Sigma DP1 DATASHEET

The Sigma DP1.

Unique. Groundbreaking.

A compact digital camera

with all the power of a digital SLR.

For the first time. Ever.

Having principles.

That means having your own convictions,
and living by them.
It means having unique qualities,
and an Unshakable
belief in your own sensibility.

The DP1 has principles.
It sticks to the fundamental
principle of photography:
To capture the truth.

If you live by your
own personal principles,
the DP1 was born to be yours.

This is what a camera ought to be.
This is the camera nobody could make.
Until now.

This photograph shows the approximate dimensions of the Sigma DP1.

02

The Next Dimension :
A Camera with Principles.

Photography: what other field has so
many terms for failure? Photos can
fail by being out of focus. Or due to
camera-shake. Or because of under­exposure, or over-exposure, or
a million other things. The evolution
of the camera has been, essentially,
a fight against photographic failure.
Thanks to all this failure-averse
technological development, today's
highly-evolved digital cameras are
almost failure-proof: anyone can take
a decent photo with no effort at all.

The fully-automatic mode of the
average digital camera includes
automatic flash: based on what
it detects about the subject,
the camera grabs the image least
likely to fail. Even the dreaded
camera-shake can now be eliminated
by technology. Noise-reduction,
which almost completely banishes
noise, even in high-sensitivity
photography, has also made stunning
leaps in the last few years.

Better technology means the
market is now overflowing with
cameras guaranteeing a certain level
of competence to all users, from
beginners to press photographers
who cannot afford to fail.
Of course, this evolution has brought
some immeasurable blessings.
It's made a major contribution to the
widespread adoption of cameras and
the development of photographic
culture. And of course, Sigma has
been at the forefront. Today, as
ever, we're working on all sorts of
proprietary technologies.
We certainly don't intend to loosen
our grip on the state of the art.

But at the same time we note that the
pictures resulting from this failure-

averse technology have a certain air
of flatness and lifelessness. A certain
sameness— whatever their subject.
And a certain lack of expressiveness.

Not everyone would agree that the
only "good" photographs are slick,
catalog-style pictures, every inch
impeccably lit, and with not a single
flaw. A photo may be slightly too
low-key, slightly too high-key, or
a little blurred, yet still have its own
distinctive charm. In fact, when it
comes to expressing the emotion that
moved the photographer to press the
shutter, a technically-flawed photo
may actually be more eloquent and
vivid. That's how infinitely varied the
world of photographic expression is.

You've probably heard the
following apocryphal story. There's
a photographer who takes really
distinctive photos. He uses a single­focus lens mounted on a simple
manual film camera. It doesn't even
have a program mode. One day
he gets an up-to-the-minute digital
camera with a fully-automatic mode.
That's the day he loses all interest
in photography. So the story goes.
Its moral? If you perfect all the
extra functions intended to provide
convenience for all users, delivering
a camera that captures nothing but
uniformly competent photos,
you can end up purging photography
of all individuality. Draining it
of emotionally-charged natural
inspiration. That's the last thing
Sigma wants to do. To us, a camera
isn't a tool for recording an infinite
series of acceptable images. It's an aid
in translating an irreplaceable instant
into a work of art of the highest order.
Our efforts to attain this ideal have
culminated in the DP1.

03

A Camera for Artists.

Sigma's main effort went into
perfecting basic performance.
We aimed to create a brand-new
compact digital camera delivering
top-of-the-range image quality.
We gave it a large, SLR-sized image
sensor. A direct image sensor
capable of capturing all the light and
color. We developed a lens specially
for top performance. We developed
a special image-processing engine,
from scratch. If you're pursuing the
very essence of cameras and photos,
these elements are indispensable.

We also minimized the automatic
element in selecting the capture
setting. We scaled back the image­correcting functions, and took care
to leave the photographer plenty
of creative scope. We think the
camera should be a tool that lets the
photographer take the initiative and
work the magic. We designed the
user interface with care.
We made it easy for the user to select
the best mode to shoot in, based his
or her perception of the light and
the subject's texture. We made sure
the camera's own image processing
doesn't tinker too much with the

tone when the data is processed.
This way, the light captured by
the lens is converted faithfully into
image signal. These are the ideals
behind the DP1's approach
to making pictures.

The DP1 may not be the easiest
camera to use, and it may not be
ideal for the casual user. But if you
want a camera that stimulates your
creative intelligence, brings out an
artistic urge you never knew you
had, and ignites your talent, that
would be the DP1. It may not have
the kind of extra features that hit
the headlines. But if you want to
capture the true complexities of
light and color on planet Earth, and
turn them into top-quality images,
then no other camera will do.

A camera for artists: if the DP1
increases the sum of human art by
a single work, Sigma will be happy.
A high-performance compact digital
camera in a class of its own.
A camera aimed squarely at the
heart of photographic art.
A camera that sparks the creative
urge. That would be the DP1.

04

Camera : SIGMA DP1, File Type: X3F Raw, Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority AE, ISO Setting : 100, White Balance : Auto, Shutter Speed : 1/160s, Aperture Value : F8, Focal Length: 16.6 mm

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Camera : SIGMA DP1, File Type: X3F Raw, Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority AE, ISO Setting : 100, White Balance : Auto, Shutter Speed : 1/2s, Aperture Value : F11, Focal Length: 16.6 mm

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