Advice on using the sigma dp1 & dp2 cameras

Selected experiences from the dpreview sigma forum and solsang
Read the official sigma dp1 manual functions & dp2 manual functions

Speed

Use manual focus! (autofocus takes at least a second as it looks at contrasts, and does not work in low light - autofocusing on edges works best)

Get a good type 4 or type 6 sd card and format it in the camera (cheap cards are slow and may fail while sandisk usb cards eliminates the need of a cardreader - I use extreme ducati usb)

Turn preview off or at 2 sec (it shows the picture you just took only after the camera is ready for taking the next)

Quality

Shoot raw (in-camera jpg colours are fading at high iso; its better to autoconvert raw to jpg using spp than using incamera jpg!)

Use wide aperture (low aperture gives the sharpest photos and lowers bright light 6-pointed stars -  dp1 is very sharp up to f10)

The sun and bright lamps can give red dots caused by the ir-filter, beware! (might get corrected in future models...)

Use the newest sigma photo pro and firmware (the old spp 2.4/3.1 showed green corners, while 2.5/3.2 had highlight clippings)

Upsize pictures before printing A4 or larger (spp double size tiff is fine, avoid jpg sharpening before upsize!)

Iso-issues

At iso 400 and up colours fade quite a bit, while detail is conserved (really good for black&white or sepia)

Expose for highlights if using iso 50 (good for overcast weather)

Expose for shadows using iso 100 (pulled shadows show colour noise)

Use iso 200 for bright sun or mixed lightning to prevent channel clipping (foveon high iso is underexposing with internal hi-quality pushing)

Take iso 50 nightshots with negative exposure correction (foveon low iso means overexposing and pulling)

Focusing

Natural looking portraits need at least 2 meters distance from any camera (both dp1 and dp2 tempts getting too close; if you manually focus
on 2 meters at f2.8 or f4 you have at least one foot of depth sharpness to move within)

Easy hyperfocal distances for making sharp looking prints for normal use: (rounded off so they are easy to remember - explanation & dof calculation)

dp1 are 4, 3, 2 and 1.5 meters at f4, f5, f8 & f11

dp2 are 12, 8, 4 and 2.5 meters at f2.8, f4, f8 & f14

Pixelsharp hyperfocal distances for viewing fullsize onscreen or special uses: (coc 0.008, rounded off&down for memorizing)

dp1 are 8, 6, 4 and 3 meters at f4, f5, f8 & f11

dp2 are 24, 16, 8 and 5 meters at f2.8, f4, f8 & f14

To get a critically sharp horizon, manually focus close to infinity and use f5.6-f8 (f4-f10 are all useful, at max aperture there is a bit diffraction)

If you take a photo on the dp1 while red lamp flashes, it will use previous AF & AE! (its ok to overexposure x3f, they recover well, avoid underexposure as there is high risk of shadow chroma noise)

Handling

Protect the lens (the big lens is more prone to scratching and dust than ordinary cameras, use a microfiber cloth to clean it)

Instant photos are possible (use neck strap or soft jacket pocket and keep manual focus set to hyperfocal or P mode on dp1 at 5m)

Set in-camera saturation and contrast to plus 0.2 for better view on lcd (this affects jpg and default x3f settings in spp)

Learn to shoot blind with screen off (it is a great challenge to estimate the framing, 1/50sec and exposure bracketing is safe)

Make a y-strap for fast access (attach two keychainrings to the small neckstrap ends, and let them slide along hooped strap)

Battery life

Cold weather can drain the battery in 100 pictures (normal is 250 without flash and moderate screen use)

Activate both zoom buttons indivdually for iso or other setting (this really minimizes fiddling, try it with screen off too)

Beware that one nights sleep mode or a weeks storage might drain the battery (maybe a hardware error in auto power off)

Turn off the screen and use a viewfinder for framing (Rytterfalk once took more than 800 pictures with one battery!)

