Camera Blog

Having just spent a bundle of money on a studio flash and battery pack, I felt the need to go out and take some low-tech shots at one of my favorite events: Last Thursday on Alberta St. here in Portland.  As usual, the camera is my DP2.

Natural light only

Waiting for the grilled cheese at Le Petite Provence

Both of these can be anylized from a lighting point of view.  There was a huge wall of windows at camera-left with the evening sun coming through (though not directly), there was a large mirror directly above and behind the subject that allowed for a bit of a hair light accent, and I think I just happened to get lucky with the catch light in the eyes– I’m pretty sure those are the window reflections though.  No on-camera or off-camera flash was used.

It’s fun to take apart images like these and it’s good to keep notes on them, because it seems like half the time that I’m fussing with lights I’m merely trying to re-create what a nice big window in a big open room already does.  I love throwing technology at problems, but I also love the simplicity of doing without it.

This will likely be my final post before I take off for Europe for 10 days.  I had the opportunity to take the DP2 out last night for Portland’s infamous Last Thursday festival/street fair/celebration, and for the first time I really got to put the little guy through its paces.

The most challenging aspect that I had to overcome was the autofocus.  I am so used to the 40D SLR that I’m really having to re-learn how to ensure that a high percentage of the shots are perfectly in focus.  I played around with the manual focus, but I only had marginal success.  The following pictures are candid and hardly works of art, but they do show a bit more of what this camera is capable of.

ISO 200, f/9, 1/125

ISO 200, f/3.2, 1/500

ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/50th

ISO 400, f/2.8, 1/80th

ISO 400, f/2.8, 1/80th

I was struck by how little processing each image needed, especially compared to my big Canon.   A simple adjustment of the ‘Blacks’ slider in Lightroom got most of the shots 80% of the way there, and a couple of curves, sharpening, and saturation tweaks were generally all that was needed to finish it off.  When the focus is right-on the pictures really sing, and I’m starting to see the mythical “pop” that people attribute to the Foveon sensor.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll be back on June 9th with plenty more DP2 impressions and a whole lot more pictures.

Cheers,

Peter

2 reasons: 1, to show off my 55th picture with my DP2 (taken by my dad), and 2, to put a face to the author of this blog. 

Not bad for a compact camera, eh?

The astute viewer will notice that my t-shirt seems to have some sort of a weird blue tint going on.  I see it too, and I’m still trying to determine at which point in the developing process it got there.  For now I’m going to blame it on the poor white-balance functionality of Sigma’s PhotoPro software.

This is a review of the much-anticipated Sigma DP2 compact camera that was released in May, 2009.

I hope to make it clear in both broad strokes and in great detail why this camera is: revolutionary, a hopeful sign of things to come, a success, and a big steaming pile of compromises.

Please read on for the full review.

As of May 15th it looks as though the Sigma DP-2 is out of stock at every major internet retailer. Phone calls to B&H, Adorama, Amazon, J&R, and others all resulted in the same answer: the DP-2 is out of stock, and there is no ETA for new inventory. Whether the camera is insanely popular or the retailers didn’t get very much stock in the first place remains to be seen, but with images like these starting to pop up around the ‘net it’s sure making a good first impression.

Here’s a quick rundown of the camera’s page on each site for easy reference:

Amazon.com

B&H Photo

Adorama

J&R

17th Street Photo

I will update this post as soon as any of the above retailers get it in stock.

UPDATE: Our friends in the U.K. can pick up a DP-2 at ABC-Digital-Cameras.co.uk for £599.99.  Still no word on North American availability, however.

UPDATE #2 (May 20th): 17th Street Photo has the DP-2 available right now for $699.  This is still a $50 premium over every other store that is will be carrying it, but right now they’re the only place that has it in stock.

It looks like Amazon, B&H, and Adorama all have the highly-anticipated Sigma DP-2 point & shoot available,  ringing in at just under $700.

The 14-Megapixel camera features a gigantic 20.7mm x 13.8mm sensor (compared to the tiny sensors typically found on p&s cameras), a 41mm f/2.8 lens with manual focus, a hot-shoe flash mount, and a host of other specs that would be better described by a DPReview.com spec sheet.

Whether the huge Foveon sensor will allow for dSLR quality from a p&s compact remains to be seen, but if a high-end compact or a new toy is on your shopping list it’s probably worth a look.

I would personally have liked to see a wider and faster lens (30mm f/2.0, anybody?), since 41mm can feel a bit long when shooting indoors.

Pretty much any camera is going to take a decent picture these days, which is why I am waiting for more information on how the camera performs in hand before passing any final judgement on this.  Shutter lag, shots per second, buffer space, menu layout, and overall feel are far more important than the signal:noise ratio at ISO 400.

I am less interested in detailed image specifications on a high-end specialty camera such as this as I am in:

• How likely I will want to carry it around with me 24/7
• How much I will trust it to take a shot when I need it
• How easy it will be for me to do something creative (i.e. manual focus, manual exposure, etc.)
• How frustrating it is to use in real-world day-to-day situations