Sigma DP1 Quattro Review: Slightly disappointing lens on otherwise promising camera

leicamix wrote:

Hello,

I'm a new owner of a Sigma Dp1 quattro and it's the first time that I write in this forum.

First of all I'm sorry for my english grammar. I'm an italian professional photographer.

I didn't find problems with the lens at all. The dp1 quattro is a tool that you can use with the tripod as a tech-camera or carefully handheld like you did with the diving scene in the forest (I like the picture!). As a landscape, urban-landscape and architecture's camera you know that maybe it needs some tilt/shift correction in Lightroom or Photoshop and the little softness at the corners will desapear immediately cause you're going to trim the picture a little bit.

Let me explain that I don't like pixelpeeping the images at 200% but instead print my pictures and show to people. So I still photographing with the ideal goal of printing my images. Print is my final media and maybe emailing/wetransfer images to magazine and friends.

I don't think that we need to change a camera for little soft corners of little noise. I don't find the noise so annoying but rather organic, filmic. Let's call it grain.

And I know I'm new with Foveon. But the Colors? One word : Amazing.

I'm so glad to find a digital camera that reproduce natural colors with this high fidelity.

In terms of colors the foveon sensor is the best that I've used and I regularly working with medium format digital cameras/backs.

Kind regards

Frank

I agree with Frank. I have the DP1Q and yes the lens is a bit weaker at the edges but it still resolves quite well compared to other cameras/lens combinations, as it resolves almost 2,700 lines at f4.

Here is what a review at PCmag says: (http://uk.pcmag.com/camera/37732/review/sigma-dp1-quattro)

When shooting JPG images at 19.6-megapixel resolution it scores 3,628 lines per picture height on a center-weighted sharpness test. That's much better than the 1,800 lines we require to call a photo sharp, but edge performance (2,178 lines) does significantly lag behind the center (4,261 lines). Peak performance is at f/4 where the lens manages an outstanding 4,003 on average thanks to a sharper center (4,576 lines) and improved edges (2,680 lines). There's a drop off in resolution at f/5.6 (3,941 lines) due to diffraction, but photos still show an incredible amount of detail at f/8 (3,640 lines) and f/11 (3,002 lines). Images don't show quite as much detail as the dp2—it manages 4,699 lines at f/2.8—but still go toe-to-toe with the output from Nikon's 36-megapixel D810in terms of detail.

Edit: Just for reference the full frame Leica Q (that everyone seems to love) at f4 resolves 2,100 lines on the edges. The Ricoh GR resolves also around 2,100 at f4.