Behold! The Sigma DP2

Thanks to its giant DSLR sensor, Sigma's DP1 takes better pictures than other point-and-shoots. It's also incredibly sexy, an unvarnished design relic from another era. Everything else about it, however, is such a pain that it's impossible to recommend: it's slow, expensive and has a weird user interface. Pictured here is the follow-up, the DP2, which aims to fix its father's flaws.

Sigma User's Richard Kilpatrick played around with a prototype at a British trade show:

I am happy to say that currently the menu structure is visibly improved and more comprehensive, the QS button works well, the manual focus wheel has been nicely firmed up and the shot-to-shot speed on single mode was definitely snappier - my opinion, not scientific or tested impression, is that the DP2 feels about 20% faster with this unfinished firmware. Card speeds weren't appropriate for testing since the camera isn't at production status; even if I were allowed to test it I wouldn't report the results.

Certainly even at this early stage I feel anyone who is comfortable with the DP1 and looking forward to the new focal length will be very happy with the DP2.

Sigma UK at Focus On Imaging - and DP2 news [Sigma User]

Sigma DP2 pre-production model at Focus on Imaging [1001noisycameras via Engadget]