful" one, so I ended up choosing both for publication on my website.
Coming up next, the Ponte dei Sospiri at sunrise:
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| Sigma DP2 Merrill, 4 sec @ f8 |
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| Sony Nex-7, Sigma 30mm f2.8, 4 sec @ f8 |
Once more, we can see very different colour renditions between these two cameras/lens combinations. In this case, you can see how the
Sony Nex-7 image is much warmer on both sides of the bridge, while the
Sigma DP2 Merrill is cooler on the sides, leaving the centre a bit warmer. I much prefer the Sigma's rendition here, being much closer to my vision of the scene. Both lenses showed no CA whatsoever here, and both lenses were very sharp all over the frame. Once more, it is worth noting how - despite the difference in Mp - the Merrill's image is more detailed than the
Nex-7's.
Up next, two sunrise images of S. Giorgio Maggiore with gondolas:
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| Sigma DP1 Merrill, 1.3 sec @ f8 |
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| Sony Nex-7, Sigma 19mm f2.8, 1.3 sec @ f8 |
Again, we can see two different interpretations of colour: the
Sigma DP1 Merrill tends towards green, while the Sony towards blue/magenta. It's worth noting how both camera/lens combinations fared very badly here in respect to CA, which I had to further remove in Photoshop after using the removal tools in Sigma Photo Pro and Capture One respectively. In the end, here I choose the Sony's image: despite the sea's real colour being closer to that of the Sigma's image, and detail being in favour the Sigma shot, I'd like my processing of the Sony shot better here, plus the bird on the pole adds a lot to the image.
However, my keeper from this particular location is the shot below, taken with the
Sony Nex-7 (I haven't a Merrill comparison for this one, unfortunately):
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| Gondolas dancing for S. Giorgio - Sony Nex-7, Sigma 19mm f2.8, 2.5 sec @ f8 |
A slightly different composition, a slightly longer exposure, the position of the bird on the pole on the left, the colours, all worked much better for me here - even the boat passing in front of the church works very well for me here, adding a touch of life to the scene.
Incidentally, dealing with boats is one of the main problems one faces when shooting long exposures in Venice! Of course, one may expect boats in Venice, a city built in the sea; the question is, when using shutter timer release as I did here to further reduce shutter-pressing vibrations, in the 5 or 10 seconds wait between pressing the shutter and the effective start of the exposure (plus the few seconds exposure) a boat can appear out of nowhere, as it did here and in the Sigma shot above; that is very difficult to being prepared for - despite all my looking around and trying to time boat passages, I ended up with unwanted boats in more than one frame.
Back to our comparison now, a few "singles" from each cameras just to show how they behaved. A couple of
Sigma DP1 Merrill images first:
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| Sigma DP1 Merrill, 1/10 sec @ f2.8 |
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| Sigma DP1 Merrill, 1/6 sec @ f8 |
And a couple of
Sony Nex-7 images to follow suit, taken from almost the same location at dusk and in the morning of the following day:
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| Sony Nex-7, Sigma 30mm f2.8, 1/60 sec @ f2.8 |
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| Sony Nex-7, Sigma 30mm f2.8, 1 sec @ f8 |
So what are my conclusions? Well, first of all I'd like to say that I enjoyed very much walking around Venice with a very light camera bag and a small tripod, while being able to obtain results good enough to print big: I am looking at 24"x30" prints out of this series that look great, and this is exactly what I hoped to get out of this little experiment.
Coming to the specifics of our comparison, both camera/lens combinations produced very high quality images, sharp side-to-side, with great details; with both, the biggest technical problem I had with the files was dealing with (sometimes a lot of) CA. Under an artistic point of view, which is what interests me the most, I have been very happy with both solutions; slightly more so with the Sigma DP Merrill cameras, though, which is why I sold my
Nex-7 kit after coming back from this trip, and why I am now looking forward to the third brother in the line-up, the
Sigma DP3 Merrill. I found the sharpness and detail of the Merrill more to my liking, the slight odd colour casts easy to deal with when needed, and I liked the colour palette better. However, the
Sony Nex-7 is definitely the better camera when it comes to flexibility, battery life, speed of use, ease of processing (Sigma Photo Pro is very bad!); as always, choosing a camera system vs another is a trade-off that depends on what one shoots and what one's priorities are. For me, the Merrill produce near-medium format image quality in a small, light package, and suits my shooting style very well - your needing and conclusions, as I said at the beginning of this comparison, can be different.
Plug: if you like beautiful Fine Art Prints, printed masterfully in-house on Hahnemuhle Fine Art paper, want the security of my unique
6-POINTS WARRANTY and of my
CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY, look no further: prints of my Venice images are available for sale
HERE!
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