DP1 Advertisement in Australia

[Sean_Reid]

This is true but then the DP1 has only the focus wheel and no shutter and appreture and this I think would be more impotant.
.

We need all four: focus, aperture, shutter speed, ISO. This is something I'll be discussing with Ricoh.

Cheers,

Sean

 

[Sean_Reid]

Given this and the other comments here, just who is target market for the DP1? Enthusiasts might be put off by the contradictory features; and presumably Joe Average won't be interested, and it's not a fashion statement.

Bertie

I don't know nor does anyone outside Sigma and the firms it contracts for marker research, PR, etc. In a nutshell, though, the potential appeal is the rendering of a good APS-H (roughly) sized sensor in a pocket sized body. But that's just my sense, I'm not privy to Sigma's target.

Cheers,

Sean

 

[Sean_Reid]

Sean,
I missed that. Where do you see this? I agree whole heartedly with the need!

Manual Focus= Dial Type

is that it?

Yup, wheel on the back with distance markings -thumb location...shown in pics since the first prototype and a very smart design.

Cheers,

Sean

 

[Sean_Reid]

This is true but then the DP1 has only the focus wheel and no shutter and appreture and this I think would be more impotant.
QUOTE]

The blurb says that the auto focus has 9 points, but doesn't make it clear if the focus wheel merely selects these, or if manual focus is continuous from whatever the minimum distance is to infinity.

Bertie

The wheel sets manual focus distance as I mentioned earlier.

Cheers,

Sean

 

[Sean_Reid]

Still no lock to stop that dial being turned accidently though! That's my main beef!

I wouldn't worry about that until we actually get to try this system. We don't know what the action's weighting is, etc. This is the focus control I was talking about in the GR2 review.

Cheers,

Sean

 

[Sean_Reid]

Folks...as for the worries and complaints about a camera none of us has yet worked with...

Einstein, reportedly, used to sometimes take potential assistants out to lunch. And he would watch the prospective assistant to see if he seasoned (with salt and pepper) his food before tasting it. If he did, Einstein had no use for him because he wasn't a good scientist - acting in advance of empirical information.

We know that F/4 at ISO 800 is F/4 at ISO 800. Cameras can vary 1/3 stop (rarely 2/3 stop) or so in actual sensitivity at a given ISO but, otherwise, exposure is exposure. But as to how well the rest of the camera might or might not work, lets wait until we've actually used the camera.

I understand that my outlook on this is not very "Internet-ish" but I do try to taste my food before I salt it. Conjecture is fine, of course, but criticizing perceived weaknesses in this camera may be a bit premature.

Cheers,

Sean

 

[thomasl.se]

We know that F/4 at ISO 800 is F/4 at ISO 800. Cameras can vary 1/3 stop (rarely 2/3 stop) or so in actual sensitivity at a given ISO but,

Was the 800 cap news as of this recent press release, or was that known - almost wrote "known issue" - during the last year? Has anyone else been quite expecting 1600 or higher?

Pass the salt, please? ; )

Thomas

 

[cam]

I understand that my outlook on this is not very "Internet-ish" but I do try to taste my food before I salt it. Conjecture is fine, of course, but criticizing perceived weaknesses in this camera may be a bit premature.

:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[cam]

Was the 800 cap news as of this recent press release, or was that known - almost wrote "known issue" - during the last year? Has anyone else been quite expecting 1600 or higher?

Pass the salt, please? ; )

Thomas

the 800 cap was announced only with this release, i believe. most people expected 1600 and were hoping for higher because of the larger sensor.... my understanding is that this was limited due to the small size of the camera as is the issue of f/4.

speaking as somebody who is obviously one of the target markets Sigma is hoping to attract, i am willing to wait before i moan about it's short-comings. i find it refreshing that they did NOT put in 1600 or higher because they knew it would look like crap. with all cameras, there are limitations. we learn to work with them and if we can work around them.... one of the joys of photography!

 

[Robert Campbell]

I don't know nor does anyone outside Sigma and the firms it contracts for marker research, PR, etc. In a nutshell, though, the potential appeal is the rendering of a good APS-H (roughly) sized sensor in a pocket sized body. But that's just my sense, I'm not privy to Sigma's target.

Cheers,

Sean

Looking through the comments here, might Sigma see it as a sort of (Ur)Leica for those for whom a real Leica remains an aspiration?

 

[kai.e.g.]

