Sigma has announced new SD9 firmware and a new version of Sigma Photo Pro will be made available for download next Wednesday, 14th May. The new firmware and Photo Pro combination deliver improved noise reduction, improved processing speed and the primary concern of SD9 owners higher quality JPEG images from Photo Pro. JPEG files from Photo Pro are now saved with the 4:4:4 down sampling when the quality is set to 7 or higher, the previous version of Photo Pro used 4:2:0 down sampling which could lead to loss of color resolution and odd color artifacts.

Press Release:

Update Announcement of SIGMA Photo Pro Processing Software for Sigma SD9 Camera

Sigma Corporation is pleased to announce that on May 14th the new update of SIGMA Photo Pro Version 1.1 for the revolutionary SIGMA SD9 will be available.

Benefits and Features of the new update

Improved JPEG Quality

The current version (1.0) of SIGMA Photo Pro saves JPEG files with 4:2:0 down sampling, which degraded color detail in images. This was to provide the smaller file size in JPEG file. Now, in SIGMA Photo Pro update version 1.1, which is the first Update for SD9 includes the JPEG quality improvement with 4:4:4 down sampling, which save to take advantage of Foveon X3 technology. JPEG files will be saved with 4:4:4 down sampling whenever the JPEG quality is set to 7 or higher and provide the better color resolution.

Improved Noise Reduction Processing

The new SIGMA Photo Pro features an improved noise reduction processing, by taking full advantage of the new noise reduction algorithm of X3F files.

Increased Processing Speed

New software update utilizes increased file processing speed.

We strongly recommend SD9 owners to install Firmware Update together with the latest versions of SIGMA Photo Pro Version 1.1 software.

About Version Update

The new software and firmware update will be available for download on May 14th through Sigma Corporation of America (http://www.sigmaphoto.com) or Sigma Corporation Japan (http://www.sigma-photo.co.jp/english)

System Requirements

Windows OS: Windows98 Second Edition or Windows2000 or Windows Me or Windows XP

Macintosh OS: Mac OS 9.21 or later, Mac OSX 10.1.3 or later