Sigma DP1 raw/software question.

philxthomas

philxthomas

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Got myself a Sigma DP1 today as a 'have it on me all the time so never miss photos' camera. Open it up, take a picture, look at it on the LCD screen... "oh they must have sent me the first ever digital compact camera ever made cause this looks ****". Open the same file on the computer and **** me it's good! Really impressed with the image quality which is exactly why I bought it. The 28mm equivalent lens is a decent length too.

Anyway, on to the point of this thread...

All reviews and stuff tell me to shoot in raw and process with the supplied software, which I do on my DSLR anyway, but with photoshop ACR. Photoshop can open the Sigmas raw files so I was wondering if there's actually any difference in opening them in photoshop or the sigma software? They look pretty much the same opened in both programs but as everyone was recommending the sigma software I was unsure if I'd just not found the "ok, now make it awesome" button? Or are they just saying this as not everyone has photoshop to open the files?

Basically looking for someone who owns the camera to answer this, which I guess is a long shot judging by the thread search.

TLDR;

Got a DP1, shall I just open the raw files in photoshop rather than the sigma software?
 
Try both; post some 100% crops if unsure. All raw converters interpret data slightly differently, so there will be some differences. I chose LR (ACR) out of a big bunch for a reason.
 
Very interesting, dunno why I didn't do that yesterday... 3 crops...

1st - Opened in photoshop/acr, no pp
2nd - Opened in Sigma photo pro, no pp
3rd - Opened in Sigma photo pro, the 'auto' setting checked

Overall I like the 2nd one best as it seems to have captured much more detail and has a lot of room for pp, but both sigma ones look a lot better than the photoshop one.

sigma1001.jpg

sigma1002.jpg

sigma1003.jpg
 
I have a Sigma SD14 DSLR which also uses Sigma's Photo Pro software. For most shots I found that Adobe ACR to be sufficient but if you need to squeeze the most from a shot then use Sigma Photo Pro. If the latest Photo Pro still has the X3 fill light slider then you can get some real interesting effects from using it, and it is not available in ACR.
 
Yeah I think you're right, quality from sigma software is better but its just too much hassle using it, and I always end up loading it into photoshop afterwards. Did another test and sigma software seems really bad with noise reduction. guess i'll just use acr
 
Bear in mind that #3 is using 'auto' which will essentially take the JPEG settings and apply them to the raw. So it's doing white balance, sharpening, and probably tweaking the vibrance levels.

Really it's not doing anything you can't do otherwise in PS, it's just saving you time by doing them, potentially at the expense of losing control over the image slightly. Of course, that time saved is spent some by having to use two tools in the workflow...
 
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