Major update to Sigma SD9 Review. By
Dave Etchells
(Thursday, November 28, 2002 - 03:12 EST)
My last gasp before taking a *much* needed break for four days - I've updated the Sigma SD9 review with full sample photos, detailed results & conclusions...
Just in time for Thanksgiving... In an unbelievable fit of too-busy-to-pay-attention-to-what-I'm-doing, it turns out that I did the complete analysis of my test shots with the production SD9 camera over a week and a half ago, in a mad flurry before I jetted off to the Comdex show ... then completely forgot to post it! (Yeesh, do I need the time off this this weekend, or what?)Finally recognizing my lapse, I've now posted all my test photos, and also written a very lengthy, detailed analysis and digest of what I've found in testing the camera. In particular, I've taken some pains to clear up the misconceptions that seem to be floating around out there about aliasing, and also conducted a direct test of the SD9's "exposure headroom" in its RAW files. The latter of which confirmed my casual observations that there's relatively little headroom to be found, just a quarter-stop or less. My exposure headroom findings in particular are likely to be controversial, so I've provided cropped samples of the TIFF files I extracted with PhotoPro, so everyone could see what I did, and decide for themselves how much headroom is there. (I don't think there's much chance of disagreement, unfortunately.) To read all the details, visit the SD9 Test Photos page, or the Test Results section of the review. (Where you'll find the exposure headroom test information.) The bottom line of all this isn't terribly favorable for the SD9, I'm afraid. I found a number of serious limitations, including a severe (if only occasional) autofocus problem that none of the other reviewers seem to have uncovered yet. I've no doubt that the SD9 will find many happy homes, given that it is less expensive than its competitors, and that it does produce images with a distinctive "look" to them that many people will like. - Just be aware of its capabilities, and make sure that it fits your needs, typical subjects, and shooting style.
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