Vacation is a time to get away from it all - unless you're a geek or a photo hobbyist. For us vacation is when you actually have time to play a bit with the technology that is an important part of your life. Our first thought was to vacation with the Nikon D300, but it's such a sought after camera around the world there was concern it might be a magnet for theft. Since the destination was the laid-back Caribbean Island of Sint Maarten (St. Martin) there also wouldn't be much opportunity to exploit the 8FPS speed that is one of the superb features of the D300. After all, there are only so many Jet Ski freeze shots anyone should have to endure.

After our Sigma SD14: Quick Look at a Quirky Wonder review, it seemed like an interesting idea to try to spend a vacation with this unique camera. It's a fact that almost no one would recognize the Sigma brand, and the new ultra-low pricing made the thought of losing the camera or having it stolen not such a big deal.

Would the limited low-noise ISO drive us crazy? Would the leisurely write times fit "island time" or drive us to the brink of "camera-cide"? Would we find the Foveon sensor capabilities interesting enough to try to take advantage of its "slide-film-like" color? These are all questions we set out to answer.

The SD14 Travel Kit

In trips to Europe or Asia in the past, just about every lens in the camera bag traveled with me. There was the fear that I might miss the photo op of a lifetime so I had to be prepared. After a while you realize that most of the equipment spends its vacation back in the hotel because it's just too heavy and cumbersome to lug around while you're trying to enjoy yourself. All that weight can slow you down and it can make taking vacation pics too much of a chore. At that point you start taking a serious look at what you really use (and really need) to capture some interesting pictures.

This is also about the time that you begin to find the compromises of a superzoom not so bad as they first appeared when you read about them in some lens test reviews. The SD14 can only mount Sigma lenses in the proprietary Sigma mount, but fortunately there are two excellent choices for Sigma superzoom. Both are 18-200mm f3.5-6.3.

Where the lenses differ is in optical image stabilization (OS) and price, as the aperture value is the same on both lenses. Like Canon and Nikon, Sigma supports OS in the lens, rather than body-integral mechanical image stabilization that can work with any lens. Exotic lens elements have also become cheaper to manufacture and they are used in more lenses today. This means the image quality of the smaller image circle, ED-glass, multiple aspheric elements 18-200mm today is much better than the 28-200mm or 28-300mm that became a walk-around choice for many as the film era was ending. The 18-200mm on the 1.7x SD14 is equivalent to a 30mm to 320mm lens for a 35mm, which covers almost anything you might encounter on a trip from wide angle to a fairly long telephoto

The regular 18-200mm is extremely small. In fact it is not much larger than a "normal" zoom lens at just 3.1", using 62mm filters, and weighing just 405g. This would make this lens an ideal choice as a travel lens. Frankly, with the wide, low-noise ISO range of the Nikon D300 or a Canon 40D this might be a good choice in a light, compact travel zoom.

However, the Sigma SD14 is really only good to about ISO 400 in normal situations, even though it does offer options to a noisier but usable ISO 800, or an extremely noisy 1600 with a firmware upgrade and ISO expansion. That makes the OS version of the 18-200mm a better choice, as it is claims to provide up to four stops of improved steady shooting. The OS is a bigger lens at 3.9 inches and uses 72mm filters. The two motor (vertical and horizontal) OS also raises the weight to 610g. While the 18-200mm OS is bigger and heavier, it is also reputed to be even better in image quality than the base model.

Power, Digital "Film", and a Bag

Battery life for the SD14 is on the low side at 200 to 300 shots per charge, which tempts us to take a battery grip. However, size and weight are increased with the grip so we opted for a couple of extra rechargeable batteries and a portable charger. The use of the NP400/Li50 battery made finding extra batteries and a charger a breeze with good value to boot. We located a couple of 1800 mAh batteries from a trusted source for a delivered price of less than $10 per battery.

After the review fiasco with camera-on initialization times, we were more careful with Compact Flash card choices. The long initialization times turned out to be a compatibility issue with certain 8GB CF cards we had been using in other reviews. Once this was discovered we began comparing performance to SanDisk Ultra II and Ultra III 1GB and 2GB flash cards that became our control for the SD14. 16GB cards are very nice when you are writing huge files like the RAW files with the SD14, and we found a couple of 16GB cards that initialized in about a second and saved as fast as anything the control cards could do.

The two cards that worked well were the TopRAM 16GB advertised as compatible with Canon cameras. The 150X speed TopRAM is available from many resellers around the world. The other CF is a Transcend 133X 16GB that also worked very well, and it can be found at Amazon and many other resellers. It was interesting the Transcend worked so well since it is said to be a slow card on some cameras, but it is certainly as fast as anything else on the SD14.

