Chris Zammit29 February 2008, 3:46 PM
With Canon and Nikon dominating the market, it’s good to see the return of another respected name from the past. With the SD-14, Sigma has introduced a DSLR that is a worthy successor to the SD-10.
At 1.276kg, the SD-14’s body carries a fair bit of weight. With a rubberised grip complemented by well-placed controls, it has a solid feel in your hands. The shutter release and rear-panel controls are all within easy reach and are where you would expect them.
A strange thing we noticed was that the rear-mounted 2.5in LCD screen seemed a little lo-res. When images were directly compared to those displayed on a monitor, the quality of the inbuilt LCD didn’t do the images justice.
The menu access controls are a bit of a fiddle as well. With only one command dial covering several functions, it takes a bit of effort to make adjustments. With the Fovean X3 sensor, the SD-14 did a great job of capturing rich and accurate colours. Saturation was impressive, as was the capture and rendering of hues.
The Auto White Balance performed well enough, but quality did suffer slightly in artificial lighting conditions. Autofocus and shutter speed were both responsive without being exceptional.
With 14 megapixels, the SD-14 is a camera that captures large, sharp images with great colour. As the controls are a bit of an effort and require the user to work hard for the results, we recommend this one for the professionals only. For the rest of us, we believe there are better and cheaper alternatives on the market.