Sigma's mysterious SD15 DSLR finally ships to US, gets unboxed enthusiastically
By Darren Murph 
posted July 15th 2010 10:55AM
posted July 15th 2010 10:55AM
We've all waited close to two years for this day to come, and now that it has, just a single question remains: "Does your credit card have the space?" Sigma's SD15 -- which is outfitted with a 14 megapixel Foveon X3 sensor, 3-inch LCD, True II processor, an ISO range from 50 to 3,200 extended) and support for SD / SDHC cards -- is now available to order on American soil. Better still, both B&H Photo and Adorama show the beast as "in stock" for just under a grand ($989, if we're counting), and the fine folks over at Akihabara News have managed to wrangle one for a glorious unboxing. Dig into those links below if you're hungry for more, but don't blame us if you come away a fair bit poorer.
Be cool if the lens fit onto that new Sony camcorder.
@deliteguy: Why? The lens is plain vanilla. It's the sensor that's interesting.
@tonicboy Have you looked at the official images by Sigma? This thing is noisy at ISO 200.
@thefiendster , some people just want to make photos. pixel peeping is so overrated...
Now, I only want the Nikon D3s. Hopefully by the time I have money they will release the next iteration. Actually, most likely they will, considering the sum.
Sigma has a decent lens line up to start. If the camera is comparable to a Canon 40d, at its current pricepoint, it could be a contender. I have two Sigma lens and am very happy with them(30mm f1.4, 10-20mm f3.5).
@sethmo Looked at the specs. AF and burst are definitely worse then the XXd series. This camera seems to be more comparable to the Canon Digital Rebel series, which is a bit disappointing at the price.
@sethmo
Sadly I cannot claim the same about the only sigma lens I have - 70-300mm f4.0-5.6 - however it was a cheap lens I got when I started with SLR photography - and what do you expect of a cheap lens?
@DetlevCM Yes the Sigma 70-300 f4-5.6 is a bad lens. But so is the cheap Canon 70-300mm f4-5.6. With any lens maker, there are good and bad. I hear good things about the 70-200mm f2.8, and they have the Bigma, they have the entire focal length pretty well covered.
@sethmo The 30mm 1.4 is what I'm lining up to be my next lens. I'm surprised that Canon doesn't have a 28mm or 35mm to compete with it optically within the same price range yet.
Had been deeply disappointed by DP1, x3 is wonderful, anything else is just crap.
I remember buying a Sigma camera from Sears a little over 20 years ago. Was my first SLR. It had the Sigma on the front blanked out for some reason (perhaps Sears did this to sell it as their own brand) but I know it was a sigma. Good memories.
I love the color from that sensor,...but IMHO,..I'd rather it be in a Nikon,Canon or Pentax.
How does this compare to a T2i? an 18 megapixel, 1080p shooting, EOS based, DIGIC 4 sporting camera sporting a EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens? Can we get some sample images? I mean, the Sigma lenses aren't bad, but being the same price as the Canon with a better sensor and coming with an Image Stabilized lens I wonder if this is truely a contender... (though to be honest I usually buy the body only and fit a better lens to it than they ship in the kit.)
@theJML This camera is more than two year overdue. Sigma doesn't have the resources to produce a camera like Nikon or Canon. The Foveon sensor needs much more development to really make it shine. It has potential but when a camera is generations behind it's not going to compete. It'll turn out like the DP1 & DP2, overpriced toys for people who like different things.
For people who already have a Sigma DP1 or DP2 and who love the images from the Foveon Direct Image Sensor, the SD15 is a nice step up into dSLR territory.
Compared to the earlier SD14, the SD15 brings in a few cool upgrades such as the 21 shot RAW buffer, SD / SDHC support, and the larger LCD. Also the TRUE II does a better job of getting the best out of the Foveon sensor than the SD14's processor.
I can't wait to get one :^)
When Carver Mead introduced the Foveon Chip, his presentation was a litany of over-exaggerated negatives to traditional Bayer pattern single chip camera "limitations", which, of course, his full-color pixel avoided. I was there, and it was all I could do to not challenge the BS that he was presenting.
The graphics were immensely exaggerated. And for years the only file format he would "allow" was RAW in the Sigma Cameras, "Because MY process is soooo superior."
While the Foveon chips do indeed produce one perfect pixel per photosite, the actual amount of compromise in a Bayer patterned chip is the square root of two, or about 41% in sharpness, yet Foveon chips are rated at 300% of their photosite count. You know. To look impressive.
The 14 megapixel SD15 creates a picture that is 2640 x 1760 perfect pixels (4.6 MP). Maximum ISO: 3200 before noise corrupts the image to the point of distraction.
If you stretched these pixels to make them as soft as Bayer pattern pixels from a Canon or Nikon single photosite layer chip, the image would be 3732 x 2488 pixels, or what you would expect from a 9 MP camera using Bayer technology imagers.
