digital photo printing

Digital cameras

Camcorders

Accessories

Brands

Sigma SD14 14MP Digital SLR Camera (Body Only)

Check our low price

Product Description Capture the beauty of the world around you with the Sigma SD14 14 Megapixel Digital SLR Camera. The image sensor captures pure, rich light efficiently and gives the SD14 its high resolution and richly graduated tones. The mirror lock-up mechanism raises the mirror thus preventing vibration when the shutter is released. This prevents camera shake, and is especially effective for macro photography. FOVEON X3 Direct Image Sensor (CMOS) - 20.7mm x 13.8mm - approx. 7-12x larger than the image sensors used in ordinary compact digital cameras Lens Mount - SIGMA SA bayonet mount Compatible Lenses - SIGMA SA mount interchangeable lenses Angle of View - Equivalent to approx 1.7x the focal length of the lens for 35mm cameras Manual & Auto Focus Fast & precise focusing with 5-point AF Shutter Speed - 1/4000 - 30 sec. + bulb (up to 30 sec.) Image Sensor Dust Protector High speed continuous shooting at 3 frames per second 3 metering modes - 8-segment Evaluative Metering, Center Area Metering, Center Weighted Average Metering Built-in Flash Hot shoe (contact X synchronization at 1/180 sec. or less, with dedicated flash linking contact) Storage (Not included) - CompactFlash (Type I/II), Microdrive (FAT32 compatible) Recording Mode - Lossless compression RAW data (12-bit), JPEG ISO Sensitivity - Equivalent to ISO 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600 USB 2.0, Video Out (NTSC/PAL) Li-ion Battery BP-21, Battery Charger BC-21, Optional AC Adapter White Balance - Auto, Sunlight, Shade, Overcast, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Flash, Custom Exposure - Program AE (Program Shift is possible), Shutter Priority AE, Aperture Priority AE, Manual 144mm/5.7 W 107.3mm/4.2 H 80.5mm/2 D & 700g/24.7 oz (without batteries) Reviews I was very, very excited about this camera when I ordered it. An underdog, it seemed to be getting great reviews here, and it's backed by a good name in lenses. Excitement turned to disappointment once I started reviewing the images it captured. I sent it back after less than a week, dissatisfied. I shot everything at the 4.7MP setting, using Sigma's 17-70mm lens (the same lens that turns out great photos on friends' Canon and Nikon bodies). This was the first DSLR I've owned, but I'm comfortable with manual film SLRs and I've spent time with borrowed Canon Rebel XT and XTis. This camera was to be an upgrade to my Fuji S602 Zoom, a nice but outdated SLR-ish point-and-shoot with a 3MP sensor. The no-frills controls were great--two dials is definitely the way to go. The camera is heavy in hand, but not unmanageable. Great orange-backlit LCD on top of the camera for reviewing settings, though the backlight sometimes wouldn't engage. Autofocus was slower than the Canon system, but fast enough for me. The delay between the shutter release and the LCD image review was too long, sometimes a few seconds. As for image quality, I was never able to capture a sharp image with this camera. I took around 100 photos, most indoors and a few outside in the rain, and every one of them lacked the detail I've seen in other samples online. Soft edges everywhere. In addition, the camera's auto white balance was terrible. I could shoot at a white sheet of paper under incandescent lighting and wind up with a strong yellow cast. Not even a calibrated custom white balance setting could compensate for this fault. Even my Epson digicam from 2000 had better on-camera white balance. Now, white balance isn't so important if you're shooting in RAW. Sigma's own Photo Pro software doesn't work on my platform (Linux), nor did I expect it to. I tried RAW a few times, but the dcraw and ufraw processing tools that work well for Canon's RAWs have a bug that adds green banding to Sigma images. Ordinarily, this would be fine; I don't mind shooting in JPEG most of the time. But, coupled with the camera's white balance problems that aren't easily correctable in JPEG, I couldn't produce usable photos without full-spectrum lighting. Thinking the softness might be in my head, I tried the SD14 side-by-side with the Canon XTi (with the 18-35mm kit lens) and the Fuji S602 Zoom. I photographed a photo calendar on a wall about 3' away under bright soft white lighting at 100 ISO (160 on the Fuji, its lowest setting), shooting handheld. The Canon and Fuji turned out acceptable images, and the Sigma's were soft and yellow. To stack the odds in the Sigma's favor, I even tried shooting RAW (colors be damned), putting the camera on a tripod, using mirror lockup, and focus bracketing (!!) in case the autofocus was miscalibrated or something. It didn't seem to make much of a difference. Even with all those additional precautions, I got better image definition from the handheld 3MP Fuji and better overall image quality from the XTi. I can believe and accept that the XTi might be capable of creating better images, but I couldn't believe the SD14 had trouble matching my rusty trusty Fuji. I started with really high hopes and an open mind, but this camera just couldn't perform for me. The Sigma Sd14 is a digital single-lens-reflex with interchangeable lenses. On first impression the Sigma SD14 is a big clunky camera; wider and taller than the Canon XTi, and XSi, and much much bigger than the Panasonic G1. However, it doesn't feel extremely heavy which makes me think that it's mostly plastic. It does give the overall feeling that it was designed for people with big hands, but in practice, while a fist-full, the controls fell nicely under my fingers--a comfortable grip that balances well. The 2.5 inch LCD screen, 150,000 pixels, is coarse and barely adequate for seeing the histogram and exposure info. The stop-down preview button is excellent, as is the QS (quick-set) button which makes it easy and fast to alter ISO, Format, and White Balance. The viewfinder is very clear and bright, and I really like Sigma's choice of placement for the Drive and Mode Dials at top. I was surprised at how well-dampened the camera was for vibration and noise. Image quality: Highly detailed, rich, nuanced color. Usually amazingly beautiful. Even stunning at times. I find myself wowed by its quality, depending on the lens. The Foveon sensor loves light and I found a big difference in the midtone tonalities just by adjusting from ISO 200 to 100. In sunlight at ISO 100 midtones are silky-smooth; but shooting at ISO 200 on an overcast day produced big, ugly, blotchy noise patterns in the midtones and shadows. (Here the Sigma DP1 is superior at ISO 200 and even 400.) Limiting oneself to shooting at ISO 100 especially when the camera lacks image-stabilization (only available in certain Sigma lenses) is annoying. Hopefully noise issues will be fixed with the new TRUE II processor in the Sigma SD15. My gripes: Autofocus isn't always accurate; the "C" Dial (command Dial) collar surrounding the shutter release is WAY too stiff for single-finger pressure to change aperture/shutter speed/exposure-override combinations which require pressure from thumb-at-the-back and turning the dial at front. It felt awkward. (The design of the Canon Rebel series or the Panasonic G1 is superior in this respect.) The SD14 dial seems like it was designed for someone wearing gloves, which is strange because the camera is not weather-sealed for extreme temperatures. And processing shots is VERY slow. About 5-to-7 seconds (!) to save a RAW file, and if you shoot a burst of six-shots in RAW it takes a whopping 40 seconds to process all of them (30 seconds for JPEG burst). And while it's processing the camera is disabled. If you shoot one, then another, as "single-shots" you may not feel the pinch until you exceed the sixth shot. This is NOT the camera for sports or photo-journalism. All in all, the Sigma is the "only game in town" if you want the Foveon sensor quality. (I find the Sigma DP1 to be faster at processing RAW files than the SD14.) Would I buy it again? Yes. The quality of its stunning images is unsurpassed (IMHO) but I'm definitely looking forward to improvements in the SD15.