A Long-ish and Thoughtful Sigma DP-1 Review

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I bought a DP-1. Yes, I believed the hype and pulled the trigger. And after a few days with this highly unusual camera, I thought I'd share my thoughts, because I think they'll be more of interest to this forum than to a digital photography one.

First off, everything bad you have heard about the DP-1 is true. The screen is crap. The autofocus is poor indoors and rather slow at other times. Write times are long.

In addition, everything good you have heard about the DP-1 is true. The sensor is incredible. The lens is superb. The camera is small and light, and looks really cool.

Upon first unpacking the DP-1, I must confess that it felt rather lightweight and plasticky. Also, even though I'd seen many photos and videos of people holding the thing, it is even smaller than I anticipated. But once I charged the battery and installed it, and popped in a memory card, and affixed the viewfinder (more on that later), it felt pretty good. And once I started taking pictures, it felt really good. I wish it were a little larger and heavier, though that of course defeats the purpose of having a small camera.

OK, the screen. Like I said, it's bad. The photos look awful on it. Nevertheless, I thought I'd be composing with it, and when my Voigtlander 28mm VF arrived from Stephen, I felt kind of embarrassed. The VF felt like an expensive, geeky affectation. I almost sent it back, in fact, gorgeous as it is. I mean, I can't even see the whole field of view with my glasses on.

But when I got out and began shooting, I found myself composing every single shot with the VF. It's a real pleasure, and when you're turning the camera to shoot vertically, it naturally lands right where your eye is. I will definitely keep it.

If you get a DP-1, you will absolutely want the hood. It is highly annoying to have to turn the camera off to put the lens cap on. With the hood, you can leave the thing on and uncap it as you wish. In fact, you could just get a really nice 46mm UV filter and screw that on under the hood, and leave the cap off. I'll be doing this when my hood arrives in the coming days.

Contax G-series users will be in luck here--the 46mm thread means you'll be able to use all your accessories. And this leads me to my concluding riff. I bought this camera after getting a G1 with the 28mm Biogon, and loving the heck out of it, and wishing there were a digital version. I had this idea the DP-1 would be that camera.

I'm happy to say that it basically is. It's less robust-feeling, but it truly does have the vibe of a small, fixed-lens, autofocus rangefinder, especially if you use a VF. The glass is damned excellent, too, and measures up pretty well to the Zeiss. I know that's saying a lot, but wow, the pictures are really sharp and distortion is minimal. If you're accustomed to shooting with cameras like the Yashicas and Canonet and little Konicas and Minoltas and so on, you will feel right at home. Aperture priority works great. f/4 is plenty fast. You can get some nice depth of field. You can be sneaky and quiet.

If you're used to using a highly versatile, incredibly quick DSLR, then you're going to be disappointed. But coming from the rangefinder world, you may fall in love.

I took a bunch of undistinguished pictures around my neighborhood and yard...here are a few. They're entirely unretouched, shot at RAW then exported to JPEG.

Kudos to Sigma for making such a weird little camera. I hope it's the start of a trend.
 

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Thanks for the user review. I hope it's successful too, although it's not for me. I've had a GR1 for 10+ years and for me the fixed 28mm is too limiting, but the size of the camera is perfect. Reason why I skipped the GRD and bought a GX-100. But the lure of the compact, big sensor camera still calls! Still think Leica should make a digital Minilux with e40 mm lens. I bet they would sell a ton of them even if they priced it well north of $1,000.

Bernard.
 
Thanks! I have to say - the LCD quality doesn't bother me at all. I often wish it had no LCD at all anyway. I'm looking forward to seeing how well (or if) this camera is adopted and used. I'm sure people will come up with innovative ways to use this camera.
 
You can completely turn the LCD off, in fact! There's a dedicated button for this purpose. I find myself using the screen mostly to see if I got the shot I thought I was getting, and for that, it's more than adequate. You need it for manual focus, too--which I forgot to say is actually quite decent. Forget about it in bright sunshine, though.

As for high ISO pics...I'm not gonna go there...there's plenty of samples online, and I haven't experimented much with them. But the camera seems quite usable all the way to 800. Not in a dark room, though.
 
Put in an extreme III card, use manual mode, mf and turn preview off and the raw write speed becomes pretty good. Actually it feels as fast as with the GRDII.
IQ wise, the DP1 sets a new standard among compact digitals.
 
