I spent all afternoon, and about $40 in cab fares, running all over Manhattan, chasing down the Sigma DP1 – the first compact DSLR camera. It was sold out everywhere. I finally caught it at the third store I went to, and it was the last one left. Yes, it was worth it.

Anyone who's ever plunked down big cash for a high-end DSLR camera knows the true cost of that investment: 15 lbs. of glass and metal hanging on your neck all day. If you've got a tripod, an assistant, and a planned shoot, a Nikon D200 is a great piece of equipment. But if you're simply out on a jaunt and hoping to capture some nice shots along the way, it's just a literal pain in the neck.

And along comes this little godsend. Encased in the Sigma DP1's diminutive body is a 14-megapixel image sensor that's the size of a standard DSLR's, and 7 times the size of a typical compact camera's. This allows it to capture much more data, and perform incredibly well in low-light conditions (which were the only conditions left for me to test it in, after I expended my sunlight hours running from store to store). The shot above (click here to view large version) was taken at twilight, at ISO 400 with no flash. The results on any other compact camera would look like pixel soup. And the depth of field achieved here, which is only possible with true aperture control, is pretty much impossible with a standard compact.

And finally, it's a magic bullet for HDR enthusiasts. The DP1 allows automatic exposure bracketing up to +/- 3, shooting a sequence of 3 shots in about a second – which makes it the perfect little instrument for capturing HDR material. And since it's got a perfectly flat bottom, if you've got an even surface and a steady hand, you don't even need a tripod to capture a nice bracket sequence.

But most importantly – if you're a point-and-shooter who doesn't care about any of the crap I'm talking about, the DP1 requires no expertise to snap a great shot.