Sigma DP2
(Credit: Sigma)Sigma on Tuesday released another firmware update to its high-end compact camera, the 14MP DP2, which became available in February.
Version 1.02 adds several updates to the camera. For one, improvements have been made to auto focus. When using the manual focus, the magnification display function can be selected by just pressing the OK button. Sigma has issued a Notice of Function Change amending the information in the user's guide based on the functionality the new firmware allows.
We generally recommend installing the latest firmware updates for your camera so you can get the most out of your gear. For more information on firmware updates for a specific camera, visit the manufacturer's Web site. Before installing any firmware upgrade, always take the time to read through all of the documentation and follow the manufacturer's instructions carefully.
Sigma DP1
Sigma has announced the DP2, a high-end 14-megapixel compact camera and a follow-up to the DP1. It's almost identical to the DP1, in fact, except with a 41mm f2.8 fixed lens, compared with the DP1's 28mm f4.0 lens. It also incorporates Sigma's new True II image-processing engine for a performance boost over the DP1. It should be available in the spring of 2009. No pricing is yet available, but for reference, the DP1 can be had for around $699.
Sigma's DP1 camera, shown here in prototype form in March 2007
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET Networks)Sigma has delayed the release of its DP1 to revamp the high-end compact camera, but one thing that won't change is the Foveon sensor at its heart.
When Sigma said last week that it was changing the DP1's image processing "pipeline" to meet quality and performance goals and that the Japanese company "had to change some of the specifications that we had announced," I naturally wondered whether the changes might have evicted the image sensor.
Not so, according to Richard Turner, vice president of marketing and applications at the San Jose, Calif.-based start-up.
"Foveon is not able to comment specifically on Sigma's product plans or status. However, what we can say is that Foveon and Sigma continue to work together very closely, and Foveon's sensor will be used in the DP1 camera," Farmer said. "Foveon and Sigma enjoy a very good working relationship and we fully expect this to continue into the future."
Most cameras employ image sensors whose pixels gather either red, green, or blue light, with a checkerboard-pattern filter determining which color strikes each pixel. Later processing interpolates data so each pixel gets a value of red, green, and blue, a process called de-mosaicing.
Foveon sensors, though, record all three colors for each pixel. That can get around some articacts that de-mosaicing can produce in areas of fine detail. But Foveon's sensors haven't caught on widely.
Most compact cameras employ a small image sensor, but the DP1 is designed around a Foveon chip large enough for use in SLR cameras. Indeed, the chip is used in Sigma's SD14 SLR.
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Sigma's DP1 prototype, shown at PMA in March 2007
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET News.com)Sigma has delayed the debut of the DP1, a high-end compact camera with an unusually large image sensor, to redesign its image-processing technology.
The Japanese company had shown off the DP1 at the Photokina show in 2006 and later at the Photo Marketing Association show in March 2007, where it said it planned to ship the DP1 in the summer. The camera's sensor, made by start-up Foveon, is as large as the one used in Sigma's SD line of SLR cameras, offering the potential for much greater sensitivity and dynamic range than the much smaller chips typically used in compact cameras.
By the summer, the DP1 design had reached "pre-beta" development stage, said Kazuto Yamaki, Sigma's chief operating officer, in a note published Friday on the company's Web site. But after testing and comparing images with those produced by Sigma's SD line of SLR cameras, the company concluded it needed to back up and redesign some elements.
The sensor size on Sigma's DP1 compared to a common 1/2.5-inch size.
(Credit: Sigma)"The images looked OK, but they clearly did not have the special image qualities that we see in our SD cameras: delicate, refined, and three-dimensional images rendered in fine detail," Yamaki said. "After a careful evaluation, we found that the image-processing pipeline we had developed for the DP1 was not ideal for achieving the best image quality as it was intended for the faster image processing speed, and we needed to make major revisions to it...After long and sometimes intense discussions, we finally decided to change the entire image processing pipeline."
The camera prototype had been designed with a 28-mm-equivalent f/4 lens and the Foveon sensor. Image processing was handled by Sigma's True chip, short for Three-layer Responsive Ultimate Engine, which Sigma boasted was four times faster than alternative products.
What of that technology will remain isn't clear. "We had to change some of the specifications that we had announced," Yamaki said.
The redesigned camera entered alpha tests during the beginning of November for "what we feel will be the final design," Yamaki said in the note, but said it's not yet possible to predict when the camera will go on sale. "I deeply apologize for the length of the time you have been holding out for the DP1 and appreciate your patience very much. I know it is difficult for some of you to wait a little more time, but we're working very hard to deliver a camera that we think will be worth the wait."
(Via The Online Photographer.)
Sigma's DP1 camera
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET Networks)Each pixel in a Foveon sensor can detect red, green and blue light, a different approach compared to most "Bayer pattern" sensors that have a checkerboard of pixels that only capture a single color. The Foveon sensors have been used earlier in Sigma's SLR cameras.
The camera image has a resolution of 4.7 megapixels, but each pixel has all three colors; most cameras have only one color and extrapolate values for the others.
The DP1 also has a 2.5-inch display, a fixed 28mm lens, a hot shoe to mount an external flash and support for "raw" images taken directly from the sensor without in-camera processing.
The camera is due to ship this summer, Sigma said, but the company isn't releasing price details.
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