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| Category: | Compact Cameras |
Sigma announce launch of DP1 - The Sigma Corporation is pleased to announce the launch of the new, groundbreaking Sigma DP1 compact digital camera.
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Jargon Buster: OffPress Release:
The Sigma DP1 features a 14 megapixel Foveon X3 direct image sensor (2652 × 1768 × 3 layers) as used in the Sigma SD14 digital SLR. The image sensor uses three silicon embedded layers of photo sensors, stacked to take advantage of silicon’s ability to absorb red, green and blue light at different respective depths.
A 16.6mm F4 Sigma lens, with a wide angle field of view equivalent to 28mm on a 35mm film camera, has been developed to maximize the image quality in conjunction with the full colour capture image sensor.
The DP1 takes advantage of the image sensor’s superior technology to capture accurate, full colour image information.
Sigma’s unique and powerful True image processor is incorporated into the DP1, enabling it to handle the large image files produced by the 14 megapixel sensor and reproduce exceptional definition with image quality equal to professional digital SLR cameras and on a par with top quality film. The Sigma DP1 is equipped with a large 2.5” TFT LCD monitor with 100% image preview, making confirmation of composition, focusing and exposure quick and easy. This compact camera includes JPEG recording format for speed and convenience and a RAW data (X3F) recording mode for retaining full image capture detail of the utmost quality.
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ROTFLMAO!!! Just got off the phone with Sigma having rung to get an 'RRP'...
'Oh... we don't know. They haven't told us and we don't have any yet. It's still going through the testing process. When will we we have any..?? Oh - in about 3 or 4 weeks.'
Some launch!!!!!!
There's lots of Flash effects in it. They look good but are a pain at times 
Might be interested at a couple of hundred but I suspect it will be a lot more!! It has limited uses for me the 28 equiv lens is very wide (a 50 equiv would have been better or a zoom) and by the look of it no flash. Useful maybe for candids and panarama's but thats about it.
cheers
Al.
The New Ricoh Caplio GX100 looks more interesting to me, with a 24-72mm zoom at around the £400 mark. Guess I'll have to wait for both to be released.
I read about the Sigma some time ago "can't remember where" but the expected price was extortionate. If I recall it was well over £500
Quote: the 14Mp output is interpolated.
erm... No.
Quote: Each pixel has 3 colours.
I thought a Foveons pixels only had one colour
This could run and run. There are three sensor layers, one above each other. Each one 4Mp is size, dedicated to R, G and B primary colours. This enables the sensor to be signficantly more accurate in its depiction of colour than a typical Bayer sensor which has a colour grid overlay consisting of R, B and two G sensors per four pixel grids. This means that a Bayer sensor is only 25% accurate on red and blue detection and 50% accurate on greens. The firmware does the rest by analysing the scene and filling in the blanks - note this is not interpolation, it is processing colours to change them to what the camera thinks is in the scene.
The Foveon sensor should pick up every colour at every location accurately, but the down side is that those three layers only produce one pixel per location, which is why the output is 4Mp. The camera also has a built in processing system to create 14Mp pictures by interpolation, on the fly, as you shoot. Just like the Fuji SuperCCD sensor only actually has 6Mp photo sites, and the 12Mp output is interpolated on the fly. The point for the Foveon is that the actual data output is so accurate and high quality it can easily be interpolated upwards.
Quote: This could run and run.
Not wrong there!
Quote: Bayer sensor is only 25% accurate on red and blue detection and 50% accurate on greens. The firmware does the rest by analysing the scene and filling in the blanks - note this is not interpolation, it is processing colours to change them to what the camera thinks is in the scene.
If the software is making something up that was not there in the first place, it is interpolation.
Quote: a typical Bayer sensor which has a colour grid overlay consisting of R, B and two G sensors per four pixel grids.
The point here is the "per four pixel grid" which makes the Bayer type sensor rather poor in terms of definition. 75% of the red and blue channels are made up!
Alternately, you could argue on those figures, that a bayer sensor of 8mp is only as accurate as a foveon sensor with 2mp!
(OK, even I am not saying a 2mp Foveon will be the same as an 8mp Bayer. (But the old 3.1mp Foveon is as good as an 8mp Bayer!!)) 
Ian
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