ISO in a Canon T2i before it becomes awful is 400% more sensitive. And it's a Bayer pattern capture of 18 megapixels, or an image that competes head to head with the so-called-14 MP Foveon chip at its middle frame size of 3456 x 2304 pixels (8 MP). And it does things no Sigma has yet achieved: HD movies in 1080p and 720p.
Bottom line: You get what you buy into.
@BuzzMega
I came in here just to write something inferior to what you just did, so good job!
I am wondering how the dynamic range is though; isn't it supposed to be better on foveon sensors?
@BuzzMega To be fair, the photosites on a foveon sensor are superior than to those on a bayer sensor as they have 3 photodiodes each per pixel
In my mind, the MP count of bayer sensors is a fraud as they technically only record one color per pixel and make up the missing ones through interpolation
Admittedly, the MP count on foveon sensors are wrong. But so are the ones of bayer sensors. Foveon is simply trying to show that the difference in MP count does not truthfully represent the difference in sharpness.
It is a bit like the PenTile displays and its subpixel rendering. Pentile displays do not display the true resolution. As in bayer sensors. each pixels in a Pentile display do not contain all RGB subpixels. Hence the controversy regarding the resolution of pentile displays.
In any case, the only reason you would buy the SD15 is for its sensor.
Hopefully, Sigma can continue its research into foveon and one day release a full frame sensor.
Admittedly, the MP count on foveon sensors are wrong. But so are the ones of bayer sensors. Foveon is simply trying to show that the difference in MP count does not truthfully represent the difference in sharpness when comparing between bayer and foveon.
Yummy, want!
Sure the sensor is going to produce a cleaner image then any other camera at the same resolution but if you take any camera at the same price point and scale down its image to that of the Sigma's its going to be hard to tell them apart.
In addition to being over priced the Sigma is just way behind in functionality compared to any other manufacture. This camera is really only an option if you already own a Sigma.
My advice if you already own a Sigma sell it and get a Canon.
@giulio That works both ways,..you can upres the Sigma w/o artifacts.And suggesting Canon,....why?...what's wrong with the others?
I shoot Olympus and Nikon and prob would Canon,...but have no use for 3 systems.
Oly's DOF is perfect for macro,....and Nikon for everything else suits me.
@CpuYoda Sure you could upres but why bother? Also anytime you upres you'll gain artifacts because you can't add detail where non existed before.
Why Canon? Because they lead they way but a pretty large margin. Canon spends over $75 million a year on R&D alone. That's larger then Olympus's entire operating budget.
I was a sponsored Olympus 4/3's shooter when the system first came out. Not part of visionary list but I did get any Olympus gear on loan when needed. The system was amazing when it first came out but since Olympus could not keep up in terms of upgrades I moved to Canon.
Now I'm talking about the needs of a pro, for consumers Olympus, Canon, Nikon are great, Sigma is really a niche system and one that's really not too good with all around quality.
BTW most Olympus visionaries still shoot with other systems, they shoot Olympus when they must to keep their contact with Olympus. We had a visionary in my old studio a few years back and she was shooting with a Contax 645 with a Phase One digital back. She did have a Olympus camera with her to get a few shots at the end but she was not turning in those captures to her client. That really surprised me but I guess it was a reality check.
@giulio "Sure you could upres but why bother?"
Depends on what you want.
"Also anytime you upres you'll gain artifacts because you can't add detail where non existed before."
Upsizing from the Foveon sensor is a bit different.
"Why Canon? Because they lead they way but a pretty large margin."
They lead in what? Market share? Who cares?
"Canon spends over $75 million a year on R&D alone. That's larger then Olympus's entire operating budget."
So? It's not them who came up with the in-body stabilization, dust cleaning, etc.
Max resolution: 2640 x 1760 = 4.6 megapixels
@olegkikinhotmailcom, but this is real resolution, not fake - like from the Bayer sensors. Check out the reviews for the SD1 and SD2 - the photos look well.
I bought into the Foveon hype with the SD-9. Worst piece of crap ever built. Sure, no Bayer artefacts, so what? Between the low resolution, the abominable noise in the blue (or is it green?) channel, and the bacwards engineering, it's a camera that's only for the most obsessed Foveon fans. Every picture requires a tremendous amount of tweaking before you can get it sortof right. The cheapest current Canon or Nikon SLR will give you better results every time, guaranteed. The x3 sensor was behind the curve 4 years ago, and the S15 still uses the same sensor, what does that tell you...
/hugs his Nikon D90
I'll never leave you...except for a D3s.
I love the idea of Foveon and I love the RGB stripe sensor in the Sony F35 and Panavision Genesis video cameras.
For video it can be important to have the same MTF for the different colour channels e.g. for compositing.
However for stills, the reality is that the luminance (i.e. the brightness) information makes up way, way more of the information and image quality of the picture. The colour information really is of secondary importance.
This is fundamentally why Bayer pattern works so well.
The DP-1 has reasonable image quality for a point and shoot camera because it has a large sensor, not because it is Foveon.