Sigma SD14

After a long 3 years, Sigma will be releasing a new DSLR called the SD14 on the 26th September 2006. The new Sigma SD14 replaces the Sigma SD10 which is the only DSLR in the world to incorporate the Foveon X3 CMOS sensor.

Rumors has it that the new Sigma SD14 will have a 14 megapixel sensor. I have always admired the Foveon X3 sensor and I'm a bit surprised it has not been used in other DSLR.

The Foveon X3 sensor is different in that it captures all RGB colours at each and every pixel. The sensor features three silicon-embedded layers of pixel sensors, stacked to take advantage of silicon's ability to absorb red, green, and blue light at different respective depths. This results in more accurate colours, sharper resolution, pixel for pixel than any conventional image sensor without the need for interpolation.

Conventional image sensors feature just a single layer of pixel sensors in a tiled mosaic pattern. Each pixel detects only one colour of light, which has been filtered through a single red or green or blue colour filter. As a result, two thirds of the colour information at each pixel is blocked out. Therefore to compensate for this, colour interpolation is used. Unfortunately, this leads to colour errors, colour artifacts and loss of image detail.

It will be really interesting to see the new specification of the SD14 and whether the new sensor can improve on the poor night performance mentioned in reviews of the SD10.