I don't remember if it was in the original prototypes - someone else probably does - but one thing that a few people familiar with Sigma have pointed out in other forums is the company also "held back" on higher ISO settings in the initial release of their SD-14 dSLR, and only made higher ISO available later as part of a firmware upgrade. That could have simply been because ISO 1600 (or whatever the cut-off was) wasn't yet ready for prime time, but I suppose one could also conjecture that Sigma prefers most of the published reviews of the camera to take place at <= 800 ISO (within margins of what they consider to be great IQ), and once things settle down in the press a bit, they quietly open the doors to higher ISO/poorer IQ with a firmware upgrade. Perhaps they figure that capping at 800 might only get a passing mention in reviews, while less-than-stellar IQ at >= 1600 might get too much of the wrong kind of attention. Beats me.

Was the 800 cap news as of this recent press release, or was that known - almost wrote "known issue" - during the last year? Has anyone else been quite expecting 1600 or higher?

Pass the salt, please? ; )

Thomas

 

[VladimirV]

We need all four: focus, aperture, shutter speed, ISO. This is something I'll be discussing with Ricoh.

This would be great as long as it won't make the camera bigger or clutered with too many wheels. But if Ricoh can implement this it would be great :thumbs:.

 

[Sean_Reid]

Was the 800 cap news as of this recent press release, or was that known - almost wrote "known issue" - during the last year? Has anyone else been quite expecting 1600 or higher?

Thomas

I was expecting 1600 but I'm betting they couldn't get the file quality they wanted at that speed.

Cheers,

Sean

 

[Sean_Reid]

Looking through the comments here, might Sigma see it as a sort of (Ur)Leica for those for whom a real Leica remains an aspiration?

I don't know how Sigma see it although I'll talk to them about it. But it might end up being an interesting alternative for people who lean towards the M8 or the R-D1.

Cheers,

Sean

 

[Sean_Reid]

I don't remember if it was in the original prototypes - someone else probably does - but one thing that a few people familiar with Sigma have pointed out in other forums is the company also "held back" on higher ISO settings in the initial release of their SD-14 dSLR, and only made higher ISO available later as part of a firmware upgrade. That could have simply been because ISO 1600 (or whatever the cut-off was) wasn't yet ready for prime time, but I suppose one could also conjecture that Sigma prefers most of the published reviews of the camera to take place at <= 800 ISO (within margins of what they consider to be great IQ), and once things settle down in the press a bit, they quietly open the doors to higher ISO/poorer IQ with a firmware upgrade. Perhaps they figure that capping at 800 might only get a passing mention in reviews, while less-than-stellar IQ at >= 1600 might get too much of the wrong kind of attention. Beats me.

That's an interesting theory.

Cheers,

Sean

 

[kai.e.g.]

Re: Some Salt

There are some full-sized samples available online now, shot at all ISO's and some even at night here:

http://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/cda/review/2008/02/02/7893.html

Some of the same shots are also at the following link; I mention this only in case a Japanese reader is able to glean more info from one site page than the other:

http://www.digitalcamera.jp/

I don't think Mitch Alland is going to like this camera Having said that, there is noise, even at ISO 200... but that noise does not look so "film-like" to me. Foveons/Sigma are notorious for splotches of green & magenta, that is in evidence, especially at ISO 800; it may be something easily handled in PP. That said, the images are pretty amazing when you consider the size of the box that made them!

 

[wbrandsma]

I did notice quite a lot of distortion. It is expecially noticable on the left image in the lowest row.

 

[helgipelgi]

With the lens protruding from the body like this, would it be possible to make a similar design with interchangeable lenses?

 

[hiro]

The test images are certainly very smooth. Featureless areas such as the sky tend to look more grainy with a CCD-based compact camera, or even with a 4/3 SLR, but with the DP1 they look smooth even after quite a bit of sharpening (until the JPEG artefacts appear). I wonder if this is due to the foveon or simply the large sensor size.

 

[mourges]

Folks...as for the worries and complaints about a camera none of us has yet worked with...

Einstein, reportedly, used to sometimes take potential assistants out to lunch. And he would watch the prospective assistant to see if he seasoned (with salt and pepper) his food before tasting it. If he did, Einstein had no use for him because he wasn't a good scientist - acting in advance of empirical information.

Sean

I heard that story as something from Henry Ford, not Einstein, and it was potential managers that he would take out - some reasoning. Ford was a big believer of Scientific Management.