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Sigma DP2 Review at The Online Photographer

13 comments

Posted by Patrick on May 27, 2009 in Cameras, Compact, Reviews

The Online Photographer has a review of the Sigma DP2 by Ken Tanaka up, and it pretty much confirms what we’ve already read in the few early takes thus far. In short, the DP2 has any number of “limitations” that either won’t warrant its expense, or make it to impractical to use for a good many photographers. The negatives in Tanaka’s review included:

  • Build
  • Slow AF
  • Lockups/Freezes
  • Clunky menus
  • Low-res LCD

The positives were essentially image quality and the DP2’s lens. My take remains that the DP2 is for a certain type of photographer that responds to the Foveon image quality. He’ll excuse handling issues for I.Q., where as a good many are willing to sacrifice I.Q. for usability. I’ve been accused of making excuses for the DP2, and I am, but consumers are always excusing something in a camera. In the 5D2, I excused the AF, D700 owners may excuse resolution, A900 owners may excuse ISO, and any number of superzoom owners are likely excusing image quality in some way or another. User experience is one thing and results are another (and yes, they should and can go together).

To make one more excuse, Sigma has released a firmware update that supposedly addresses some of the AF and lockup issues.

Thanks to Elliot from the comments for the heads up. (whose going to be even more annoyed with me now)

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13 Responses to “Sigma DP2 Review at The Online Photographer”

  1. Elliot says:
    May 28, 2009 at 3:32 pm

    Hey, I’m not annoyed. I’m glad you’re open-minded about the gear. It’s just that the camera seems — like the DP1 — to be basically a great sensor married to annoyances left-and-right, and isn’t useful for quick successive shots or low light. As a daytime travel camera it would be nice, but otherwise I’d get a low end CMOS DSLR (D5000, 500D) and deal with the added size.

    reply
    • Patrick says:
      May 28, 2009 at 6:03 pm

      elliot,
      But I already have a DSLR, though not a small one. I want a compact, that takes great pictures, and there’s currently only one to choose from.

      reply
  2. Eolake Stobblehouse says:
    May 28, 2009 at 4:02 pm

    I couldn’t live with slowness, but Mike J at tOP is so in love with the image quality that he is actually considering the DP2, see his latest post.

    (Go Olympus, please!)

    reply
    • Elliot says:
      May 28, 2009 at 6:08 pm

      Mike is the Hamlet of camerablogs. Couldn’t come up with a #2 in his Top 10 cameras earlier this month, has been dithering over which new DSLR to buy, and his choice of his first/only DSLR was the noisy, gadgety Konica-Minolta 7D. He has a bit of an anti-Canon bias too — after literally years discussing the pros and cons of various DSLRs and brands he finally admitted (in the comments section, no less) that he’d never seen or touched the 5D). I really pity anyone who takes his advice or follows his lead. He’s knowledgeable about certain things, but he has a fondness for gadgets (like his high-end audio mania) that sometimes casts a shadow over his decisionmaking process.

      reply
      • Patrick says:
        May 28, 2009 at 6:20 pm

        Hmm…I certainly wouldn’t follow his lead, I’ll make my own decisions, hopefully informed. But I do agree as I said with the notion that if the result is what you’re after, then you’re apt to give up some usability. That said, I’m actually most excited about what Olympus may offer next month–could make this whole conversation moot. One thing is clear though, compact cameras mean sub-par IQ, I really don’t want to compromise on that–but I want a compact.

        reply
        • Elliot says:
          May 28, 2009 at 6:42 pm

          Agreed. I walk around all day with a D90, a 17-50, and occasionally a 50-150. On the shoulder and in the hand it gets tiring. A quality compact would be nice. But I think we won’t see a compact with equivalent IQ and low light IQ and fast AF and good high-ISO IQ in one package, not for the next few years. Personally I’m willing to give in on the IQ a bit in favor of handling and quick shooting, which is why I currently favor Ricoh’s GX-200. High-ISO means significant grain, but if you’re willing to incorporate that in your aesthetic it’s probably the best shooting compact on the market today.
          I spent a weekend with a friend’s G1 and I was very impressed overall, but it’s a neither-fish-nor-fowl type of camera that doesn’t really work for me as a replacement for anything.

          It will be interesting to see what Samsung’s hybrid looks like next year, and we’ll have to see whether Olympus’s m43 compact has Sigma-like teething pains….

          reply
    • Patrick says:
      May 28, 2009 at 6:08 pm

      Yeah I was looking at that post today, sounds like deja vu? But I totally agree, look at folks using large format in the field. There’s nothing easy about the entire practice, but folks do it for the results.

      reply
  3. Patrick says:
    May 28, 2009 at 6:08 pm

    Oh,
    ditto on Olympus.

    reply
  4. Eolake Stobblehouse says:
    May 28, 2009 at 6:35 pm

    “compact cameras mean sub-par IQ”

    No, that’s the one thing the DP2 proves, they need not.
    Now it just needs to be fast and reliable.

    I wonder if Panasonic may deliver something interesting.

    reply
  5. Kendall Helmstetter Gelner says:
    May 28, 2009 at 9:08 pm

    Eliott – the camera is very useful in low light. It has far better noise than any other small sensor P&S at ISO 1600 & 3200 (yes they are noisy, but 3200 delivers a great B&W image).

    It’s also is much mire useful than the DP-1 for successive shots, you can take shots all day long spread out a few seconds between each.

    reply
  6. Tommy says:
    May 29, 2009 at 3:15 pm

    There’s another decent review here: http://www.camera-blog.net/2009/05/27/sigma-dp2-an-in-depth-review-part-1/

    Many of the same conclusions, but that review isn’t quite as harsh as Ken’s.

    reply

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