Yeah, I am using an Extreme III, you're absolutely right. It's perfectly fine with me, espcially compared to sending a roll of Kodachrome to Dwayne's. ;-)
 
Can't get a pic of it with the VF up right now...but AP mode is pretty simple...set your aperture, set your ISO, and the camera does the rest. (Actually, I wonder if the ISO is changing, come to think of it...I'm not sure) You can adjust the aperture at any time without going into the menu system, as well. Same goes for shutter priority...the same keys control the shutter speed, without your having to dive into the menus.
 
How's the battery life? Can you shoot off and on all day on one charge?

I really want this camera to be 'for me', but I can't say I like the sound of it so far. I guess I'll have to get my hands on one and shoot it to see if I like it. I've seen some great shots from it, but you can get an SLR (and lens) with a sensor almost as good for less money than this thing. And if you give up usability for shooting action of any kind, a little size/weight difference might not be worth it IMO.

Can you shoot another frame while it's still writing to the card, or is it locked until it's done?
 
You can take another shot whilst it is still writing to the card. Yet you cannot frame with the screen since it is blank as long as the "writing" goes on (one of the weaknesses of the DP!). 3 shot raw bursts are possible.

Agreed, the DP1 is pricey, but if it has to be digital, pocketable, excellent lens, file quality and IQ mattering most, than this is the one to get.
I tried pretty much all of the highly praised small sensor compacts as backups for my M8, D-lux 3 (sold), Ricoh GX100 (sold), G9 (will sell), GRDII (might keep) but except for the GRDII none could convince me as far as IQ is concerned (just never liked the noisy output of the first three mentioned, mediocre lenses, and the need for excessive post processing).
 
The small sensor cameras aren't noisy, they're just noisy compared to large sensor cameras, which is as it should be.

I've made 8x12 prints from my Lumix FX-01 and they're quite good. Good enough to be compared to film, certainly. (And amazing from a camera the size of a deck of playing cards!) And they're 1000% better than the picture I didn't take with the "high IQ" camera that was too bulky or too valuable to be dragged along.
 
I think the lack of zoom was so that they could concentrate on a very high quality wide-angle lens that could be collapsed into the body. Which they definitely succeeded in creating. It is seriously amazing for the size.

The DP-1 is just an IQ machine in a small package. That was clearly the goal. Everything else is secondary, and that may bug a lot of people, with some justification.

One thing I must say about the Foveon sensor...I am GLAD it has a sane megapixel level. I think the last thing the world needs is more megapixels. The world COULD use more interesting/characterful sensor technology, though, and that's what you get here.
 
All reviews with chicken pictures are OK with me.

Are you going to eat those chickens?

No way, those chickens are our pals. ;-) We have 13 layers and one rooster (he's the orange one) and get between 6 and 12 eggs a day. There are also 6 more chicks in the house in their brooder...by summer they'll be outside hanging with the rest of the flock.

We thought about raising some meat chickens but we don't love eating chicken enough to justify it. Also I'm not sure we'd be capable of slaughtering them ourselves, to be honest.
 
You've made it sound quite tempting.
I don't care if a camera like this has a zoom, I can live with a single fl, though I would have prefered 35mm. For the price though, and at f4, I'll have pass.
35mm and f2 and I'd buy it at that price.

Sigma making a camera like this is a hopeful sign. As you said, a small IQ machine is exactly what I'd like to have.
 
The DP-1 is just an IQ machine in a small package. That was clearly the goal. Everything else is secondary, and that may bug a lot of people, with some justification.
Hmm... I for one believe that ergonomy is more important than image quality when it comes to producing good pictures. How useful is that Foveon sensor in a camera with poor autofocus and unpractical manual focus?

Vincent
 
Personally, I'm satisfied with the AF, and the MF works, though it isn't ideal. The AF reminds me VERY powerfully of the AF on the G1, which everyone also complains about. But I haven't gotten a blurry picture from either camera yet.

f/2. yes, that would be nice indeed...
 
Now there is for the first time a compact digital which can equal the IQ of the best compact film cams (T3 etc), yet the majority of forum participants reacts with scepticism.
IQ wise the DP1 raises the bar substantially for compact digitals, both because of sensor and lens.
 
I'm curious about the shutter lag? Any??

No. The AF takes half a second in good light, and as much as two seconds in bad light, so there's your lag there. But if you're shooting MF, you push the button, there's your picture, as far as I can tell.

And I understand people's skepticism! Most people are very satisfied with the images they get from their rangerfinders, and with good reason. Who wants to spend 800 bucks for the latest new thing that's supposed to render all the previous new things meaningless? It sounds like total BS. But if you have the money, and like trying out new technology, this may well add a color or two to your palette.
 
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