After over two years of rumours about announcements and some six months since the official announcement at Photokina 2006, The Sigma SD14 digital SLR camera is finally a reality.

To be fair to Sigma, they never said officially that it was coming until Photokina ’06 and they have kept folks updated with the state of play since, even admitting to a problem that took a small redesign to fix rather than pretending that all was well.The camera arrived in most shops around the second week of March and, in order to fulfil existing orders, the first batch was snapped up. Therefore it has taken until April for some of us Journalists to get our hands on a review sample to let you all know what this long awaited beast is all about.

Here at SigmaUser, we have decided to run the test in the form of a ‘blog’ over the next few days/weeks to let you know what we think of it and how it performs.

The Box Arrives

Smaller and lighter than the SD9 and 10 predecessors, it still felt comfortable to hold with enough room for even my large hands and sufficient space for my fingers between the grip and the lens. (Yes, I had unpacked the lens and mounted it already!)

The new dust protector just inside the lens mount is a lot more obvious than the older cameras, but in my haste to get a ‘

This is what was delivered

  For anyone who has used a Sigma Camera in the past, the layout of the controls will not disappoint, with two dials on the top of the body and their simple, no nonsense markings. The one on the right controls the camera mode, with just the four settings of P,A,S,M, standing for Program, Aperture priority, Shutter priority and Manual. To the left of the prism, the second dial controls the actuation of the camera and incorporates the on/off switch.

The back of the camera too, has a simple enough set-up and although slightly re-arranged from the earlier cameras and sporting one or two new buttons, it is easy to navigate. The main change is the OK button now resides in the centre of the rocker wheel.

Having looked the camera over, I was now impatient for the battery to complete it’s charge so I could see how the operation had changed. I resisted the urge to load a half charged battery, as I know this can affect the future life of batteries, so I made a cup of coffee and waited!

What happened next is on page 2.