The SIGMA DP1 is the most fun $28 ever bought me.

allineedislight wrote:

well, the classic dp series obviously can't compete in terms of resolution with the Merrill and Quattro, but they are still my personal favourite in terms of color signature.

The DP2 classic renders skin tone very nicely, something that cannot be said from the Dp2 Merrill (in my opinion). The DP2 quattro is again different, but in terms of skin tone I prefer the Dp2 classic.

I vastly prefer the colour signatures of the original DP1 and DP2 to the DP2 Merrill. Early last year, I bought one of the remaining DP2M's in Australia because that window was almost closed, and I wanted what I hoped would be an updated DP camera. And in the last year and a half, I've been striving to like it, but ending up disappointed over and over.

Operationally, the DP2M is much better than the originals except for image review time. It takes much longer for the buffer to clear and switch to Play after taking a shot. But skin tones, particularly olive and Southeast Asian, are dreadfully brown and sallow. It's difficult to correct this in SPP, too. Colours just don't seem 'pleasant' in the way that the originals did, despite their strange colour shifts and tones. And if you want good examples of original DP2 skin tones, look no further than the promotional images from Sigma taken by Shinzo Fukui aka Gris.

http://www.sigma-dp.com/DP2/sample-photo/index.html

http://www.sigma-dp.com/DP2/brochure.html

DP2M images lack the translucency of the originals, not sure how else to describe it. There's something quite delicate about the way the originals handle detail, highlights and shadows, whereas the DP2M seems much more harsh and 'bitty'.

The Sigma DP1 is the camera which supplanted my desire to use film. It gave me images much closer to film than any of the others I had, including Canon DSLR's. I still use it now, and am thinking about getting a spare or two so that I'll be able to continue to enjoy this unique colour palette and look for a long time.