Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

Great characteristics for black and white shooting, nice manual controls.

Thumbs Down:

AF system is slow, battery life is short, shutter button is stiff, some of the interface functions is annoying, white balance is poor, video capture is poor, LCD display is overly blue.

Inside the Trunk:

Utilities and drivers, soft carrying case, accessories – neck strap, shoe cap, lens cap. Included cables USB cord and A/V cable.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

The DP2 is a 14 megapixels camera, the light sensitivity options include ISO auto, ISO 1600, ISO 800, ISO 400, ISO 200, ISO 100, ISO 50. Minimum shutter speed is 15 seconds, maximum shutter speed is 1/2000 second. Exposure mode includes Aperture-priority, Shutter-priority, Program, Manual. White balance presets include Incandescent, Fluorescent, Sunlight, Shade, Flash. Videos are stored in AVI format, stills are stored in JPEG/RAW format. Videos are captured in 320×240 resolution.

Image storage resolution options are Basic JPEG 1312 x 880 – 0.3 MB, Normal JPEG 1312 x 880 – 0.5 MB, Fine JPEG 1312 x 880 – 0.8 MB, Basic JPEG 1872 x 1248 – 0.7 MB, Normal JPEG 1872 x 1248 – 0.9 MB, Fine JPEG 1872 x 1248 – 1.6 MB, Basic JPEG 2640 x 1485 – 1.2 MB, Normal JPEG 2640 x 1485 – 1.6 MB, Fine JPEG 2640 x 1485 – 2.7 MB, Basic JPEG 2640 x 1760 – 1.4 MB, Normal JPEG 2640 x 1760 – 1.9 MB, Fine JPEG 2640 x 1760 – 3.3 MB, RAW 2640 x 1760 – 15.4 MB.

Flash modes include Flash OFF mode, Slow synchro, Fill-in mode. The DP2 has lens 24.2 mm – F/2.8 with focal length of 24.2 mm, minimum focus range is 11 inches, lens aperture is F/2.8. Additional features include USB 2.0 compatibility, PictBridge support, Audio recording, DPOF support, AE lock.

The DP2 has a2.5 inches LCD display. Connectors on the device include a USB port, Composite video/audio output. The DP2 is powered by Li-ion rechargeable battery.

Razzle Dazzle:

The DP2 isn’t an attractive camera, it has a straight forward design. The body is thicker and heavier than LX3 but it will still fit comfortably in you jacket pocket. It is also well-built and sturdy.

Inside Dope:

Sigma DP2 is a pocketable and compact camera which is made for fine art photographers and enthusiasts. These type of cameras are really rare, it belongs to the class of devices like Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 and Canon PowerShot G10 and hence it is a bit difficult to make a review for such cameras. The DP2 gives you filmlike smooth photos, with attractive noise features for shooting in black and white. Also there is a broad tonal range. However, on the downside, the device is slow, the autofocus system is occasionally ineffective, battery life is short, colors look inconsistent and delineated and there are also issues of occasional freeze up.

On the top of the camera, there is a typical mode dial which lets you switch between semimanual and manual exposure modes, sound recording and movie capture. The sound recording is only limited by the memory space on the card. Just above the thumb rest is the manual focus dial which is very good for focus control. There are lots of button on the right side of the 2.5 inch screen. The buttons are all black, so is the body and hence it is difficult to make out which buttons relate to which functions. You will have to refer to the manual for the first few times in order to get familiar with the camera functions. There are three buttons on the left for Menu, middle QS (Quick Set) and AEL (autoexposure lock). The two buttons on the bottom are for display options and playback. The only controls of direct access are the focus point selection and focus.

The camera, though a basic device, has a few advanced features like intervalometer (variety preset duration from 24 hours to 30 seconds for infinite number of frames), programmable buttons and still picture with sound. We didn’t like the feel of the shutter. We accidentally shot when we were just trying to lock focus and actual shooting needs lots of pressure and you might get shaky photos because of this.

The performance of the camera is slow, it takes 4.4 seconds to wake up and start shooting. In bright conditions, it takes 1.3 seconds to focus and shoot, whereas in dim light conditions, it takes 1.5 seconds. Some might say that the DP2 is optimized for manual focus and it is faster when operated that way but even less expensive devices can get the lag less than 0.8 second. Shot-to-shot time is 4.1 seconds without the flash and with it, it is 4.6 seconds. The burst performance, though excellent, is capped at 4 frames.

Battery life of device, just like the performance, is disappointing. We got 176 photos on a single charge. The camera freezed a lot during our tests despite updating the firmware to the latest version. The AF system was slower after the update. The LCD seems a bit tiny when it comes to manually focusing for certain scenes. There is an option viewfinder, VF-21 but it is pretty expensive at $170.

The photo quality is really good at low ISO settings. The color representation, though good, isn’t spectacular and at various ISO levels it is inconsistent. At ISO 1600 and ISO 3200 the camera will switch to RAW automatically so you cannot shoot black and white stills.

Nitty Gritty:

Sigma DP2 is low on features, has short battery life and the AF system too is slow. If you are an art enthusiast you can think about this camera for black and white photography but don’t purchase this device if you want a all-purpose, primary camera.

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