Reinsert a charged battery in the charger to top it off, and avoid leaving the battery when empty (lithium-ion batteries die if left discharging when empty, contrary to nimh batteries which need it)

Files

Enhance your raw files with negative fill light  in SPP (x3f light adjustment is a unique foveon feature in SPP)

Too strong reds can be rescued by reducing saturation in spp and increasing saturation in another program (iso 100 and up, it can help other colours too)

For a fast overview and snapshot use, in SPP save all as jpg with the x3f setting (better quality than extracting the jpg and especially nice with incamera saturation and contrast set to plus 0.2 and sharpening to minus 0.4)

Make tiffs for serious editing outside SPP (8 bit tiffs are ok for noncritical work - 16 bit tiffs contain an amazing light range yet are much larger and thus slower to handle)

Always backup your best raw files (even 16 bit tiff looses foveon information, raw is needed for x3f fill light and some other SPP adjustments)

Video

The small video size can be doubled with fine results (giving vga)

Try movies using the 30cm focus option (gives a nice blurry background as seen in rytterfalk's music video)

Make stop-motion movies with dp2 using the interval timer (2-3 minutes gives enough time to move the set between shots, use a tripod and power supply)

Utilities

Dp1 firmware upgrade adds iso 50 and zoom button use, while dp2 firmware upgrade makes better af and adds manual focus magnification selection

X3F utilities for mac makes thumbnails and previews of x3f raw!

X3F jpg extractor gets full-size jpgs from the raw (this shows that the raw setting actually is raw+jpg with a hidden jpg)

Adobe Camera Raw plugin (osx win - acr has slightly less colour accuracy than spp, important to get the newest!)

Raw software

Sigma photo pro is best for initial handling of raw, it has the amazing x3f fill light (it is a bit slow and needs lots of memory so edit few photos at a time and avoid big thumbnails of folders with 100+ photos)

Lightroom & plugins (control the default sharpening & light settings, and supports the userfriendly viveza plugin that can repair reds in a few click!)

Photoshop supports all x3f files (as with lightroom the pictures act a bit different than SPP, try to see how it is - cs4 costs more than the camera)

Photoacute for multiple photo comparing, stacking and enlarging bracketed shots (i made a dp1 profile:)

FastStone shows embedded jpg files for viewing and saving (works on mac via Crossover; set netscape as external editor)

Tif, jpg and avi

Lightzone gives powerful colourcontrol, instant multiple adjustments and easy printer profiling (makes copies that can be reedited)

Picasa (mac, pc, linux) for total automatic overview and daily use (instant total index & use of jpg, tif & avi, allows real sorting and destructive editing - puts originals in new folder - might change colour space on saving:(

Alien Skin or PhotoZoom Pro for upsizing (removes jaggies)

AutoPano Pro for making panoramas and hdr (in an easy way)

Phoenix Slides or Photo Viewer for instant fullscreen view and pixelpeeping of jpgs and tiff

Accessories

Lensmate 52mm adaptor and filters (UV filters, polarisers, grey filters and macro lenses with example photos - get a grip and see what is possible)

Gorillapod (flexible pockettripod - avoid bending legs too hard)

Nodal Ninja, Novoflex or 360Precision panoramic heads (weighs less than one pound and is relatively easy to use)

Voigtlander viewfinder is apparently better than Sigmas own viewfinder (also look at the beautiful ikodot, the 25mm low angle finder or the Hoodloupe)

Cheap extras (batteries, screen protector, shutter wire...)

Foveon facts

Foveon chips have colour-sensors in 3 layers instead of next to each other (while a typical 12mp bayer chip camera has 3m red, 6m green and 3m blue sensors, sigma cameras have 4.7m red, 4.7m green and 4.7m blue sensors)

Each foveon pixel is a true measure of red, green and blue, while each bayer pixel is an interpolation of neighbouring colours)

The foveon files have 4.7 megapixels * 3 layers (RGB) * 1 byte light = 14 Mbyte information in the raw files (this info needs clarification!)

Sigma now is the owner of Foveon (it only exists on their cameras and current development is in colour-clarity rather than in pixel-numbers)

Links

Rytterfalk's sigma postings

Stanislaw's dp1 panoramas even a qtvr

Radcliffe's dp1 macros

Noblet's dp1 artwork

Useful reviews: from england, finland, japan & spain plus Reid

(dpreview used incamera jpgs in their first tests and their dp1 review was written before Lightroom support - they like x3f fill light though:)

Red spots

Red dots around the sun can be edited with care

(lower aperture may help too)

Using the Viveza plugin in Lightroom or Photoshop (or in aperture with raw converted to 16bit tiff - viveza is also part of  Capture NX2)

It needs several points pulling reds down and giving the sky more light, finally producing a useful result (Sigma is rumoured to be working on a new IR filter...)

Finally, use the dpreview sigma forum for help and advice, read this thread for understanding some basics about using sigma and posting

This page collected and managed by user solsang from the sigma dpreview forum

It is personally collected, nonprofit, might contain errors and some omissions to keep it short
Post comments and ideas about it in the Forum tread about this document (needs dpreview login)

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