Ronkonkoma, NY—Sigma Corporation of America announced the Sigma dp0 Quattro, the fourth compact camera in the series that was announced last year. The fixed-lens point-and-shoot model incorporates a 14mm f/4 lens, which is equivalent to a 21mm lens and is optimized to maximize the performance of the series’s Foveon Quattro Direct image sensor.
“The Quattro series is such an unique line of cameras, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to add the dp0 Quattro camera to the lineup,” said Mark Amir-Hamzeh, president of Sigma Corporation of America. “It’s this wide-angle lens combined with the high resolution sensor that makes this perfect for architectural and landscape photographers, and something the dp fans can be excited for.”
To achieve the highest optical performance, the dp0 lens features four “F” low-dispersion (FLD) glass elements said to perform equal to fluorite, two special low-dispersion (SLD) glass elements, and two aspheric lenses, including a wide double-sided aspheric lens. The elements are designed to reduce chromatic aberration and distortion that are typically present in super-wide-angle photography. According to Sigma, “The camera offers sharp rendering performance from the maximum aperture, and the superior telecentric optical design improves image quality throughout the frame and maximizes the sensor’s ability by passing on information about subjects to the sensor.”
In addition, the lens’s wide angle of view of 91º degrees and depth of field are ideal for architectural structures, interior photography and landscapes. The camera’s key technology is its Quattro sensor, which is the equivalent of a 39 megapixel conventional Bayer sensor in resolution testing. The next-generation sensor builds on the properties of the X3 technology, which uniquely records red, green and blue wavelengths at each pixel location within three layers.
The green-sensitive middle and red-sensitive bottom layers of the three-layered, panchromatic silicon chip each have 4.9MP and record only color/chrominance information. The top blue layer captures chrominance and resolution/luminance information with 19.6 megapixels for greater detail capture and resolution capabilities higher than the Merrill DP camera line. The Quattro sensor’s architecture is also engineered to contribute to true color rendition and faster image processing.
Other dp0 Quattro features include: an optional optical viewfinder VF-51 that makes composition easier as it is unaffected by external light conditions; a True III image processor that provides ultrafast processing of the immense volume of image data; better high ISO performance with one to two stops of improvement; and an improved 3A performance: auto color mode, autofocus and auto white balance.
With four cameras currently in the dp Quattro line, photographers can select the most suitable camera based on their photographic needs. The series includes the Sigma dp0 Quattro with a 14mm f/4 lens, dp1 Quattro with a 19mm f/2.8 lens, dp2 Quattro with a 30mm f/2.8 lens, dp3 Quattro with a 50mm f/2.8 lens and the dp3 Quattro with a dedicated conversion 1.2x, 90mm lens. sigmaphoto.com
