Sigma Managing files from DPx Merrill cameras

brownnoddy

Rookie
Location
Canada
Name
John
I love my DP2M but I do not enjoy managing the files out of the camera. Up to now the only two programs that would render the images on screen were Sigma Photo Pro and Iridient Developer. With either program you then had to slog through each image, deciding which to keep and which to dump. Rendering time is slow with both programs and the process is the definition of tedium.

So I mentioned "up to now". I am a Photo Mechanic user and even though the program did not render the raw DPxM images I still used it to bring files off cards etc. Today I did as I usually do and saw, with delight, that Photo Mechanic renders the raw images at "fit to screen" and 100% blazingly fast. Also it is dealing with the EXIF data properly and is allowing file renaming during the download. The real advantage is the speed- you can go through a set of images very fast, decide which to keep and which to dump. If you are looking for this sort of functionality, I would give Photo Mechanic a try.
 
Thanks for the tip... I downloaded the trial and it does a conversion to tif or jpg incredibly fast and does batched file conversion. very easy to cull photos also. There is a 'convert' to dng feature and it appears to run but i find no output files.
 
The item was added to the menu system about 5 years ago, but was never implemented. I just created a new thread on the PM forum asking that it be implemented. If any Sigma Merrill users could add their comments as well, that might lend some weight. If this worked, it would be the answer to our prayers :)
 
Good tip on Faststone. Must check it out.

I am not sure how PM is dealing with the DPxM images- either just using the embedded jpeg or really processing the raw. I notice that images saved as TIFs or PSDs from Photo Mechanic are not as sharp as those converted with the Sigma software (but I have to look into this a bit more).

I agree that the holy grail right now would be a x3f-dng converter or Adobe Camera Raw compatibility (Lightroom). Still not sure why Adobe refuses to do this, especially considering that they did it for the older DP models.
 
The most software viewer use the embedded jpg. The comparission with SPP by the sharpness is difficult because the converter is using a sharpening process with the value of 0 shown in the gui.
 
Downloaded and installed Faststone. Very good and produces the same result as Photo Mechanic when doing tif conversions. The resulting files look identical. I'll be using this free program to cull the images but initial adjustments and converts to tif/jpg will be done w/Sigma Photo Pro
 
The most software viewer use the embedded jpg. The comparission with SPP by the sharpness is difficult because the converter is using a sharpening process with the value of 0 shown in the gui.

The difference is not because of the sharpness setting as I have made the comparison using a sharpness of -2 in the Sigma software and it still produces WAY sharper images than a tif conversion from Photo Mechanic.
 
Heres a sample of the cropped jpegs produce from Sigma Photo Pro and Faststone. It appears that Faststone will open the"embedded" jpeg from the raw files which may explain the lower quality image that is produced when converted/saved. I find Faststone useful for reviewing my x3f images to determine the keepers/eliminate the duds. The program loads the images superfast which makes the initial screening process much faster/easier. Once i've finished culling the days shoot i open the images in Sigma Photo Pro for the initial edit/save.

Crop from sigma (top) and crop from Faststone for comparison The diff is slight but noticeable. Check the tail feathers for example
 

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