Sigma SD15 Pro Reviews

Sigma's SD15 is an interesting, but slightly flawed camera. Picture quality can be something of a mixed bag - especially at higher ISOs - and its quirkiness will frustrate some users. It’s a love-hate DSLR.

Although the Foveon sensor technology certainly has potential, as it stands the SD15 is only an incremental upgrade from the three-year-old SD14 and can't compete with the current range of consumer DSLR cameras. It is expensive, the design is bulky and heavy, it has relatively poor performance, and it simply doesn't produce the kind of image quality to compare with its rivals, especially at higher ISO settings.

Although less of an obvious odd fish than its forebears, the Sigma SD15 is still not an easy camera to deliver an unequivocal verdict on. But it's fair to say that, if your main aim when choosing which DSLR to buy is to find the best value all rounder, full to the brim of the latest must have specification, then the SD15 isn't for you.

The SD15 is a tricky camera to review - its images don’t look like what we’re used to seeing from a digital camera and require a fair amount of Photoshop work to pull the best out of them. However, put in the effort and you may be pleasantly surprised. Although we did not get as many colour cast/white balance issues shooting with the SD15 as previous iterations - and in that respect it’s an improvement - noise is still a bugbear, intruding into shadow detail even when seemingly shooting under plenty of available light. Fine artists and photographers may welcome, even embrace a bit of grain, but those who prefer their images both sharp and clean will want to look elsewhere. So is this Sigma the camera for you? If you’ve enough money to take a punt and don’t mind wrestling with each and every image to get the best out of it - indeed, relish it - then perhaps. But most of us will prefer easier lives and therefore safer options when it comes to choosing a DSLR.

While we admire the innovation of an alternative sensor technology, the combination of below-expectation picture quality and poor control in everyday handling means this is a difficult camera to recommend. At around £500 it could make a better case as an alternative to the usual suspects from Canon, Nikon and Olympus, but as it stands it’s overpriced for its performance and usability.

Some might see the Foveon X3 sensor as the SD15's weak point, but it isn't. It produces small files, true, but they have such astonishing clarity and sharpness that they're a fair match for any regular APS-C format D-SLR. The lack of features isn't really a problem, either. Using a D-SLR that's been stripped down to its basics will be a refreshing experience for experienced photographers who favour a thinking, methodical approach rather than complicated high-tech automation. Where the SD15 does fall down is in the most mundane, straightforward areas of design and usability. It's big and tough, but also feels rather crude. And the controls are too muddled and confused: it's a simple camera that's been made unnecessarily frustrating. And that's a shame. It's great to see such an innovative approach to digital imaging, and the quality of the Foveon X3 sensor's images is remarkable. We can only imagine what could be achieved if it could be developed into larger, higher-resolution versions.