Just Posted: Sigma SD1 / SD1 Merrill review

The downloaded images reveal more to me than the standard DPR studio shot. It's pretty obvious optics and depth of field vary quite a lot over the provided images. Look at the weave detail in the fabric draped around the right side of the bowl. Clearly, the Leica and Pentax deliver the most detail. Look at the fabric detail at the bottom of the frame. Again, Leica and Pentax deliver the most detail. The others deliver mush. Look at the fine whiskers on the edge of the corn husk....same story. As someone else said, "nothing to see here, move along".

As for the comparisons, they aren’t easy but still best done in this standardization fashion via the adobe’s acr for general purposes and basic idea (resolution, noise). - Except perhaps serious conclusions about the colours. Nikon and Canon native convertors do deliver simply very different and higher quality colours (accuracy) as against adobe standards (also seen using DP comparison tool of that). Using the ACR there is a need (or/and options for it) to be selective when choosing a particular profile/mode and other tools to achieve the original look. Not to mention WB and the ways of applying it. As with any comparison one has to always look what exactly is compared. I guess 60% of users don’t understand it. This could be pointed in comment section of any review.

Hynek

Hynek

Same old, same old. By the time you get to ISO 400, all of the detail advantages of the sensor and the lack of AA filter are pretty much lost. ISO 800 and beyond seems practically useless. Same blotches I saw with my first Foveon, the SD9. I used to think the Foveon sensor had great potential. I don't any more. After all these years, the best that has happened is the resolution has been increased. Unfortunately, the rest of the camera's features and performance have left it in the dust of the competition ... same place it's been for several years now. At this point, I have to assume that the noise level at higher ISOs is an inherent major flaw of the Foveon sensor concept and cannot be remedied. Otherwise, it would have been by now. Even my Nikon P7000 does better at ISO 800! The SD1, like its predecessors, is an ISO 100-400 camera. Given that, if you like the clarity and sharpness of the Foveon sensor, then just go find yourself a good condition SD9 for about $200.

However this camera performs (and quite honestly, who really cares except people with a financial or emotional commitment to the company?) the fact that Sigma that could first release it with a positively insane price, then slash the price to a level that's still unattractive to most users, and then rename the camera without making ANY changes to the specification... well, Sigma's management is in a hopeless mess. Which squares with generally reported and my own, limited, experience of Sigma's lens QC.
Having a different approach to sensor design is to be encouraged - as Fuji are currently demonstrating more effectively - however unless Sigma or someone else comes up with a more attractive camera to put the sensor in, and improves its performance significantly, it doesn't have a future when compared with the overwhelming value represented by its competition.

If this camera were branded in a different name (the brand where there are at least 40+ lenses that you could choose to mount)... this would be swamped in a heartbeat and sell pretty darn well.

There are buyers out there who really want this, they could afford it, they want to use it... but they are loyal to their array of lens assets they have accumulated in their professional and amateur adventures, over the years.

Sigma should partner with one of the big 2 (or 3).

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Still don't know how they get 48 megapixels... The sensor has 4,704 x 3,136 = 1,475,744 * 3 = 44,255,232 pixels. I just can't figure out where the other 10% comes from.

I could live with the high ISO limitation but I cannot accept a $2K+ DSLR in 2012 lacking LV, exhibiting significant AF accuracy and AF speed issues, and the rest of the so-called quirks... If Sigma (or any reseller) ever drop the price below $1.3K it'll be worth considering. For now the only cost-benefit Foveon camera looks like any of the DP2 series (including the DP1/2 Merrill ones, provided their price will not exceed $600 or so, which is very doubtful). It seems that for now my DP2 will be the one to stick around.

Pretty much what I expected. I have always find the X3F capture to be pretty much ISO 400 Max and to be fair, the color is not that great. it would require radical tone mapping from the RAW. Making might be very punchy contrast, but in reality lacking the fine tonality for real. That's what I am seeing in old SD series and this review re-affirm that.

It's been a long time I don't see images with the resolution and detail this camera is capable of . The sample images at low iso were stunning to say the least . Even the ones with high iso weren't all that bad . Seems to me that the faveon sensor works wonders .

The sample gallery on this camera was probably one of the best I've seen for a review. The images were all A+, save one - the one at ISO 6400. It may be a quirky camera, but if you have the time to take the pic, it is going to be great.

So this camera has one thing going for it. Resolution...and only at ISO 400 or lower. The colors are way off (must be the "Foveon" look). AF isn't that great. Slow write speeds. Too many negatives. It wasn't worth $10K...$6.9K...nor the current $2.3K. It should be priced at $1100.

