Sigma DP1: Review
The Sigma DP1 looks to fill a gap. Once upon a time, when film still roamed the earth, luxury compacts were all the rage, but fast forward to 2008 and such compacts are conspicuous by their absence. Ricoh has had some success with the GR Digital II, but these cameras by their very nature tend to suffer from the same problem - the sensors are much smaller than those used in DSLR cameras.
With small sensors come two problems: noise and a lack of depth-of-field control. Cram millions of small pixels together in a tight space and they will interfere with each other, leading to the inevitable noise in low-light conditions.
When the Sigma DP1 was announced - a compact camera that would use the same Foveon sensor employed in Sigma’s SD14 DSLR – there was some excitement. At last, perhaps, professionals would have a relatively pocketable camera that would really cut the mustard when it came to picture quality...
First impressions:
On unpacking the Sigma DP1, the first impression you get is one of bulk. As compacts go, the Sigma DP1 isn’t actually that compact, but then it’s not as big as those luxury film compacts of yesteryear either. Often large cameras don’t seem problematically large when they are well designed, but in the case of the DP1 ergonomics was obviously low down on the list of priorities. The DP1 is effectively a box with no real grip and while the controls are all easily reachable, some are inscribed in black on black, not white on black.
The DP1’s in-camera software isn’t as user-friendly as you may come to expect either. Changing the ISO setting requires a dip into a sub level of the menu, but an often used setting like this should really have its own dedicated control.
Features and performance:
The Sigma DP1 has the most comprehensive level of manual and semi-automatic control we’ve seen in a digital compact camera. Program and manual exposure modes are joined by aperture and shutter-priority, as well as a movie mode and voice recorder. A big plus is that manual focus (MF) is also available via a thumb wheel on the rear of the camera, although this feature is a little awkward to use.
Shutter lag is something that compact camera manufacturers have worked hard on reducing over recent years. The Sigma DP1’s AF times and shutter lag are reminiscent of a camera made some years ago however. Focusing takes at least about a second (during which time the screen frustratingly freezes) and even after this time shutter release isn’t what you might call rapid. To make matters worse, there were occasions when, even after all that time, the DP1 just refused to focus.
After an image has been captured, the time taken for it to be written to memory card is very slow. We’ve come to expect this from compacts that shoot RAW files, but with the DP1 even JPEGs take some time - during which time the camera can’t be used for anything else.
There are also some key features that should really be present in a top-flight, modern day compact like this. We’re not bothered about face recognition and scene modes, but a macro facility would have been nice, as would some form of anti-shake. And how about a live histogram or the ability to shoot RAW and JPEG simultaneously?
The lens, we thought, must at least save the day. True, Sigma has put some really nice glass on the DP1. Barrel distortion is minimal from the 16mm f/4 optic and images display a pleasing level of sharpness. We would have liked to have seen a faster aperture, but we’re assuming that the distances involved inside the camera probably precluded this.
To get the best from the DP1 it’s essential to shoot RAW. In-camera image processing into JPEG files is pretty poor, with noise being so pronounced at ISO400 and above that the pictures were unusable. (Sigma tells us the camera does not perform any noise reduction itself.)
Shoot RAW files at ISO 400 or 800 and the included RAW processing software makes a great job of eliminating noise, yielding film-like ‘grain’ that is not unattractive. At ISO 100 the results are silky smooth and of high quality, showing off the ability of the DP1’s optics.
Sensor:
The Sigma DP1 is being marketed as a 14.1-megapixel camera although it only outputs images at 2640x1760 pixels – the same as a 4.3-megapixel camera. What’s going on here then? Well, the Foveon sensor does indeed have 14.1-million pixels but a third of these are blue, a third green and a third red. Each group sits in a separate layer within the sensor. In fact, if you read the small print, Sigma describes the DP1 as containing “a 14-megapixel FOVEON X3 direct image sensor (2652x1768x3 layers)”.
No interpolation of the three layers’ output occurs during in-camera image processing, as it does in the case of a CCD or CMOS-based device, meaning that images will always be limited to the pixel size of one of the layers. Great for the purists, but it would have been nice to have had a choice of something bigger.
Summary:
Ignoring the Sigma DP1’s disappointing output file sizes and the noise in JPEG files, are the images that the camera produces actually any good? Well, yes. In the right conditions they are certainly sharp, smooth and neutrally rendered with no over-saturated colours.
The Sigma DP1 retails at around £550. For this amount of money you could buy a Ricoh GR Digital with all the extras or a Canon PowerShot G9 with plenty of change - both of which produce better JPEG files. In fact, in our tests, even the original Ricoh GR Digital, legendary for its noise at high ISO, was a better JPEG performer than the DP1. But shoot RAW files and it’s a different story.
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Words & Pics: Ian Farrell
