Details on specifications are few so far, but between the press release and photos of the DP1, and the specifications for the SD14 that shares the same imager, a number of facts can be gleaned. The DP1 will have a 4.69 effective megapixel resolution from 14.1 million photodiodes arranged in three layers, as per Foveon's by-now famous layout which records full color information at every pixel location. (Traditional Bayer-sensor cameras capture only one color at each pixel location, and interpolate the other two colors from surrounding pixels, leading to somewhat reduced luminance resolution, and a significant reduction in chrominance resolution and other color-related problems). It seems likely that the maximum resolution will be identical to that of the SD14 - 2640 x 1760 pixels, with a 3:2 aspect ratio.

The Foveon X3 image sensor will be coupled to a 16.6mm lens with a focal length crop equivalent to a 28mm lens on a 35mm camera. The lens has a maximum aperture of F4. Keeping lens size and weight down for a compact camera that uses a sensor not a lot smaller than those used in most DSLRs must have proved quite a challenge, and the lack of an optical zoom and maximum aperture limitation hint at this. Manual focus should be possible, since the camera's rear is marked "MF".

There's no optical viewfinder on the DP1, nor any provision for attaching an external viewfinder. Instead, images are framed on a 2.5" LCD - the same size as is used in the SD14. While there's no optical zoom, it looks likely that a digital zoom or crop of some kind will be offered, given that there are controls on the camera's rear labelled both for playback zoom, and also as wide / tele. There's also a popup flash on the top of the camera, but no provision for external flash.

The DP1 will apparently also offer a movie mode as the mode dial includes a movie position - and when you consider this along with the fact that the DP1's only method of image framing relies on data streamed from the imager, this offers up an obvious question about the SD14 SLR. Could that camera perhaps offer a live preview function by locking the mirror up, something only a couple of other SLRs have yet achieved? Mention was made when first launched of Foveon's X3 imager's potential for movie capture, and we're now starting to see this come to fruition... The DP1's movie mode should include sound, since there's a speaker and microphone on the top of the camera body.

Other modes on offer in the DP1 should include auto, program, aperture-priority, shutter-priority, manual, and an audio recording mode. Finally, there are controls for exposure compensation, and auto-exposure locking, plus for the flash and a macro mode. The DP1 will, says Sigma, offer both X3F Raw and JPEG image recording modes.

Pricing and availability are unknown at this time.

Sigma DP1
General
Camera Type	Compact
Manufacturer	Sigma
Model Number	DP1
Image Capture
Sensor Type	0.98 Foveon X3 CMOS 4.69 megapixels (effective)
Filter Type	Full Color
Aspect Ratio	3:2
Image Dimensions	2640 x 1760 (4.6 megapixels)
Image Preview / Review
Viewfinder	No
LCD	2.5" 100% field of view
Lens
Lens Type	Sigma Lens
Focal Length	16.6mm (actual) 28mm (35mm equivalent)
Aperture Range	f/4.0 - ???
Focusing System	Manual Focus possible
Creative
Movie Format	Details unknown
Storage
File Format	CCD-RAW, RAW (.X3F), JPEG
Other
Internal Microphone	Yes
Internal Speaker	Yes
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