Many DSLR users have purchased Sigma's sub-lenses, which are popular with photography enthusiasts because of their excellent image quality and lower price than the original lenses, and their sales in Japan are even higher than those of Nikon. Sigma cameras, on the other hand, are relatively niche, but definitely worth knowing.
 
The DP Quattro is Sigma's only portable camera, but it's not portable, it has a slender body, an unusually wide handle on the right half, and a lens that protrudes uncontrollably and has a weird shape. Not only that, but inside and out, it's the world's most unique camera. The DP Quattro can't shoot video, and its high-sensitivity performance can't match even that of a mobile phone, and at ISO over 800, it's all noise, making it almost unusable at night. Its battery life is also terrible, with a single battery capable of taking about the same amount of photos as a roll of film in the past; Its photo storage and playback speed is also slow, and the overall performance does not seem to even reach the passing mark.
 
But if you put up with all of these flaws, transfer the data to your computer, and unravel the RAW files with Sigma's dedicated SIGMA Photo Pro software, the result is ultra-high-resolution images that make it worth it.
 
Almost all of these flaws on Sigma cameras stem from the Foveon X3 sensor inside the camera. The image sensors in our common mobile phones and cameras use a "mosaic" structure, each pixel is composed of three primary color sub-pixels with a smaller area arranged in parallel, while Foveon X3 arranges the three primary color sensors vertically according to the wavelength of light, which is closer to the principle of film, and the image produced naturally has the grain texture of film.
 
While conventional sensors need to reproduce image colors through the information collected by multiple sub-pixels, the Foveon X3 sensor can independently perceive the color of light with amazing resolution and rich color expression. However, due to the attenuation of light after passing through multiple layers, the light sensitivity of the bottom red photosensitive layer is weaker than that of the top blue photosensitive layer, which is reflected in the photo, which is reflected in the white balance and high noise in low light.
 
The DP Quattro uses an APS-C format sensor, which can hardly match the imaging level of even the larger full-frame sensors in good light, with hundreds of megabytes of data per photo, and even the color and resolution of commercial medium format cameras. The Foveon X3 sensor also calculates the number of pixels differently from the mosaic sensor, which translates to a maximum of 39 million pixels.
 
The DP Quattro is divided into four models: DP0, DP1, DP2, and DP3, with the same body and different tail numbers representing lenses with different focal lengths, and four focal lengths are available: ultra-wide-angle 21mm, wide-angle 28mm, standard 45mm, and medium telephoto 75mm. Sigma is a professional lens manufacturer, and these lenses with a large protrusion are a bit abrupt in appearance, but there is no compromise on optical quality at all, and even the widest DP0 can achieve a distortion control level of less than 1%.
 
It would be unfair for us to demand such a different category of cameras with the battery life, ease of use, and high sensitivity performance of conventional cameras. In fact, the Sigma DP Quattro has improved a lot over its predecessor, the DP Merrill, and its focusing performance has greatly surpassed that of its predecessor, reaching the level of mainstream cameras. The Jpeg direct output function is added to the camera, and photos can be exported directly without SIGMA Photo Pro software. Its workmanship is very solid, and its unique appearance actually corresponds to clear functional requirements, increasing grip stability as much as possible and giving full play to its high pixel advantages; Although the battery life is still terrible, Sigma has made the battery capacity to the highest and comes with an extra battery.
 
The 4000 yuan DP Quattro undoubtedly spends every penny on picture quality, and its flaws can be overcome. This camera can give full play to the unparalleled resolution advantages in landscape photography and still shooting, and the natural film texture and color performance make it also perform well in humanistic photography. It is a partial student, only suitable for professional enthusiasts, and is not recommended for users who do not have a camera yet.