BROADSTONE AND NEARBY [REVISITING AN OLD SIGMA DP2 CAMERA]-163469

The Broadstone Gate will provide a key access to the Grangegorman site once complete and is being developed as part of the Luas Cross City works. It will be finished as a public plaza and the access will provide a major linkage between Grangegorman and Dublin city. The plaza is situated off Constitution Hill on the site of the old royal canal at the former Great Weatern Railway Station commonly known as Broadstone, and will mark a prominent entrance to the Grangegorman urban quarter.

 

The Broadstone site, which borders Grangegorman on its east side, was subject to a Part VIII planning process in 2014 in order to facilitate the site development and gate access.

 

Under the Grangegorman Masterplan, the primary urban path through Grangegorman – St Brendan’s Way will link with the Broadstone Gate which when completed will reach as far as Prussia Street. The link with Broadstone can also be seen as an extension to the 18th century historic spine of Dublin City which covered Dublin Castle across Grattan Bridge, along Capel Street/Bolton Street, Henrietta Street and King’s Inn.

 

In May 2016, the boundary wall dividing Broadstone and Grangegorman was removed, creating a historic pathway joining the two sites for the first time. The Broadstone Gate entrance will mark the first access to the Grangegorman site from Constitution Hill. The Luas Stop at Broadstone opened in late 2017. Works to the Plaza are ongoing and due to be completed by summer 2020.

 

 

I have a collection of old Sigma cameras.

The oldest working one is a DP2

The one that I like best is a DP3 Merrll

The most recent is the DP0 Quattro

 

The Sigma DP1 was a high-end compact digital camera introduced by the Sigma Corporation. It featured a 14-megapixel Foveon X3 sensor (2652 × 1768 × 3 layers), a fixed 16.6 mm F4.0 lens (28mm equivalent), a 2.5” LCD and a pop-up flash. It was the first "compact" camera that featured an APS-C sized sensor, a feature that Sigma claimed would result in DSLR quality images from a small, pocketable camera. My copy of that camera stopped working, on a very cold day in Brussels, about nine months after I purchased it.

 

A follow-up camera, the Sigma DP2, was released in 2009; it features a different lens, and they are being sold in parallel. An improved version called Sigma DP1S was announced on November 17, 2009.

 

Both the DP1 and the DP2 were close to unusable and did not really work above ISO 100. Both cameras were criticised for poor low-light performance and slow speed, summarised as "a great concept that needs a considerable amount of additional work".The user interface has also been criticised. Also battery life was terrible ... today when using the DP2 I managed to take no more than 40 images per battery.

 

In February 2012 it was announced by Sigma Corporation that an updated version of both the DP1 and DP2 series, known as DP1 Merrill and DP2 Merrill, would incorporate the updated 46 MP Foveon sensor of the SD1, resulting in substantially greater image detail. Another notable change of the 'Merrill' DP cameras was the focus ring was in the traditional location around the lens barrel.

 

In March 2013, the Sigma DP3 Merrill became available featuring a 46MP sensor with 50mm f2.8 and a new Face Detection autofocus. I am not sure when I purchased this camera but I got a big surprise when I discovered that it was not possible to process images using third party software so while the camera produced beautiful images I did not really use it.

 

Recently I decided to reconsider all working DP cameras and was more than impressed by the DP3 Merrill to the extent that I decided to get a Sigma Quattro DP1.

 

Even though it is not mentioned in the specs the DP1 Quattro now outputs DNG files making the camera more usable than the Merrill but I prefer the images produced by the Merrill.

 

Today I decided to experiment with the DP2.

Done