Sigma SD10 Review: Digital Photography Review

Compared to...

Studio scene comparison

This is our standard studio scene comparison shot taken from exactly the same tripod position within minutes of each other. Lighting: 2 x 800W studio lights with dichroic daylight filters bounced off a white ceiling reflector. Crops magnified 200%.

Sigma SD10 vs. Canon EOS 10D

On this and the next two pages you will find three comparisons between the Sigma SD10 and Canon EOS 10D. We chose the EOS 10D as the 'current best' six megapixel digital SLR (with a traditional Bayer pattern sensor). Because of the large difference in output image size between the two cameras and the way they capture data we are providing these different comparison sets:

Sigma SD10 vs. Canon EOS 10D - native output sizes
Sigma SD10 vs. Canon EOS 10D (2286 x 1512) - downsampled EOS 10D image
Sigma SD10 (3072 x 2048) vs. Canon EOS 10D - upsampled SD10 image

Upsampled SD10 image (3072 x 2048)

In the comparison below the SD10 image was output as double size from Photo Pro 2.0 and then downsampled to the same pixel dimensions as the EOS 10D image using the 'image size' option in Adobe Photoshop CS, this was then saved as a Quality 11 JPEG.

Camera settings:

Sigma SD10: Sigma 50 mm F2.8, Aperture Priority, ISO 100, JPEG Large/Fine,
Manual WB, Default Photo Pro 2.0 settings
Canon EOS 10D: Canon EF 50 mm F1.4, Aperture Priority, ISO 100, JPEG Large/Fine,
Manual WB, Default Parameters

Sigma SD10 (3072 x 2048)	Canon EOS 10D (3072 x 2048)
ISO 100, 1 sec, F10	ISO 100, 1 sec, F10

1,602 KB JPEG	2,138 KB JPEG

While the EOS 10D image does appear to be sharper this time, we could have improved things by sharpening the upsampled SD10 image. Overall the only noticeable difference is in the detail visible in the tree on the Bailey's label.

What these three comparisons have proven is that the SD10 image is (for all intents and purposes) at least as detailed and containing as much resolution as a six megapixel image from a Bayer pattern sensor. That said it can also be argued that you can produce an 'X3 like' image from a six megapixel camera by simply downsampling the image (and that most of those cameras do have the advantage of native JPEG output).