Sigma DP2s review

Performance is an area where Sigma has been singing the DP2s’s praises as the older DP2 was known for its lacklustre focusing speed. While speed is certainly improved, it’s a long way from being described as a quick camera. We recorded the shot-to-shot time at just under three seconds, but it will achieve this in both JPEG and RAW modes.

It can burst at about two frames per second, but you’ll only get four shots in JPEG mode and three in RAW. Auto-focusing is still very slow – and extremely noisy – which, combined with the poor burst speed, make the DP2s a poor choice for fast moving objects. Low-light focusing is also very poor – a fact not helped by the fact there’s no AF assist lamp. Once the light drops below a certain level, you’ll need to resort to manual focusing which, as we’ve already said, is a pain.

HD video recording is becoming increasingly popular on compact cameras, with most offering at least 720p resolution clips. The DP2s’s video mode supports just 320x240 resolution recordings at 30fps with mono audio. There’s a high chance your mobile phone will be able to record higher resolution videos than the DP2s.

You’d think that the DP2s was a failure at this point, but its saving grace is the excellent still image quality. JPEGs are a little muddy and lack vibrancy for our own tastes, but out-of-camera RAW image quality is simply stunning and easily surpasses every other compact camera out there. The level of detail, richness of colours and dynamic range could put even some mid-range DSLRs to shame below ISO 400.

At ISO 800, noise is still incredibly well controlled and borders on film-like. In RAW mode images are very printable, but colours do tend to shift quite a bit at high ISO when shooting JPEGs. At sensitivities higher than that, you’ll need to shoot in RAW mode, but the results are somewhat mixed. ISO 1600 is maybe useable for web or printing in black and white, but ISO 3200 is where the wheels start to fall off. Colour saturation and reproduction are quite poor and there’s a noticeable blotchiness in some parts of images – particularly in shadows – which makes the images unusable.

We saw minimal distortion in the photographs we shot on the DP2s. Image sharpness was particularly good from corner to corner – a key advantage of the fixed focal length prime lens, which is frankly excellent. Chromatic aberrations are also kept to a minimum although we did see some fringing around the edges of objects in particularly high-contrast scenarios. The large f/2.8 maximum aperture exposes another one of the lens’s strengths too: the quality of its background blur is very smooth and visually pleasing, making the camera great for portraits.

Ultimately though, the DP2s’s stunning image quality isn’t enough to cover up some of its more serious cracks. Everything from the poor low-light focusing to the mediocre handling and slow, often noisy operation will put off all but the most dedicated users. And that’s if they weren’t already put off by the eye-wateringly high £540 price. If you’re prepared to put up with the flaws, you will be rewarded with spectacular photos, but most users will be better suited to a high-end compact like the Panasonic LX3 (or the brand new LX5) or a semi-compact Micro Four Thirds camera like the Panasonic GF1.