White balance and colour
Image: Skin tones are spot-on in this portrait taken indoors
Once the behaviour of the camera is understood, it is possible to achieve excellent colours straight out of the DP2 Merrill. It has seven colour modes, although black & white and sepia are only available when shooting JPEGs. The standard colour mode has a relatively neutral colour rendition, but this is far and away preferable to the overly saturated look offered by many other cameras, which can leave a ‘digital’ impression. Of course, greater vibrancy can be introduced to images using the vivid colour mode or by manually adding it post-capture using editing software.
I found that in all but a handful of situations I could rely on the auto white balance setting. As I would expect of this camera, recording a custom white balance reading for tricky scenes is a quick process. Overall, skin tones are excellent straight out of the camera, making the DP2 Merrill ideal for portrait work. Landscape photographers should note that the blues of a sunny sky can be a tad on the cyan side and will benefit from a post-capture tweak. Otherwise, in good light, images generally have an impressively ‘authentic’ film feel.
