Sigma DP-1

[Half-Handed]

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I know lots of people here have expressed interest in the DP-1, this announcement cropped up on dpreview recently:

 

DP1 product development update - SIGMA CORPORATION

[andybarton]

Where have lots of people here expressed an interest in a Sigma camera?

[lemalk]

As far as I can recall, the Sigma comes up quite frequently when talking about the D-Lux 3 and the Ricoh models.

 

The attractive features the Sigma promises (at least *promised*) were a larger sensor and less noise in an ultra-compact point and shoot.

[Half-Handed]

Where have lots of people here expressed an interest in a Sigma camera?

 

Andy, every time people lament the lack of a Digital CM, the Sigma DP-1 is held up as the likely next best thing (if it ever materialises).

[stephengilbert]

Gee Andy, where's your holiday spirit?

 

I know that I'm interested in the Sigma. (See THEONLINEPHOTOGRAPHER.COM)

 

Steve

[Stuart Richardson]

That's a very candid statement. Hopefully the camera will eventually turn up and be worth the wait! I would like a digital CM before that though....

[Black Dot]

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Where have lots of people here expressed an interest in a Sigma camera?

 

Many people here wish for Leica to build a camera like that. Thus far it's the closest thing to a Leica CM Digital.

[Half-Handed]

Exactly! And given that they dropped the CM like a hot brick I don't hold out too much hope for a digital equivalent, not from Leica anyway.

[jjjet1]

youtube video of new sigma dp-1, including quick (but fuzzy) look at menu interface. see:

 

leica, please answer with your compact!

 

also see:

http://a.img-dpreview.com/news/0703/Sigma/dp1-big.jpg

[sdai]

I'm afraid this is only going to be another doomed experiment from Sigma ... f/4 max aperture with ISO capped at 800? give me a coffee, black ... no sugar.

[jrc]

The biggest problem is that it's an expensive camera with a fixed 28mm (equivalent) lens. If you're going to have a fixed focal length, 28mm is a fine choice, but it also means to me that you're probably going to sell about 140 cameras. Make that 105 -- to street-shooting enthusiasts who don't go out after 5 o'clock in the afternoon. If they'd done a "Leica-equivalent" zoom, say, the equivalent of 21-90, or even 28-105 or some such, then they might have something; and ISO 3200 or so.

 

Why, with these small cameras, does it seem that everything is so near, yet so far? All the parts for a great pocket camera are out there, but just not on the same camera.

 

JC

[carstenw]

f/4 combined with a max ISO of 800 is suicide. It can only be used in daylight, more or less. I used to have the 90 f/4 Macro for my M8, and found myself scraping for light quite often. I traded it for a 90AA and have never regretted it.

[lesh]

Before it's even appeared in public, it's being dismissed as effluent - what an open minded lot you are.

Even although it doesn't sport a red dot, I'd say that before slagging it, it would be reasonable to await a user report.

[Black Dot]

If it had a red dot the same people would be heralding it as the first digital compact made for photographers instead of the average consumer. They would go on and on about how only Leica has the guts to do such things, how it's a tool and not a toy, etc. There is no red dot so you won't hear any of this of course.

[Riley]

f/4 combined with a max ISO of 800 is suicide. It can only be used in daylight, more or less. I used to have the 90 f/4 Macro for my M8, and found myself scraping for light quite often. I traded it for a 90AA and have never regretted it.

 

yep, i saw this coming

if the advantage of APSC is better image quality, then you have to figure in what regime you are talking about, there being little difference at iso100 between the best of the P&S and the worst of the APSC dSLR's. Therefore if you intended to make the best of the situation in low light, the DP1 with its F4 minimum, and probably the dullest higher iso performance of any APSC, you would be sadly disappointed.

 

What you do get is foveon exposure principles where that works best, which in itself might be good for a wide variety of shooters. Still the market for a 4/3rds or APSC compact is a walkon for whoever is brave enough to follow, you can bet this release is going to be more carefully examined by other makers that any other camera in recent history.

[Black Dot]

The biggest problem is that it's an expensive camera with a fixed 28mm (equivalent) lens. If you're going to have a fixed focal length, 28mm is a fine choice, but it also means to me that you're probably going to sell about 140 cameras. Make that 105 -- to street-shooting enthusiasts who don't go out after 5 o'clock in the afternoon. If they'd done a "Leica-equivalent" zoom, say, the equivalent of 21-90, or even 28-105 or some such, then they might have something; and ISO 3200 or so.

 

f/4 combined with a max ISO of 800 is suicide. It can only be used in daylight, more or less. I used to have the 90 f/4 Macro for my M8, and found myself scraping for light quite often. I traded it for a 90AA and have never regretted it.

 

The results you get from ISO 800 on a 20.7 x 13.8 mm sized sensor (as used in the DP1) is not the same as ISO 800 on a 5.7 x 4.3 mm sized sensor commonly found in other compacts of this size. I have found that anything over ISO 400 to be nearly useless on them due to the noise or worse yet aggressive noise reduction. Finally a compact camera that can do well up to ISO 800. I imagine in time they may even add ISO 1600 via a firmware update if it meets their requirements. It's nice to see a company not caving in to useless specs like ISO 3200 that require pixel binning to achieve and produce results that are worthless garbage. The Digilux 2 has it's share of flaws yet is has proven very popular with many choosing to keep theirs when offered a Digilux 3 in its place. Despite the f4 lens and noise hit from the Foveon sensor design I still expect it to be a big improvement at ISO 400 and 800 compared to cameras like the Ricoh GR-D.

[Riley]

The results you get from ISO 800 on a 20.7 x 13.8 mm sized sensor (as used in the DP1) is not the same as ISO 800 on a 5.7 x 4.3 mm sized sensor commonly found in other compacts of this size. I have found that anything over ISO 400 to be nearly useless on them due to the noise or worse yet aggressive noise reduction. Finally a compact camera that can do well up to ISO 800. I imagine in time they may even add ISO 1600 via a firmware update if it meets their requirements. It's nice to see a company not caving in to useless specs like ISO 3200 that require pixel binning to achieve and produce results that are worthless garbage. The Digilux 2 has it's share of flaws yet is has proven very popular with many choosing to keep theirs when offered a Digilux 3 in its place. Despite the f4 lens and noise hit from the Foveon sensor design I still expect it to be a big improvement at ISO 400 and 800 compared to cameras like the Ricoh GR-D.

 

problem is you already lost a stop from its F4 lens where the average is F2.8 on a P&S

this combined with not too spectacular 800iso performance of foveon anyway means you might be comparing DP1 iso400 with a P&S at 200iso. That seems more like line ball to me

 

this aside, foveon has its own unique properties, and it is perhaps better looked on for its iso50-100 performance where it will do very well.

[daveleo]

i hope leica is working to compete in this arena.

 

the konica hexar (AF, film) had a fixed 35mm/f2.0 lens, a reasonable price and a glorious body, and it is a precious film camera (my digital camera is the beautiful Digilux-2, so elegant and capable but too big)

 

leica should have made the hexar long before konica did ..... now many leica people want a fast fixed lens on a small digital camera that doesn't cost $4000US.... or is leica waiting for someone to beat them again to the marketplace?

 

regards

[owen_coors]

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Hallo,

Look here: Interesting Leica gear