Photokina - Sigma's surprise DP1 Foveon compact

[Ian]

The big shows have less surprises than they used to because the Internet is such a good medium for pre-announcing new products. Sigma kind of pre-announced the new SD14 before this year's Photokina but they kept very quiet about their new compact Foveion X3 camera, the DP1. It uses the same '14 megapixel' (3x 4.7 megapixels) Foveon X3 sensor as the new SD14 and sports a 16.6mm (28mm equivalent) f/4 non-zoom lens. As you can see from the pictures, the DP1 is very compact for a camera with such a large (1.7x cropping factor) sensor. If all goes well the DP1 is set to be a cult 'street' camera. Only one thing disappointed and that was the body construction, which appeared to be plastic rather than metal. But hey, if that makes it more affordable, I won't be complaining.

Ian

[AAM]

Re: Photokina - Sigma's surprise DP1 Foveon compact

The camera has zoom controls at the back. Whilst the controls may be for digital zoom only, it make little sense to have dedicated buttons for this, unless there is optical zoom in there as well!

-AAM

The big shows have less surprises than they used to because the Internet is such a good medium for pre-announcing new products. Sigma kind of pre-announced the new SD14 before this year's Photokina but they kept very quiet about their new compact Foveion X3 camera, the DP1. It uses the same '14 megapixel' (3x 4.7 megapixels) Foveon X3 sensor as the new SD14 and sports a 16.6mm (28mm equivalent) f/4 non-zoom lens. As you can see from the pictures, the DP1 is very compact for a camera with such a large (1.7x cropping factor) sensor. If all goes well the DP1 is set to be a cult 'street' camera. Only one thing disappointed and that was the body construction, which appeared to be plastic rather than metal. But hey, if that makes it more affordable, I won't be complaining.

Ian

[Stephen]

Re: Photokina - Sigma's surprise DP1 Foveon compact

The camera has zoom controls at the back. Whilst the controls may be for digital zoom only, it make little sense to have dedicated buttons for this, unless there is optical zoom in there as well!

-AAM

Unless perhaps they are for reviewing only

[Unregistered]

Re: Photokina - Sigma's surprise DP1 Foveon compact

Yes, I thought of that too, but under the W(ide) and T(ele) marking of the buttons, printed on the camera body, there are also a magnifying glass and a square symbols more often used to indicate zooming in and out during playback.

Oh well, maybe I am wishing too much....

AAM

Unless perhaps they are for reviewing only