I’ve been using the sd14 for over two years now, and writing a review on it is very interesting since this camera has so many great things going for it, but also suffers so many issues. So here I wanted to name the top 5 most impressive qualities of the sd14, along with the top 5 shortcomings.
The top reasons that have made shooting with the sd14 a real chore:
1. It’s slow as hell
This is a problem in over all area’s The sd14 is slow to boot, slow to write images to the card, slow to access the menu’s, slow to format the card… The only thing it does fast, is drain the battery. Writing a single image will take as long as 4 seconds(!). Whenever I take a portrait, I will shoot the picture, bring the camera over to my friend and have enough time to say “This will take a while, it’s a slow camera”, before the image is written to the card.
I Don’t even try to shoot in burst, because it’ll take a half minute for all the pictures to be processed and stored. And chances are, the camera will freeze up some point during this operation. To be fair, the camera will still allow for new pictures to be taken even while old ones are being written to the card.
But that brings me to the next point.
2. It’s buggy as hell
My sd14 has the latest firmware installed, and still regularly freezes when shooting in burst mode. I’ve also noticed that in very low light, the camera will sometimes refuse to take an image. This latter bug is rare, maybe one in a hundred shots, but it’s still unacceptable.
3. It has a low pixel count
Sigma marketing claims that the 4.7 megapixels are really more like 14 megapixels, because each light sensitive diode on the sensor can detect a red, a green and a blue color. This is opposed to Bayer sensors, on which each light sensitive diode can only detect a single color. But while that this might mean that Bayer sensors have a slightly lower real life resolution then they do on paper, it does not mean that the Sigma’s sd14 real life resolution is any higher.
I’ve always felt two things were really wrong with Sigma’s 14 megapixel claim. First of all, Bayer sensors have been around for a while. Engineers have figured out amazing way’s to scale and compress image data and the resulting quality is basically quite good. I think some 10 megapixel camera’s have a true resolution comparable to maybe 9 megapixels, but definitely not any less. Also, capturing the red green and blue colors is not quite as black and white as Sigma marketing makes it out to be. There is a large overlap in the light spectrum that each pixel on a Bayer sensor is sensitive to. The red and green channel have something like a 90% overlap.
Don’t get me wrong, I can clearly see the difference between images taken with the sd14 compared to any Bayer sensor camera. But while the image looks different – more on that later – the resolution is not noticeably higher.
So is 4.7 too little? It’s probably not too little, no. But it depends how much post processing you’d like to do. There is certainly less room there to crop large parts of the edges away, compared to a 10 megapixel camera. So there have been cases when I wished the image had had a higher resolution. But those have been fringe cases, and to be fair some 10 megapixel camera’s will show less detail then the sd14, depending on the lens, ISO performance, processing engine, sensor size, etc. Bottom line, 4.7 megapixel is fine in most cases, but there are exceptions in which you’ll be left wanting for more.
Below are two images to give you a sense of the sd14’s image size and quality. The image on the left was taken with the sd14 on 30mm and ISO 100, while the image on the right was taken of the same scene with the Sony a200 on 50mm, also with ISO 100. Different camera’s, different lenses, but click on the image to view a full size version of each image to get a general idea.
4. The LCD screen is bad
It’s really hard to judge an image by looking at the low resolution LCD screen. I know that these screens are rather new, and that in the analog era we didn’t have the luxury of checking out a shot right after taking it. But for a 2008 camera, I’d expect a more usable LCD screen. For me, the low quality is not a problem that often. I do like to try to compose the image as good as I can before pressing the release button. And to be honest, I don’t mind surprises when editing the images on a PC later on. But in some times I will want to evaluate sharpness and contrast right on the spot, which can’t be done well on the sd14 screen. Also, the angle of view is very low, which makes it difficult to watch the image preview with a friend.
5. Horrible ISO performance
Starting at 400 ISO, your photo’s become useless (or works of art, depending who you ask) due to the ridiculous amounts of color noise the sensor creates. The sd14 is usable only in the studio, and on sunny days. Interestingly enough, the sd14 does offer an unusual 50 ISO setting, which has come in handy a few times when I was shooting outdoors during a sunny day and tried to get a nice depth of field with a f1.4 apperture.
The below image is an example of the sd14 ISO performance. The image on the left was taken at 100 ISO and the picture on the right at 400. The reason why the image on the right is a bit darker as I turned the light away a bit.
Now look at a 100% crop of the ISO 400 image and notice the purple and green dust spots all over the dark area’s. It almost looks like it’s diseased or something.
6. Bonus annoyance: that horrible red loading light
Every single button press results in a red, notice light flashing. I get the idea, because menu’s are so slow, the camera does a good job showing the user that the next screen is indeed loading. But the light is much, much to bright. It’s a pain during the day, but at night it can really burn your eyes.
Now for the good parts. These are the redeeming qualities of the sd14, that as far as I am concerned, make it one of the best photographic devices in the world even today.
1. Native Infra Red
If you remove the lens, you will see something unfamiliar inside the sd14 that you won’t see in any other camera. There’s this pinkish red dust protector there that doubles as an infra red filter. Pop it out, and you have the only consumer infra red sensitive camera in the world. That means that with an infrared filter that blocks visible light, you can shoot IR images at normal shutter speeds!
For almost any other camera in the world, you would need shutter speeds that are a half second or even ten seconds on a cloudy day, because those camera’s have a non detachable infrared filter right in front of the sensor. It blocks IR light, so if you add an infrared filter that that blocks visible light, everything gets very, very dark.
Being able to shoot Infra Red images hand held is a really amazing experience. Look at this infra red image here for instance. This train was doing about 120 kph and it was photographed hand held, while riding a bike!
The review could end right here, because just this feature alone is reason enough to get the sd14 right now.
But ok, here’s some other things I like about it.
2. Impressive dynamic range
I can’t count how many times I’ve soon a pure white sky on my image, but then was able to adjust the levels and discover clouds, birds, planes, all kinds of stuff hiding there. This is another reason why the sd14 seems to work so well outdoors where there is a strong contrast between the bright sky and everything else.
3. Foveon look
If you want your pictures to stand out, this can be a big deal. The Foveon sensor does produce rather interesting looking images. This is supposedly due to the lack of variations in compression between colors. Bayer sensors have a grid on which pairs of four light sensitive dots are spread out: one red, one blue and two green. For those three colors to come together properly, the red and blue channels have to be slightly upscaled, or the green channel has to be downscaled. This difference in resolution results in an image that can look slightly flatter then it should. The Foveon sensor does not have to deal with this problem off course, due to each light sensitive diode being able to register either red, blue or green individually. This is also how analog film used to work, which is probably why some people will say the sd14 produces film-like quality photographs. The resulting image looks more real, or more 3d-ish. It’s hard to explain. For some reason, the effect seems to be the strongest in bright sunlight, which is the area in which the sd14 functions best anyway. For some examples, take a look at my Glastonbury gallery. All the photo’s there were shot with the sd14 and 15-30mm EX lens.
4. No bullshit design
I can’t quite say why, but I’ve always disliked the presets some camera’s offer for Macro, Outdoors, Portrait, Fast moving items, etc. Perhaps it’s that they never really nail the situation. I mean, what if you are outdoors, trying to shoot a portrait of a fast moving spider? What preset do you choose? Or maybe it’s because I never know what the camera will do when a preset like Fast moving item is chosen. Will it just increase the shutter speed, or will it bump up the ISO too? And by how much? Stuff like that is kind of important to know.
The sd14 has exactly none of those presents. The two control dials are pretty self explanatory and contain only the features I want my camera to have. I wouldn’t go so far to say the the interface is “good”. But one of the flaws it does not have, is useless presents. Thank you Sigma.
Now, due to choices that Sigma made for the interface, I always feel that the sd14 is always asking of me to think ahead a bit more, consider the framing, and tweak the settings a bit more then on other camera’s. Coupled with the very long load times for preview images to appear on the poor LCD screen that doesn’t really give a good impression of the image, I have found that I spend more time actually photographing, then I do with any other camera. I shoot far less photo’s with the sd14 compared to the a200, yet I end up with at least three times more really good shots. Also, be honest, how proud of your work would you be if you took a camera out, sprayed a couple dozen images, let the photo editing software select the best one and crop 70% off to end up with a nice image. Would you still feel in charge, or would you feel that the hardware took away the creativity part of photography?
5. Quick preview screen
I like the quick preview, because it’s yet another way for the camera to say, “Who cares if the the main lcd screen is slow and poor quality. Instead of relying on it, think about the composition of the picture you are about to shoot and use the quick preview to check your settings.”
A quick preview screen is not a special thing in itself, but there is no camera in the sd14’s price class that has one. So it’s just one more reason why this camera stands out of the crowd.
Conclusion
So to sum it all up, the sd14 is a real mixed bag. Short story, the sd14 is a remarkable photographic tool with a feature set that is unlike any other camera out there. It just happens to also be slower, buggier, and generally harder to work with then most camera’s out there. I still really like the camera. I own a Sony a200 too. Both camera’s were released around the same time in 2008. But the sd14 is my weapon of choice almost every time, because none of the flaws take away from the sd14 being one of the best photographic devices out there, even today. But during the two years of shooting with this camera as a hobby photographer, there have been plenty of annoyances and plenty of ways in which the sd14 has misbehaved.
The bad:
1. It’s slow as hell
2. It’s buggy as hell
3. It has a low pixel count
4. The LCD screen is bad
5. Horrible ISO performance
6. Bonus annoyance: that horrible red loading light
The good:
1. Native Infra Red
2. Impressive dynamic range
3. Foveon look
4. No bullshit design
5. Quick preview screen
The sd14 is a perfect camera for people who like taking unique pictures and are prepared to spend a bit more time and effort to get them. It’s for those who don’t shoot at parties indoors, or at sport events. It’s for those who want to have a bit more fun being a photographer, and keep on being creative, rather then relying on the camera to take work off their hands.
