Sigma DP-1 Delayed till 2008

Solinar

Solinar

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Thats a bloody honest and admirable announcement, I really respect Sigma for taking it's time developing (what they say and what I think will be) a quality product and getting it right rather than rushing it and ending up with a mass produced camera with major design flaws (cough m8/1d mkIII)

I'll be looking forward to it.
 
I thought the same thing about the announcement. As I inferred, I hope the DP-1 spurs some other manufacturers to build a compact fixed focal length P&S with an larger than usual sensor.
 
I'm really glad they're taking the time to get this camera right. I think it is going to be a cracker when it comes out. And at least now we kow why we've heard nothing for months.
 
Foveon sensors are hard to get right, apparently. I guess Leica should be relieved that they didn't choose one for the M8.
 
I think one problem referring to the pipelines; they probably saw the RAW writing times were very slow ... they wanted to make sure that wouldn't be a criticism

I really hope Sigma gets this right
 
My take on this is that Sigma was completely overwhelmed by the reaction on their prototype. Which I think wasn't even a prototype in the strictest sense, but rather a thought exercise.. a sort of 'what if you could do this and that' kind of thing.

The prototype was a bold statement indeed, and the storm it caused on the web and in the media must have been something that they really didn't anticipate. Now, there's two things they could have done.. let it die a quick death, or make it to production more or less as is and do that fast, warts and all. They did neither, instead they fuelled interest even more with a flashy web site.. And so, in everyone's mind this camera has become the holy grail.

By now they can only do one thing if they don't want to lose their face; make it that holy grail. No matter how hard it is to combine a top class wide lens and a big sensor in a small package, they'll have to deliver. The fact that the lens isn't fast, which of course is understandable if it's not retrofocal, can only be excused if the image quality surpasses anything else on the market. It's a sea of mutually exclusive demands they have to navigate now.

Perhaps their only way out is to morph the 28/4 into something more 40/2 like. Less wide, so retrofocal is no issue, and faster, so it meets more forgiveness for not being ultra sharp in the corners wide open..
 
Sigma was the one who decided to use choice word such as "launch" when the original prototype was announce...

"The Sigma Corporation is pleased to announce the launch of the new, groundbreaking Sigma DP1 compact digital camera featuring a 14 megapixel FOVEON X3 direct image sensor (2652 × 1768 × 3 layers) as used in the Sigma SD14 digital SLR. The image sensor uses three silicon embedded layers of photo sensors, stacked to take advantage of silicon’s ability to absorb red, green and blue light at different respective depths...."

PFFTTT
 
ywenz said:
Sigma was the one who decided to use choice word such as "launch" when the original prototype was announce...

"The Sigma Corporation is pleased to announce the launch of the new, groundbreaking Sigma DP1 compact digital camera featuring a 14 megapixel FOVEON X3 direct image sensor (2652 × 1768 × 3 layers) as used in the Sigma SD14 digital SLR. The image sensor uses three silicon embedded layers of photo sensors, stacked to take advantage of silicon’s ability to absorb red, green and blue light at different respective depths...."

PFFTTT
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Who cares if they've taken a bit long. If the cameras good it will be worth it - not to mention theres NOTHING on the market in the point and shoot world that has an aps sized sensor. There are huge gains to be had.

I am impressed with sigma for the concept and for taking their time getting it right
 
fdigital said:
theres NOTHING on the market in the point and shoot world that has an aps sized sensor. There are huge gains to be had.
Click to expand...
Such as?

In theory, you can get more light sensitivity out of it, but then Sigma is using a Foveon sensor which is inherently less sensitive due to the layered construction. In theory, you can get also get more shallow DOF out of it, but then Sigma is using a f/4 lens, partly because they have to cover a larger sensor with their wideangle. On the DP-1, wide open at 1m, everything from 70 to 160 cm will be in focus, not very impressive DOF-wise. For comparison, on the Ricoh GR-D, which has a 5.8/f2.4 lens on a 1/1.8" sensor, wide open at 1m, everything from 68cm to 172 cm will be in focus. Whatever advantage the Sigma might have from its larger sensor gets eaten up by the slower lens.

In theory there are some gains to be had, but in the meantime I'm doubtful until I see results.

Philipp
 
Philipp

On the APS sensor, the photosites and quality of the pixels are much larger and higher - the same sort of jump that was from a canon 30d to a canon 5d.

To be completely honest I don't know that much about the foveon sensor. I do find it interesting, but what you say about it being inherently less sensitive, you're probably right. There are a lot of foveon supporters with the sigma DSLRs though, and it's growing all the time - especially with low ISO performance. The idea is sharper per pixel, more accurate colors and wider dynamic range.

You know what your talking about - Indeed you haven't written it off yet but I too think it will be very interesting to see what it's like. If it doesn't outperform the ricoh GRd I'll be quite suprised
 
Yeah theres not that much media on the sd14 unfortunately. Considering they state they are in beta testing mode at the moment, I'd say it's fairly close to being given the go ahead, but they may run into more problems of course. I still think the concept is an excellent idea, I just hope it's as good as it could be. (imagine a canon 40d or nikon d40 sensor in a compact the size of a ricoh GRD, even with the f4 lens!)
 
the SD14 is no good at high iso. Well better than a small P&S sensor but not even close to other APS sensors. So you can get your hopes down about the DP1
 
I think it's kind of funny that there is all this hoopla over what is going to be essentially a digital version of the compact fixed-lens RF cameras that regularly get sold on here for $35-$50.
Except that it won't have an optical viewfinder and manual focus. And it will have a slow lens. And it won't be as good at ISO 1600-3200... ;)
 
photogdave said:
I think it's kind of funny that there is all this hoopla over what is going to be essentially a digital version of the compact fixed-lens RF cameras that regularly get sold on here for $35-$50.
Except that it won't have an optical viewfinder and manual focus. And it will have a slow lens. And it won't be as good at ISO 1600-3200... ;)
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It's a great concept - placing a larger sensor into a pocketable compact P&S body with a fixed lens.

I understand that many folks will be snarly that its a Sigma, the lens is slow and beyond ISO 400 the noise may be objectionable. Still, it is a concept that is way overdue.

My original thoughts regarding the DP-1 - it may lead to imitation by either Olympus or Panasonic and hopefully the imitators won't be offering another Sony DSC-R1.
 
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