Sigma, best known as a maker of third-party lenses, has at last issued an explanation as to why its long-awaited DP1 camera has yet to go on sale. The compact was first revealed at Photokina 2006, and had actually reached the pre-beta stage by early this summer; testing revealed however that the image pipeline was badly optimized, reducing image quality in favor of speed. As such Sigma decided to completely re-engineer the pipeline, as well as other specifications. The revised camera has just recently entered alpha testing, and as such is still an unknown distance away from release.

As originally planned, the DP1 was to have had the best image quality of any compact: it would use a 14-megapixel sensor, two megapixels higher than even the best current models. The sensor was, more importantly, APS-C sized, giving it the same potential for detail and noise response as DSLR cameras like the Nikon D70.