For all that the DP3 Merrill crushes any other camera I've ever used when it comes to resolution and sharpness, its Achilles Heel has always been its high ISO performance. From my limited understanding of the technicalities of the Foveon sensor, it filters the light three times (once for each layer of pixels, as opposed to just once for a normal Bayer filter sensor). That's three times the amplification, and thus the noise comes in at a significantly lower ISO. Most reviewers and commentators recommend 400 for colour and up to 1600 for black and white: personally, I'd go one lower in both cases. 400 is iffy for colour and 1600 is too noisy for my liking even in monochrome.

So we have to work around this. I've started using it in low light situations on purpose to see how to make it work in less than perfect circumstances.

None of the pictures in this entry were taken with what I'd call "sufficient light" for the Merrill; they all required low shutter speeds. This is also because I decided up front that I wouldn't raise the ISO over 200 no matter what. Subsequently some of the pictures aren't perfectly sharp because they were handheld at around 1/30 of a second. They look OK at moderate sizes, but print them big and you'll see the shake.

Firstly, from a couple of days ago: this was easy because there was a bridge on which I could easily stabilise the camera. The shutter speed was around half a second, and without inbuilt stabilisation (which the Merrill doesn't have) the world's best sniper isn't going to get a sharp shot.

As usual, you can click on the picture to get a larger version. I would particularly recommend this with the first two pictures.

Same place, different angle, and converted to black and white for no other reason than to see the difference.

The rest of the pictures are from today.

First up: Afford sleeping cats the same courtesy as their canine counterparts. This one was a bit blurry (hand held at 1/30), so I sharpened it in Photoshop. Probably too much, but I like the picture enough to try and save it.

Staying with the animal kingdom...

Then the sun started sinking down, and it was a good one...

I haven't worked out why the sun looks distorted here. It must be something to do with its brightness, because as I was spot-metering around the area, it was very visibly changing its shape on the LCD.

Stopped quickly at a small temple for a shot of the lantern...

Then it was flat out dark. On the way back I tried something: spot metering on the well-illuminated Nagoya Castle. It gave me a shutter speed of around 1/25 to 1/30, which is borderline for getting a decently sharp shot, but at this size they're passable. It was interesting to drop the surrounding area out completely.

It's interesting to shoot a camera in a non-ideal situation, and it also makes you wonder how high an ISO ceiling we really need. I wouldn't shoot street shots at night with the Merrill, for sure, but if you can stabilise it or get a reasonable enough shutter speed, then it can do the job.

Thanks for looking!