Sigma SD1 Merrill

[Steve Boykin]

I got to try this out on loan from someone who is trying to sell it. It's really not as bad as some of the reviews I read. I would say it focuses as fast as the Quattro in most circumstances, maybe a bit faster with some lenses. I got a 70mm F2.8 with it. I really hard a hard focusing that lens on the Quattro. It was pretty snappy on the Merrill. It's exceedingly well built like the Quattro. It has the quietest mirror box I've ever heard.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Irrespective of the camera, you do find the most interesting things to shoot. Hog taxidermy...how have I lived nearly 60 years without having a stuffed hog?

The Merrill's are great cameras, much cheaper than the quattros, and sometimes better quality. I'd snap it up if I were you.

PS Still waiting - five weeks now - for the Fotodiox lens adapter. Apparently it has reached the UK from the US. Soon, I hope.

 

[Beth Anthony]

deer-hogs? do they do jackalopes too? love the b&w tones.

 

[Brian Moore]

Did you buy it, Steve?

 

[Steve Boykin]

Did you buy it, Steve?

Not yet. I got really frustrated and sold off a bunch camera stuff. I can't figure out how to use that LR cloud thing. It got to be where it wasn't fun anymore. I got lucky and B&H took back the Epson scanner I bought 3 months ago (admittedly I have been a very good customer for many years). Anyway, I told the guy I wanted to send it back, he offered to lower the price. I told him I would think about it over the weekend. I am going to look at the rest of the photos I took tonight and decide. At least I know how to use SPP. I had to pay off Adobe for a year to get out of the LR cloud thing. I am honestly not sure what I am going to do. The problem is SPP doesn't have a lot of the tools that you would need like cropping. But I don't have anything else so I am sort of in limbo. Like I said, it's just not fun like it used to be. I haven't sold the Quattro yet. I did sell most of the other digital cameras/lens though.

 

[Brian Moore]

I use SPP to do some limited stuff to the RAW Sigma images (usually fill light only, but sometimes color balance) and then convert to JPEG. I then I import the the JPEGs into Lr. (I never went with the Cloud thing. I bought Lr4 from you some years ago and then upgraded to Lr6 so it's on my computer. Couldn't see committing myself to 10 or 15 a month perennially for the little bit of PP I do). Hope you sort everything out.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

I also have a stand-alone LR6, and really can't see any advantage in the Adobe Creative Cloud services for the little I do either. In fact I'm quite annoyed at Adobe for insisting people join it. My daughter used CC as a student, where it is very inexpensive, but once she stops being a student she will be tethered to that system, and will find it hard to break free. So they get her paying for life. I think it's an outrageous practice.

But there are other ways to make, edit and share our images, thankfully, so, Steve, there is still fun to be had! Your images are ALWAYS interesting, and often fun too, so please keep at it!

 

[Pete Askew]

Absolutely, keep at it, Steve.

I use LR and have subscriptions to Adobe CC. However, I use LR Classic CC and so don't need to use the 'cloud' interface at all and it behaves just like the old version.