[Leica] OT: Sigma DP1 review

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

At 8:43 PM +0200 5/20/08, Nathan wrote:
>Well, the whole reason why many people got excited about the DP1 was 
>that it had a sensor similar to 4/3, i.e. much bigger than the 
>typical P&S camera has. Therefore, one had the right to expect that 
>it would perform on a level similar to the 4/3 cameras or the 1.6 
>sensor DSLRs, which clearly is not the case. And when is slow nice? 
>Certainly not when trying to do street photography, or any other 
>photography for that matter. When I had the GRD, one of the most 
>unbearable things about it was that it took 5-6 seconds to write a 
>RAW file to the card. From the review, it seems that the Sigma is 
>even worse in that regards.
>
>Forget it.
>
>Nathan

I had a chance to use a DP-1 for a number of days about a month ago. 
It is slow to start up, has shutter lag and is slow to write. Jpeg 
and RAW are equally slow. The screen is coarse and slow with huge 
lag, and goes to B&W when the light dims a bit. Manual focus is iffy 
and easily changed accidentally, and AF is slooooww and only works in 
bright light.

The image quality is quite nice, and well above what other small 
sensor cameras can deliver but you have to use Sigma's really bad 
software, which is a huge step down from any other RAW converter.

All in all, the GRD was a lot quicker, and the GRDII is even better, 
although still not really responsive.

The Foveon sensor is nice, but the camera is a dog.


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