SIGMA DP2Q a year in review

marcodadofoto wrote:

Lord Metroid,
a Sigma camera can be a wonderful tool in your hands.
You know it.
Just stop complaining and start learn photography.

Reading all the replies to Lord Metroid's review is the reason why this forum of DPReview sucks.

I agree with every single thing he says, despite the fact that learned photography on a DP1 - the original! The Merrills worked slightly better for me due to the ability to shoot while the buffer cleared, but that's about where it ends.

Let's back up a bit, and list why he's right.

1) A $1000 pocketable camera is only usable up to ISO 400. Anything after is virtually non-existent. I've had horrible luck trying to take simple indoor photos during a meal with friends or family. Let's not even try to talk about bringing the camera to an event like Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Focusing was IMPOSSIBLE, and the images looked horrible to the ridiculous noise I got when I went to ISO 800 and above. What use is "sharpness" when you can't even get a camera to focus properly.

2) "Hold on, the camera is still writing to the SD card" is a line I used sooo many times when people asked to see a photo I just took. That's virtually unacceptable in any modern camera. Even the dinosaur 5D Mk1 allowed me to review images instantly, not to talk of the likes of my D750 or D800.

3) Focus. In anything other than brightly lit areas, you may as well manual focus.

4) Battery life. LOL. Most bayer cameras have to do intense computation to provide a finished image. The entire claim to fame of the foveon sensor is that it doesn't have to do this. So why on earth is the battery life so poor? My X100s was a far more advanced camera, yet it could squeeze out multiple times the amount of shots the Sigma cameras can.

5) Since my DP1 days, I've come to own the DP2M, Dp2Q, X100S, 5D Mk1, 5D Mk2, D700, D750, D800, and a few others I forget to mention. Every camera post-Sigma has given me better rounded image quality than the DPs have.

6) The other claim to fame of the DP cameras is the image quality or sharpness. Everyone here claims that it's somehow the benefit of the foveon sensor. However, the Art lenses have shown where the true power of the DP series has always come from...the lenses. With the APS-C crop factor, one is basically harnessing a Sigma Art lens at f/4. Any test chart will show the absurd sharpness these lenses are capable of at f/4 to f/5.6. That, plus the ridiculous amount of sharpening that SPP does to photos, and that's the Dp formula right there. I use the 35mm Art on my D750 nowadays, and the images I get surpass anything the DP2M or DP2Q could ever give me.

7) Sigma ...Photo ...Pro. Nothing else needs to be said.

So, ladies and gentlemen, PLEASE stop with the nonsensical attacks on a photographer's skill level whenever critiques of the Sigma cameras are presented. I admire the company, but it's clear their cameras are lacking in so many vital ways. The SD write time issue is a comical example of this.

Before anyone tries to talk about me, or my skill, let me present my website with images shot from both Sigma and non-Sigma cameras:  http://www.timshelxeke.com/