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Sigma DP1

post #1 of 12
2/6/08 at 6:43am
Thread Starter 
After being vaporware for more than three years, it finally gets a release date. Spring of this year.

Sigma announces DP1 to be available spring 2008: Digital Photography Review

SIGMA DP1



I'm glad to see the industrial design is back to being minimalist. No more cheap looking vacuum metalized chrome buttons. No fugly molded grip. All basic black grip of pint sized digital photo awesomeness.

It'll be the first point and shoot with a nearly APS-C sized sensor. Basically a DSLR's sensor shoehorned into a point and shoot.

I've been excited by this camera since it's annoucement. But with price of DSLR's dropping below $500, the DP1 is going to have a tough time convincing people to buy it. And the pricing has not been announced. Not a good sign.

I am rather weary of lugging around my rather large-ish D80 set up. I haven't bought a Point and Shoot in some time since the image quality is quite lacking for me. Especially low light performance.

But the DP1 better be $500 or less if it want to survive in the very competitive digicam market.

And Sigma better get on Adobe for getting full raw support. If they insist on their proprietary software for RAW processing, I'll have to pass on the DP1 either way.

Although, I'm not a big fan of the Foveon sensor. It's color reproduction is rather finicky.

-Ed
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post #2 of 12
2/6/08 at 8:06am
Thread Starter 
If the rumors of a full frame Leica M8 become true, that would be a great alternative to the DP1. Although it's quite a bit larger.

-Ed
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post #3 of 12
2/6/08 at 8:29am
I don't think it will be less than 500 bucks. I am not sure how well this will do in the competition though. Might end up like Epson one. But if they can do it less than 500, that's very tempting.
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post #4 of 12
2/6/08 at 10:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Edwood View Post
If the rumors of a full frame Leica M8 become true, that would be a great alternative to the DP1. Although it's quite a bit larger.

-Ed
Well the leica is like 8x the cost of the Sigma though!

EDIT: DP1 on Amazon USA listing for 749.99
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post #5 of 12
2/6/08 at 10:36am
Heres some sample shots from the Beta camera at last weeks PMA show:
Sigma DP1 Beta, quick Vegas gallery: Digital Photography Review

Also here are some form a Japanese site, but since I dont understand Japanese, im not 100% sure if these are actual DP1 samples:
y1st Shotzy‘¬•ñzƒVƒOƒ}DP1(ƒÀ”Å) PMA08Œ»’nŽÀŽÊ‰æ‘œ
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post #6 of 12
2/6/08 at 12:39pm
I wish Sigma just slapped a 30mm f/1.4 on it instead of the current lens.
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post #7 of 12
2/6/08 at 12:46pm
I heard some people saying the lens would be too slow. Can you explain how a lens is fast or slow? I dont understand lenses.
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post #8 of 12
2/6/08 at 1:09pm
A 'fast' lens it a lens that has a large maximum aperture - the lower the number, the 'faster' it is, e.g. a lens with a maximum aperture of 1.4 is faster than a lens with a max. aperture of 3.5, which in turn lets more light get to the sensor resulting in a higher shutter speed. It's also important to note that a larger aperture results in a shallower depth of field. As for what makes a fast lens, anything lower than f/2.8 is fast, around f/3.5 is what I'd consider normal and f/4 and above is slow. Of course it all depends on what you're looking for in a lens, but the general consensus is that faster = better.
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post #9 of 12
2/6/08 at 3:11pm
The lens is a bit of a disappointment. The maximum aperature is well below what I would have expected for a fixed focal length with such a large sensor. The pictures taken with the camera also appear to be soft. This is becoming a problem with many mega pixels camera I have seen pictures of that have crossed the 10M barrier. Most disappointing is the price.
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post #10 of 12
2/6/08 at 10:20pm
I think what it comes down to is that the combination of sensor size (demands larger lens than compacts), focal length chosen (relatively wide, needs larger front element for large aperture), and the size of the camera all collude to deliver the seemingly slow max aperture.

They likely could have gone for a larger max aperture, if the focal length had been longer, more into the "normal range." The problem of needing a larger front element to support the wide angle lens chosen, is that it conflicts with the desire to build a small, thin, and pocketable camera. The specs show the DP1 as being a size similar to the Canon Powershot range, which certainly is smaller than a DSLR w/prime, but still pretty big for a compact.

This is just a case of tradeoffs having to been made, which invariably means that someone would have preferred different choices. I like the idea of a wide-angle lens, as this sort of camera would be most conducive to outdoor pictures for hiking/skiing/etc, when the size of a DSLR can be significantly hindering.

However, it looks like the price, design compromises, and lack of brand recognition (outside of semi-serious DSLR users), could spell sales problems for the DP1. I guess we'll see what happens.
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post #11 of 12
2/7/08 at 1:40am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kabeer View Post
Well the leica is like 8x the cost of the Sigma though!

EDIT: DP1 on Amazon USA listing for 749.99
Boo.

I'll wait for the prices to drop, or for the eventual fire sale, when nobody buys it.


Quote:
Originally Posted by GTRacer View Post
I wish Sigma just slapped a 30mm f/1.4 on it instead of the current lens.
Yeah, they should've at least slapped an f/2.8 lens on there at the very least.
I think the lens kills it for me eventually. Although if my Nikon SB-400 works on it with TTL metering, it would be OK with me.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Iron_Dreamer View Post
I think what it comes down to is that the combination of sensor size (demands larger lens than compacts), focal length chosen (relatively wide, needs larger front element for large aperture), and the size of the camera all collude to deliver the seemingly slow max aperture.

They likely could have gone for a larger max aperture, if the focal length had been longer, more into the "normal range." The problem of needing a larger front element to support the wide angle lens chosen, is that it conflicts with the desire to build a small, thin, and pocketable camera. The specs show the DP1 as being a size similar to the Canon Powershot range, which certainly is smaller than a DSLR w/prime, but still pretty big for a compact.

This is just a case of tradeoffs having to been made, which invariably means that someone would have preferred different choices. I like the idea of a wide-angle lens, as this sort of camera would be most conducive to outdoor pictures for hiking/skiing/etc, when the size of a DSLR can be significantly hindering.

However, it looks like the price, design compromises, and lack of brand recognition (outside of semi-serious DSLR users), could spell sales problems for the DP1. I guess we'll see what happens.
Yeah, I'm not going to be an early adopter for this one. I'll wait until the prices drop a lot, or pick up one used. It all depends on Photoshop support and external flash compatibility.

-Ed
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post #12 of 12
2/7/08 at 3:25am
Yeah we better to be able to use Sigma's l33t 170GN flash!
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