Ricoh GR Digital III vs Sigma DP2 Merrill

On this page, we will be looking at the Ricoh GR Digital III and Sigma DP2 Merrill, former being a Small Sensor Compact while the latter is a Large Sensor Compact by brands Ricoh and Sigma. There is a large difference among the sensor resolutions of the GR Digital III (10MP) and DP2 Merrill (15MP) and the GR Digital III (1/1.7") and DP2 Merrill (APS-C) posses different sensor sizes.

Pentax 17 Pre-Orders Outperform Expectations by a Landslide

The GR Digital III was launched 3 years before the DP2 Merrill and that is a fairly serious difference as far as camera tech is concerned. Each of these cameras have different body design with the Ricoh GR Digital III being a Compact camera and the Sigma DP2 Merrill being a Large Sensor Compact camera.

Before delving into a step-by-step comparison, here is a quick synopsis of how the GR Digital III scores against the DP2 Merrill when considering portability, imaging, features and an overall grade.

This is a preview of the gallery photos for Ricoh GR Digital III & Sigma DP2 Merrill. The complete galleries are available at Ricoh GR Digital III Gallery & Sigma DP2 Merrill Gallery.

If you are looking to lug around your camera often, you will want to take into account its weight and dimensions. The Ricoh GR Digital III comes with outer dimensions of 109mm x 59mm x 26mm (4.3" x 2.3" x 1.0") accompanied by a weight of 208 grams (0.46 lbs) and the Sigma DP2 Merrill has dimensions of 122mm x 67mm x 59mm (4.8" x 2.6" x 2.3") along with a weight of 330 grams (0.73 lbs).

Take a look at the Ricoh GR Digital III and Sigma DP2 Merrill in our completely new Camera & Lens Size Comparison Tool.

Remember that, the weight of an ILC will differ based on the lens you select at the time. The following is a front view dimension comparison of the GR Digital III against the DP2 Merrill.

Looking at size and weight, the portability rating of the GR Digital III and DP2 Merrill is 92 and 83 respectively.

Generally, it is tough to visualize the gap in sensor measurements just by seeing specs. The visual here might give you a stronger sense of the sensor sizes in the GR Digital III and DP2 Merrill.

All in all, the 2 cameras have different resolutions and different sensor measurements. The GR Digital III due to its smaller sensor is going to make getting shallow depth of field tougher and the Sigma DP2 Merrill will provide greater detail utilizing its extra 5MP. Higher resolution will make it easier to crop pictures a bit more aggressively. The older GR Digital III will be disadvantaged when it comes to sensor innovation.