I should have never borrowed the Sigma DP2m from my brother. I was quite happy in my ignorance, shooting what I thought were very nice Pentax lenses on very nice Pentax bodies. But then I made the mistake of borrowing the Sigma and running a little backyard test against my brandy spankin’ new Pentax K-3 mated with the very nice FA31mm F1.8 Limited. The Sigma had bested the 16 megapickle K-01 with the FA31 (I used the K-01 instead of the K-5 because of the allegedly weaker AA filter). I thought that the K-3, with extra megapickles and without an AA filter would draw closer to the DP2m, but to be honest, it wasn’t close.
What just blows me to smithereens is the idea that even at small screen sizes the Sigma is clearly sharper. It just is. No bones about it. You’d think that with limited pixels being displayed there’d be no discernible difference, but it’s there:
And then you zoom in and it’s basically a second round TKO. Here’s the center of the above image:
The K-3/FA31 isn’t doing a bad job and would likely sharpen up quite nicely in post, but the Sigma’s just got this secret unicorn sauce that makes the details jump right off the screen.
And the upper right:
It’s amazing how sharp the Sigma still is in the corner.
This is from the bottom center:
The exposures are slightly off, but that’s not what we are comparing here. The Sigma just rules. Simple.
And here’s right of center:
Again, the K-3 is doing quite a nice job. Had I not seen the Sigma, I’d be perfectly fine with the K-3. Joyous even. But the Sigma, even though it’s back with my brother, will remind me of what is possible. It just takes fundamentally different pictures. Life just isn’t fair.