Yeah I really can't understand why this camera is getting so much flak, especially from people who havent used it or attempted to get to know it.
I bought a DP1 last week to replace my Ricoh GRD and it really is in a different league. Sure the lens is only F4 and it is quite expensive for a point and shoot but it is pretty much the only camera that offers decent quality in a small size.
Things that Impress me:
+ Really good image quality, around 8-10mp, clean and sharp up to 400iso, and at 800 perfectly useable (better than my GRD was at 200iso). Noise is small and monochrome, not multicolored and blotchy like in the GRD.
+Proper depth of field, sure you dont get anything mind blowing with 28mm F4 but a close up environmental portrait gives you a nice blurred background, and its lovely to use a digital compact that doesnt make every shot look like it was taken at F16
+ With a decent SD card raw write times are around 4seconds, and this is definately not worse than my GRD (and I am actually getting a nice looking decent file from it, not a noise ridden mess)
+ Once one gets to know the menus and the layout of the camera, it really isn't half as bad as people are making out. Quick to use the camera in the manual focus mode, which I think is quite nifty, and also very reminiscent of using a rangefinder when combined with an external viewfinder
+a really nice movie mode, with depth of field,kinda like super 8 film
Basically it annoys me people bashing this camera without really giving it a chance. I am thankful that Sigma had the guts to make a camera which aside from sinking thousands on an M8 (I am a photography student and cant afford that option) is the closest in digital to using a film rangerfinder or something like an Xa. Money well spent IMO, with a little exploration the camera handles fine, and the images it takes are great and in a class of their own
for a small compact.
So yeah, I dont necessarily think this camera needs it's own forum, but I do think it should be given a chance!
J