Sigma SD14 review

ISO noise, and the noise-reduction techniques that go along with it, don't behave the same way in the SD14 as they do with most other cameras. While noise is often more noticeable in the darker parts of the greyscale in most cameras, the Sigma spreads its noise out more evenly among the colours. Also, the noise tends to manifest itself as off-colour blotches with less defined edges than the speckles that appear in most other SLRs.

We began to see noise in our test images at ISO 200, but at that point it is only really noticeable on monitors and is minimal at that. This increased significantly at ISO 400, while decreasing the overall dynamic range, shadow detail and finer detail. At ISO 800 noise becomes even more pronounced, taking on a tighter, more grain-like patter while further chipping away at shadow detail and finer detail.

At this point, we also noticed a pronounced decrease in the saturation of greens, and erratic colour shifts in other parts of the colour spectrum. At ISO 1,600, noise takes on a heavy coating of grain with separate, larger, very noticeable off-colour blotches appearing, and as mentioned above, greens lost almost all saturation. Given this camera's bizarre performance, we suggest you don't use it above ISO 400. This severely limits its usefulness.

Conclusion
If you're only intending to use this camera below ISO 400, for studio portraits, or perhaps for landscapes or infrared photography, then you may want to consider the Sigma SD14. However, even then that probably wouldn't make sense, since there are many other cameras that are available for the same price or less that can provide just as good or better performance and image quality.

In fact, here is a list of five cameras that cost not much more than half of the SD14's approximately £800 street price (at time of publication) and will give you significantly faster performance and much better image quality performance across an equivalent sensitivity range: Canon EOS 350D, Canon EOS 400D, Nikon D40x, Pentax K10D, Sony Alpha DSLR-A100. On some of those, you'll lose the wireless flash control capability, but other than that, you'll get equivalent or increased resolving power, and a much more versatile and enjoyable shooting experience.

Additional editing by Nick Hide