Sigma Dp1. Brief review from a reader

Material on Sigma Dp1 especially for Radozhiva prepared Dima.

Sigma Dp1

The Sigma Dp family of cameras is a family of compact cameras with 'welded' primes and a large sensor. The crop of the matrix is ​​unusual - it is 1.7X, which is slightly less than that of Nikon and Canon APS-C, but more than 4/3. There were three versions of the camera: 28 mm, 45 mm and 75 mm. In the first case aperture was F/4, in the rest – F/2.8. Sensor size: 20,7 x 13,8 mm. Actually, this is the whole point of the camera, it is very compact and has an impressive size matrix, and not an ordinary one, but a three-layer one, called Foveon. The camera was announced on May 19, 2008.

As a lover of landscapes, I, of course, liked the 28 mm version. Yes, to be honest, I haven’t seen any other options on the secondary market. At the time of announcement, the camera cost about $800, which in my opinion is very expensive. After the camera was discontinued, prices usually doubled. A hand-held camera could be found for about $250 (as of 2012). The camera is quite rare; it appears on the secondary market very rarely.

And so - the camera body is a rather nice weighty metal block, everything is fitted very well and the camera fits nicely in the hand. The camera has a lot of disadvantages, but looking at what can be squeezed out of its RAW, you forgive everything. The matrix of this camera has three layers, each layer has a color (red, green, blue).

The image resolution was only 4 megapixels, but for some reason the manufacturer stated 12, that is, 4 for each layer. But the resolution of the image itself is only 2640 by 1760. But the detail was so high (there was no low-pass filter) that without problems and obvious deterioration in quality when saving in the native editor, it was possible to save the image in double size.

Pictures from this camera were distinguished by very high, ringing detail at any aperture, high dynamic range, and unusual color that could be squeezed out of it. Not exact, but unusual and unreal, artistically beautiful. Only one white balance could achieve an interesting and deep shade. The camera loves good light, a tripod and low ISO.

She had 50-200 working ISOs. All! Everything above was noisy, and very noisy. Colored noise, spots - whatever. The camera is very slow and leisurely, solely for the soul and leisurely shooting and, of course, only as a second one. Jeeps and videos were formally there, but the quality was so terrible that one could say they were not there.

An interesting feature: all other things being equal, Sigma always required 2 times more time for the same exposure as other cameras. As I understand it, this was a feature of the three-layer sensor. Sometimes she was weird with the white balance and it was difficult to get an adequate color. But this only happened in difficult conditions. The menu and controls were quite simple and friendly. Another feature, maximum excerpt was only 15 seconds.

When focusing, the camera made cute, unusual sounds. The lens was very afraid of backlight from the sun and gave just terrible red glare that completely spoiled the frame, but it painted interesting and unusual stars on the city lamps, it looked very artistic.

And now a little about the native editor. It could be downloaded for free from the company's website. Quite an impressive number of versions have been released today. And he was not without jokes. On the oldest Dp models, not all functionality was available. On the newer ones (merill) there were more settings and all sorts of corrections available. And there were quite a lot of them there. And only a native editor could successfully suppress the proprietary noise of sigma at ISO 400 and higher. And it was possible to get more or less tolerable pictures. Again, an interesting feature: the noise reduction mode was activated only at ISO 400 and higher. As for color, the native editor made it possible to get a very good interesting picture, much better than ACR. But today ACR has learned to adequately develop Sigma files. There are even profiles for lenses. But only the native program can suppress the noise adequately.

The native editor is very slow, specific and inconvenient. Nothing new in general.

As a result, Sigma Dp1 is a very interesting compact that you can always carry with you. Easily fits into a jacket pocket. Only suitable as a second chamber for the soul.

At ISO up to 200 it produced phenomenally clear, transparent and clear images. With the right bb interesting colors and shades. Loves good light and tripods. You can also shoot handheld, but for evening shooting, a tripod and ISO 50 are better for ideal results.

Below are examples shown both in the native program and in ACR.

You will find more reviews from readers of Radozhiva here и here.