The dp-Quattro series won the German Design Award 2016’s Excellent Product Design Entertainment category, Sigma said in a statement.
Among the German Design Council’s reasons for the gong, according to Sigma, is the camera’s ‘excellent proportions, lightweight and perfect ergonomics’, making it ‘more secure and comfortable to hold and intuitive to operate’.
First unveiled in February 2012, the dp Quattro uses a 39-million-pixel Foveon imaging sensor.
At the time, Sigma said: ‘For the new dp series, we rethought and redesigned every aspect of the camera, including the sensor, engine, lens and body.’
The first model to hit the market was the dp2 Quattro, featuring a 30mm f/2.8 lens and replacing the previous-generation DP2 Merrill.
Sigma claimed that the dp Quattro body offered a ‘balanced shape, layout and weight distribution’.
However, in a full review of the dp2 Quattro, in August 2014, AP described the camera body as strikingly unconventional, bulky and awkward with an ‘uncomfortable handgrip’.
That said, the camera achieved a rating exceeding three out of five stars, with AP praising its ‘extraordinarily sharp lens’ and ‘good control layout’.
The German Design Council says the award’s aim is ‘discovering, presenting and awarding unique design trends’.
Expert panel members evaluate nominations based on ‘intensive tests, check and discussions’, according to the German Design Council website.
The German Design Awards were first presented in 2012.
