The Sigma SD14's unique sensor, the Foveon X3, is not the camera's only unique feature, but it calls attention to the camera more surely than anything else. Most sensors – CCDs, CMOSs, and NMOSs chips – put the three color sensors for each pixel side by side. The Foveon stacks them, which should eliminate any problems produced by having a lateral shift between color sensors. Sigma announced only a European price for the SD14, a substantial 1499 euros. For the hefty price, the SD14 shoots at an advertised 14 megapixels, although since the pixels are stacked, the total resolution is interpolated. The camera also has a dust protection feature, and an easily-accessible mirror-lockup control. Other aspects of the SD14, including a 2.5-inch, 150,000-pixel LCD, 5-point auto focus, and 3-frames-per-second burst speed, fall just short of some entry-level DSLRs that cost much less.
Performance Expectations
Though we had the chance to handle the SD14 extensively at Photokina, Sigma staff stressed repeatedly that the units on display were prototypes. Sigma would not allow us to save images to our own Compact Flash cards, and emphasized that the firmware was not finalized.
