SIgma DP1 ISO 800



Lake Geneva Storm, originally uploaded by jjvornov.

At the end of my few hours in Geneva, it started raining again, this time with thunder. The sky darkened and night fell swiftly.

I set the DP1 to ISO 800, aperture wide open (f/4) and 1/25th second. For about half of the shots, this one included, I rested the camera on a railing for stability. There’s a clear difference in the clarity of the signs in those shots, so it made the difference between usable and worthless shots.

The noise across the sky was pretty bad. There was not only typical grain like noise, but also some splotchy magenta-green patches. NiK’s Dfine 2.0 did a good job of filtering at the “high noise” setting. Whereas the D300’s ISO 800 is clean, the DP1’s is not. Next time I may bring something like a gorilla pod for stability and stick to ISO 400 or less. I judge ISO 800 as barely usable and definitely to be avoided.

Author: James Vornov

I'm an MD, PhD Neurologist who left a successful academic career on the Faculty of The Johns Hopkins Medical School to develop new treatments in Biotech and Pharma. I became fascinated with how people actually make decisions based on the science of decision theory and emerging understanding of how the brain works to make decisions. My passion now is this deep explanation of what has been the realm of philosophy, psychology and self help but is now understood as brain function. By understanding our brains, I believe we can become happier, more successful people.

2 thoughts on “SIgma DP1 ISO 800”

  1. I appreciate your taking the time to write your impressions (positive or not) of the DP1. It’s refreshing to see someone using, and talking about its performance, as a camera; there’s a lot of fanboyism or bashing out there on the DP1…

    The DP1 is such a mixed bag.

  2. Allen-

    Thanks. It really is a mixed bag, but for me, other than the Leica M8, there’s no alternative. I’m becoming very fond of always having a camera with me.

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