well i thought i might offer up my impressions on the dp1 as a street camera. i shoot street stuff to sort of "chill" from the documentary work as it can be a little taxing (emotionally) at times.
i currently shoot press and commissioned documentary work for a living.
the dp1 as it turns out has a very strong niche in the hands of the "old school" street shooters. coming from a rangefinder i am very comfortable with zone focusing. the dp1 has a brilliant interface for manual zone focusing and my only quibble is that i wish the manual focus wheel was also in "feet" much like the display after firmware 2.0. old habits... i am surprised that so many reviews seemed fail to pick up on just how well suited the camera is for said approach to street shooting. mostly one is warned to stay away if you want a fast, responsive camera. well, beyond the write times when shooting raw and start up, the camera, with a little knowledge, can be set up to shoot as quick as you can press the shutter.
i have also set the ael button to lock focus distance (like the "snap" mode on the old gr1's). works brilliantly when you have the lighting to run small apertures providing lot's of DOF.
i was quite pleased, initially, with being able to set the top right buttons to toggle iso however i now find that is the exact point where i rest my thumb so i am quickly trying to figure out how to disengage them completely... it looks like "off" will do it!
the raw write times are a bother. if you are used to rattling a couple of frames off it will take some time to get used to. from a tech standpoint this can be seen as a serious flaw however as we all know limitation can serve you well. i found over the first day of using it i have become quite patient and wait for what i deem the "decisive moment" (please forgive me for using that phrase). i have only shot raw files and will try shooting jpegs soon on a suggestion from a member here.
as you all know the camera can be set-up to shoot completely silent. slap an external finder on there, turn off the display and auto review and you are running on the serious DL (down low).
i don't have enough time in with the files yet to comment but so far i am pleased. it is easily noticed that i am no "stickler" for megapixels and super clean images though. content, content, content is my mantra.
the software is, in my humble opinion, a royal pain in the arse! slow! slow! slow!
a few quibbles i thought i would throw out there as i am sure there is answers with the more experienced dp1 shooters.
1/ the playback button, after the camera is on for a while, doesn't playback images for me. in essence, after about 20 minutes of being ready to go (i have a habit of touching the shutter release every once in a while to keep the camera awake and ready) the playback button becomes a dud. after powering the camera off and back on again the playback button comes back online? not a BIG deal for me as i rarely use it but every once in a while i check lighting etc.
2/ running a 24" g5 imac with 10.4.11. the sigma software doesn't seem to recognize the camera when hooked up by usb. again not a big issue as i usually employ a card reader but as it stands it doesn't recognize the camera... the mac will register the camera as a drive.
3/ according to most of the literature i have read the dp1 has a 3 shot buffer? is that a 3 jpeg buffer only? my experience so far is 1 raw file and wait... and wait.
well i hope to add more as i learn and experience the dp1. i applaud sigma for the ba*$ to put the camera out and hope and pray that a firmware update will be forthcoming with a deeper buffer. please feel free to add comments or clear up any errors i may inadvertently have made.
i currently shoot press and commissioned documentary work for a living.
the dp1 as it turns out has a very strong niche in the hands of the "old school" street shooters. coming from a rangefinder i am very comfortable with zone focusing. the dp1 has a brilliant interface for manual zone focusing and my only quibble is that i wish the manual focus wheel was also in "feet" much like the display after firmware 2.0. old habits... i am surprised that so many reviews seemed fail to pick up on just how well suited the camera is for said approach to street shooting. mostly one is warned to stay away if you want a fast, responsive camera. well, beyond the write times when shooting raw and start up, the camera, with a little knowledge, can be set up to shoot as quick as you can press the shutter.
i have also set the ael button to lock focus distance (like the "snap" mode on the old gr1's). works brilliantly when you have the lighting to run small apertures providing lot's of DOF.
i was quite pleased, initially, with being able to set the top right buttons to toggle iso however i now find that is the exact point where i rest my thumb so i am quickly trying to figure out how to disengage them completely... it looks like "off" will do it!
the raw write times are a bother. if you are used to rattling a couple of frames off it will take some time to get used to. from a tech standpoint this can be seen as a serious flaw however as we all know limitation can serve you well. i found over the first day of using it i have become quite patient and wait for what i deem the "decisive moment" (please forgive me for using that phrase). i have only shot raw files and will try shooting jpegs soon on a suggestion from a member here.
as you all know the camera can be set-up to shoot completely silent. slap an external finder on there, turn off the display and auto review and you are running on the serious DL (down low).
i don't have enough time in with the files yet to comment but so far i am pleased. it is easily noticed that i am no "stickler" for megapixels and super clean images though. content, content, content is my mantra.
the software is, in my humble opinion, a royal pain in the arse! slow! slow! slow!
a few quibbles i thought i would throw out there as i am sure there is answers with the more experienced dp1 shooters.
1/ the playback button, after the camera is on for a while, doesn't playback images for me. in essence, after about 20 minutes of being ready to go (i have a habit of touching the shutter release every once in a while to keep the camera awake and ready) the playback button becomes a dud. after powering the camera off and back on again the playback button comes back online? not a BIG deal for me as i rarely use it but every once in a while i check lighting etc.
2/ running a 24" g5 imac with 10.4.11. the sigma software doesn't seem to recognize the camera when hooked up by usb. again not a big issue as i usually employ a card reader but as it stands it doesn't recognize the camera... the mac will register the camera as a drive.
3/ according to most of the literature i have read the dp1 has a 3 shot buffer? is that a 3 jpeg buffer only? my experience so far is 1 raw file and wait... and wait.
well i hope to add more as i learn and experience the dp1. i applaud sigma for the ba*$ to put the camera out and hope and pray that a firmware update will be forthcoming with a deeper buffer. please feel free to add comments or clear up any errors i may inadvertently have made.
Last edited: