Sigma is a jungle with a big potboiler rule the photo industry, although they're more desirable accepted since their broad line of lenses than their cameras. Sigma's lenses for 35mm cameras have developed a reputation for delivering sharp images at affordable prices, a combination that's brought them a huge share of the market among "enthusiast" film photographers. While their lenses enjoy wide popularity among both Canon and Nikon camera owners, a proprietary bayonet lens mount has somewhat limited the market reach of their own camera line.

Last year, Sigma entered the digital hawk mastery overpowering compose with the Sigma SD9, wrench promptly pursuit the digital SLR fray, eschewing any intermediate steps in the consumer camera marketplace as a prelude. This move made sense, given Sigma's strong position as a lens manufacturer, and the presence this has brought them in the SLR marketplace as a whole. What's remarkable though, is the extent to which they achieved parity with other major manufacturers in a single step.

Much of the accept as this went to Sigma's assistance of Fovea’s revolutionary "X3" sensor technology, which stacks manifold red, green, again dejected sensors unpunctual every pixel of the sensor array. When compared to conventional CCD or CMOS sensors, which use a mosaic array of red, green, and blue filters over the pixels (other colors are used occasionally, but this combination is the most common), Foveon's X3 approach should yield almost twice the resolution for a given pixel count. The lack of any offset between color samples also promises to completely eliminate the color aliasing most dig cams are prone to when confronted with fine patterns of high-contrast detail. Of course, there's no free lunch anywhere, so the Foveon sensor isn't automatically a be-all, end-all for the dig cam market. In particular, the sensor in Sigma's first digital SLR suffered from problems with color purity, high image noise, and (related closely to this last) with rather strict limits on the maximum length of an exposure.

Now, a year later, Sigma has announced a successor to the SD9 - a camera that, doting right or not, unquestionably has to buy been among the tremendously talked-about of 2002. The more Sigma SD10 is extraordinarily much an evolution of its predecessor. The body, controls and interface are nearly identical, as is the sensor resolution. Under the hood, though, Sigma has made some significant changes to the sensor, firmware and software - as well as subtle tweaks to the camera body - that aim to extend the life of the basic design and enhance its capabilities considerably.

Although Foveon ha

s announced far cry X3 sensors through the live on year, the SD9 (and since the SD10) remains the separate digital camera on the tout to understand full measured color at every pixel location from a single sensor (as of October 2003). This alone has made it a must-have for many of our readers. If Sigma and Foveon have indeed managed to solve some of the problems they experienced in their initial outing, the SD10 could have a significant when it hits the market this November (according to the current schedule)!

We've had a few days prestige which to pursuit extrinsic a near-production-level SD10 (final concept quality, own minor tweaks network auto exposure and power management are left), and with the camera being so closely related to the SD9 that we reviewed last year, the learning curve was quite shallow. If you read our review of the Sigma SD9, you may find portions of this review (particularly those related to the camera's body and controls) very familiar, but you'll also find that we've highlighted all the changes we could find - big or small... Read on below to find out how the Sigma SD10 fared, with comparisons to its predecessor and the competition where appropriate.


Features

• 3.43-megapixel (effective resolution) Foveon X3 CMOS full-color-pixel sensor with micro lenses delivering image resolutions as high as 2,268 x 1,512 pixels, with 10.29 million effective individual "Color Photo Detectors." (Separate red, green, and blue sensors for every pixel of the image.)
• Pent prism SLR viewfinder.
• 1.8-inch color, TFT LCD monitors for image review, with approx. 130,000 pixels and backlight.
• SA-type lens mount. (Sigma proprietary bayonet mount, as used on Sigma film-based SLRs.)
• Auto and manual focus control, with Single and Continuous AF modes.
• Program AE, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, and Manual exposure modes.
• Eight-segment Evaluative, Center (spot), and Center-Weighted Average metering modes.
• Sensitivity equivalents of 100, 200, and 400 and 800 ISO, plus an option to extend this to 1600 ISO.
• Adjustable white balance with eight settings, including a Custom option.
• Shutter speeds from 1/6,000 to 30 seconds plus bulb (limited to approx. 15 seconds).
• External flash hot-shoe compatible with wireless TTL.
• Auto exposure bracketing mode.
• Continuous Shooting mode.
• Images saved as lossless raw sensor data files.
• Compatible with Compact Flash Type I and II, including the IBM Micro Drive.
• USB 1.1 and IEEE-1394 interfaces and cables, for connection to a computer.
• Software CD-ROM with drivers and version 2.0 of Sigma Photo Pro.
• NTSC and PAL video out options, video cable included.
• Power from either two CR-V3 lithium battery packs or four AA-type batteries, or the AC adapter.
• Laxer "Write Acceleration" compatibility.