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Sigma SD14

First Impressions Review

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September 28, 2006 By Patrick Singleton
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Manual Control Options
The SD14 offers full manual control of exposure, white balance, and ISO. Though not all of the controls are convenient, the do exist.
 
Focus
Auto Focus
The SD14 has 5 auto focus sensor points. One is centered in the frame, and the others are above, below, left and right of center, about midway from center to edge of the frame. In moderate light at the Photokina booth, we found the focus slow but accurate. The lens on the test camera was a 10-20mm wide angle with a maximum aperture of f/4-5.6, and we don't quite trust the view on the LCD, so it's hard to say how accurate it really was. Competing mid-level cameras tend to have faster focus and more sensor points. We’ll have to wait until we get our hands on a final production model to asses the camera’s low light focusing capabilities.
 
Manual Focus
We found the SD14's screen a little dim and grainy, but that is due in part to the relatively slow lens we used, and the moderate lighting. The focusing action on the lens was smooth and comfortable. Our manual focus efforts were about as good as the camera's auto focus.
 
Exposure
The SD14 offers full manual  exposure control, with an over- and under-exposure indicator. Its program mode offers shift, which changes the shutter and aperture combination while holding the exposure value steady. Aperture priority, shutter priority, and program mode all allow plus or minus 3 stops of exposure compensation in 1/3-stop increments. Bracketing is available over the same range and increment.
 
Metering
The SD14 offers evaluative, center-weighted and center-area metering. Evaluative metering takes several measurements all over the frame, and compares them to settle on an exposure. Center-weighted takes a single reading that covers the frame, but with a bias toward the center. Center area reads from a circle in the middle of the frame. The circle is large – its diameter is about half the height of the frame.
 
Look for more complete tests of metering performance in our full review – it wasn't possible to test the meter well at the Photokina booth.

White Balance
The SD14 offers auto white balance, manual, and six presets: sun, shade, cloudy, fluorescent, tungsten, and flash. Look for a full test of color balance in our review, but the SD14 did not overcome the remarkably ugly lighting in the Sigma booth, in either auto, or with manual white balance. On the LCD screen, the flash preset looked blue, but that might be a problem with the LCD. Unfortunately, the SD14 does not have a white balance fine tune facility, a feature that is turning up on many cameras.
 
ISO
The SD14 is reported to have a normal ISO range of 100 to 800, incremented in full-EV steps, with an extended range up to 1600. The prototype we examined ran from 100 to 1600 whether or not extended range was activated. Onscreen, the images started to look noisy at ISO 400, and 1600 was downright ugly. Again, full tests of the camera will show if we observed a limitation of the prototype, the LCD, or the image.

Shutter Speed
The SD14 has a shutter speed range from 1/4000 to 30 seconds. It also has a bulb setting, but that too is limited to 30 seconds. The standard range can be set in 1/3-EV increments. Flash sync tops out at 1/180, which is a bit too slow for fill flash in bright daylight.

Aperture
The SD14 sets aperture electronically, and allows increments of 1/3-stop. The SDD14 has not been paired with a kit lens, but Sigma offers a range of choices, including some wide-aperture primes.
 

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Sigma SD14
First Impressions Review
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