There are SO MANY cameras that can produce great shots at low ISO in studio settings. SO WHAT? For this much money, it is simply not a good camera.

Just read the review. Wow. People paid nearly $10,000 for that?

I thought the resolution is just hyped but after looking at the studio shots, it really has that. Someone already posted this below but if you looked at the fabric under the fur, all Bayer cams resolved it as mush.
If you also looked at objects around Odie, you can also find it resolves better than a Nex7 or D800 (even considering OOF).
Good job for DPR for the effort on this especially on the LOW resolution modes and highlight recovery.
The Medium resolution mode is a revelation that it is crap. I believed it is done through pixel binning two pixels vertically, distorting the image. The Low resolution mode is the correct way since it bins four pixels.

The samples are very sharp, granted, but the colors are awfull. Muted, shifted, casts. For me this camera would be a nightmare in PP. And I don;t know what this camera's aim is, cause it lacks professional features like a top LCD. I think the Fuji XPro1's sensor is much more desirable than the marketing gimmick in this Sigma.

The resolution is nothing short of astounding. While I'm not too crazy about the muted color, these days it's all too easy to get the palette you want so that's a wash. ISO performance isn't nearly as bad as people have been letting on; talk about hyperbole. This thing crushes the D7000 for resolution all the way up to 1600; check the purple and green fabric to the left of the playing card for the best example, although it certainly is apparent throughout the entire scene. 3200 does indeed look atrocious, however.

Regardless, that is still FOUR stops of usable sensitivity above the base and I don't see how anyone can reasonably complain about that. It's obvious by the recent FF offerings by Nikon and Canon that you either get a body that's biased towards resolution or sensitivity, not both. This Sigma is evidently a resolution-centric camera and it accomplishes that in spades. Feature set seems a bit lacking, but again, not unusable.

What a disaster. Yikes.... Sigma should stick to lens manufacturing.

Move along... nothing to see here...

Hmm.. Obviously the camera and lens have high resolution :)

However, Honestly, some of sample pics are not so good. Some pics have a cyan cast and in others I can't get where the focus is. I guess it's not the photographer, it's the camera. Poor AF system and still hard to control its color even for pros.

Once again dpreview has missed a simple test on Foveon sensors and kept on talking about "false" detail on and on and on... frankly missing the point.
Take a photo of your chart with a good lens preferably the 50mm f1.4
Expose correctly... the one you showed is at least 1/2 under ex
Correct levels on SPP only
Output on "double" to TIFF
See how much "false" detail you are able to capture on the 60MP image ABOVE 4000 LPH... around 4500 LPH maybe if your chart would go that far...
Thanks

Nice to see some files side by side finally. The hype about detail compared to Bayer sensors seems to be a myth still. It's a 15mp sensor--no more, no less. In some testing it has better color resolution. But if you want to see those 30-40mp claims fall flat, pull up the D800 on the studio comparison and have yourself a laugh. Even the D7000 is doing better with fine detail. Maybe its the glass. But in these shots, the SD1 isn't looking mind blowing. I'm a fan of underdogs, so I kinda wish it had a surprise for us.

The end of many photographers' dreams.

Well done Sigma for bringing out a camera with nothing else on it just a pure picture taking machine.
Shame about the write speeds and all that but in RAW up to 400 iso its stunning.
Like others on here I rarely take my camera off its base iso so high iso speeds I can take or leave.
I hope Sigma can iron out some of the problems with a firm ware update because it deserves to do well.

I can not bear to hear the comment "It would be easy to...(insert complex feature here) and it wouldn't cost anything.

If it were so simple,easy and cheap it would be done by anyone of the kibitzers on these boards in their garage.

I feel that the shortcomings that so many carp about in the Sigma are proof that the creation of a high performance DSLR is a daunting task even for those companies that are in the business.

Damn shame they didn't go for broke and put this sensor in a medium format body. Most of the objections would become irrelevant in that context and, heavens, no-one would miss the SD lens mount. Three good new lenses, that's all they'd need.

compare the fabric just right under the fur. the top piece of it. the sigma seems to be the only camera to show every single fibre. this looks really amazing and to me the only little piece so far in the test sample that shows the advantage of the sigma clearly. the other details look very crisp indeed. if this makes it worth buying the camera is another question. it is very very interesting. my thought would be: WOW what could this do in full frame ! this could really be something. hopefully sigma will keep working on this and come up with a mirrorless fullframe with 3 x 30 (at least this is what I'd wish for landscape :-)

It would be interesting to see how Sony made Foveon sensor would look like