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Sigma DP1, Poor man's Leica?


salvatore

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Why not a moderately fast lens? An f/4.0 for a street sho0ting like that camera be a killer at makes it useless. Why not at least a 2.8 or better a 1.8.

 

So close but still so fall. Still looks like the GDR is the best option we have.

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Still no price or release date.

 

There is a digital zoom function by 3x. For the techically savy how would this effect F stop. There is some sort of manual focus described as Focus aid (Dial Type).

 

The LCD is 4:3 aspect ratio. They should have went 3:2 to match the sensor. Though if they set up the cropped area on the 4:3 screen intelegently to show vitale camera statistics without obstructing the frame of view the 4:3 screen could be a bonus.

 

The new "TRUE®" image-processing engine for the DP1 Sigma is claiming will deliver even in full resolution RAW mode DSLR like speeds. The nature of the Foveon sensor there is much less interpolation going on as each pixel site records RGB.

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Why not a moderately fast lens? An f/4.0 for a street sho0ting like that camera be a killer at makes it useless. Why not at least a 2.8 or better a 1.8.

 

So close but still so fall. Still looks like the GDR is the best option we have.

 

If they went with a 2.8 or faster the camera would no longer be compact. The lens would have to be huge. You are forgetting that it does not use a microscopic sized sensor like the GR-D, D-Lux3 and all the other compact cameras out there. That changes the sensor/lens relationship significantly. The large sensor should more than make up for the "slow" f4 of the lens in terms of low noise as it will gather much more light. The lens was also designed specifically for this sensor so it should be razor sharp as well. It's not a poor man's Leica by any means as Leica simply has no camera in this class that can touch it. Now if they would get off their collective butts and give us a CM Digital instead of rebadging Panasonics that would be another story...

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If they went with a 2.8 or faster the camera would no longer be compact. The lens would have to be huge. You are forgetting that it does not use a microscopic sized sensor like the GR-D, D-Lux3 and all the other compact cameras out there. That changes the sensor/lens relationship significantly. The large sensor should more than make up for the "slow" f4 of the lens in terms of low noise as it will gather much more light. The lens was also designed specifically for this sensor so it should be razor sharp as well. It's not a poor man's Leica by any means as Leica simply has no camera in this class that can touch it. Now if they would get off their collective butts and give us a CM Digital instead of rebadging Panasonics that would be another story...

 

Minox, Contax, Nikon, Leica all had compact 35mm cameras with a fast lens which was "full frame", so why should it not be possible to build a compact digital camera with a large sensor AND a fast lens?

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Minox, Contax, Nikon, Leica all had compact 35mm cameras with a fast lens which was "full frame", so why should it not be possible to build a compact digital camera with a large sensor AND a fast lens?

 

Because film and digital are two very different beasts. With a large sensor you need a large lens so the light hits it dead on. This is different from film. Leica wanted to go full frame on the M8 but couldn't manage it with the existing lenses. Rather than design a whole new lens type for it they instead used a 1.33x crop sensor with micromirrors to redirect the light. This is very expensive to do currently. So there is a way around it if you're willing to throw enough money at the problem but I doubt many would be comfortable spending $2000 or more on a full frame DP1. At $700 it's going to be at the top of the compact camera food chain both in terms of performance and price.

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if the iso performance is very good

F4 might not be such a burden

but thats an if

 

I think I'm going to quietly adapt and mount my obsolete Contax Distagon 20mm lens on my M8. I'm afraid the result will be better than anything Leitz or Zeiss now offer, without vignetting. And cheaper than going out to buy new hardware.

 

Edmund

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Why not a moderately fast lens? An f/4.0 for a street sho0ting like that camera be a killer at makes it useless. Why not at least a 2.8 or better a 1.8.

 

So close but still so fall. Still looks like the GDR is the best option we have.

 

I think f4 is ok, and hcb, garry winogrand and other street shooters routinely shoot at small apertures (f8) on the streets so f4 should not be an impediment. in fact, with a 35mm lens at f8, I can zone focus and literally point and shoot....

 

besides, with a large sensor, high ISOs is now much more practical!

 

This Sigma looks like it will be a real winner on the streets IF it has none of the usual digicam handicaps - slow response, laggy shutter etc.....

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From what I have been reading on the SD 14, 800 seems to be about max ISO. I haven't seen much at 800 and virtually nothing at 1600. Nobody really talks much about 1600 so i suspect that it must not be considered very good. I have looked at a couple of RAW files and converted them in LR and they weren't pretty in LR. Apparently to get decent pictures you must process them in SPP 3.0 on Win and 2.2 on MAC.

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I have one on order; who knows when it will arrive. if you look at the specs, it's much the same size as the Ricoh GR. Shirt-pocket, defintely. There has been much discussion of the speed of the lens over at FM but, for me personally, I think it will be fine. If not, I'll sell it.

 

I think there will be a learning curve in Raw with the new sensor, too. And I have seen nothing out there on high ISO performance, so if it can't do 1600, that might be a real limitation for some people.

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