Since we test many cameras, we also sometimes use an SDHC to CF converter to make good use of fast and cheap SDHC memory cards in cameras designed for CF. This converter works fine in Nikon, Canon, and Olympus cameras, but it threw an 8-second initialization delay on the SD14 - just like the problem we experienced with Samsung 8GB cards on this same camera. We left the converter at home and stuck to the 16GB cards.

Many will likely disagree, but a camera around the neck is annoying on vacation. A camera bag can also be a burden to lug around. It is easier for me to carry and use a small holster type case like the Lowepro TLZ1. The TLZ1 easily holds the SD14 with the large 18-200mm OS lens attached - plus the charger, extra batteries, and extra 16GB CF card just in case the RAW images fill up the Transcend 16GB. The case is easy to carry, open, and use while still keeping the size relatively small. No DSLR today can compete with tiny point and shoot cameras for size or weight, but the DSLR in a compact holster case is a compromise I am willing to make for better image quality.

The Computer

Since the SD14 does best when shooting RAW, a computer is handy for converting the captured RAW images into TIF or JPG for viewing. Since my main goal in traveling to trade shows and for pleasure is an internet connection and writing, I tend to choose the smallest laptop I can find with a wireless connection and the ability to support writing and editing software.

The laptop that meets those needs is a 3 to 4 pound Dell with a wide-screen hi-res screen that is about the size of a sheet of paper. Fortunately it has enough power to adequately run Photoshop CS3 and it had no problem with Sigma Photo Pro 2.5 and 3.0. It has an integrated CF card reader, where some newer laptops directly handle SDHC cards. If your notebook doesn't support your memory card there are always the adapters that plug in the USB port and read CF or SDHC or whatever you need to read and write, but integrated support for your chosen flash memory means one less item to carry (or forget).

A computer is definitely not a necessity for a photo vacation, and in fact it may detract from your "vacating". However, there is no arguing that it was useful, with a camera that shoots best in RAW, to auto process images in Sigma Photo Pro on the laptop.  It allowed us to check out how things were working.

Foveon Images

While there is no convenient Auto ISO mode on the SD14, we quickly discovered that the best ISO speeds for the Foveon sensor ranged from ISO 50 to ISO 400. We did most of our shooting in that ISO range with the 18-200mm OS lens with the image stabilization enabled.

Images on this page represent a broad cross section of images all shot with the 18-200mm lens in a wide variety of lighting conditions. The reach of the 18-200mm for telephoto (35mm equivalent max of 320mm) was really helpful in a few situations.

You can click on any of the smaller images for the full image with embedded EXIF data that can be read with programs like Opanda IExif. The small JPG images are sometimes cropped for a more pleasing composition, but you can click for the full, uncropped image with embedded full data on the shooting parameters.

ISO 800 as a Creative Tool

By ISO 800, sensor noise is becoming a problem with the Foveon sensor in the SD14. That's not as bad as it first sounds, though, as the noise and "grain" can be used to exploit the impressionistic or pointillist capabilities of the sensor.

Frankly, it was intriguing to see what could be done with ISO 800 so we deliberately shot a number of ISO 800 images and manipulated them in Sigma Photo Pro to see what we could create. All images below are ISO 800.

After a Vacation with the SD14

Whatever the motivations, the Sigma SD14 is a paragon of simplicity. In a very short time you feel comfortable with the limited controls. The possible exception is the combo on and drive mode dial on the top left. It is easy enough to use, but it is so different from competing cameras that it takes a while to get used to. There are no scene modes to choose and no programs to analyze scenes; you end up doing many things the old-fashioned way - tweaking them yourself. The simplicity is a nice feature in vacation shooting, but you are almost forced to engage your mind in shooting, which is certainly not a bad thing. Auto-Focus is not the fastest, but it is a great improvement over the earlier SD models. Fortunately the new 5-point AF seems to be very accurate.

Exposure control is decent, but it is nowhere as sophisticated as current models from competitors. However, by shooting in RAW and processing in Sigma Photo Pro you can almost always recover from any errors in exposure or judgment. There is tremendous flexibility in exposure adjustments with the RAW images. The auto setting is also very good and is usually enough to create decent TIF or JPG images from the RAW files.

As we said in our review, the Sigma SD14 is a huge refinement of everything Sigma SD that came before it. It is solidly built, well balanced, and easy to handle, with features that are much more contemporary and competitive than the SD10. These include a viewfinder based on a real pentaprism with 98% accuracy in the view. The viewfinder is definitely one of the most significant improvements in the SD14, and we thoroughly enjoyed using it.

It's a good thing the optical viewfinder is decent, since the 130,000 pixel 2.5" LCD is exceptionally crude. After working with the gorgeous hi-res 3" LCD on the Nikon D300 and Sony A700 it is hard to find anything good to say about the Sigma LCD. Fortunately you can see if you captured an image, and the capture is likely RAW so seeing it on the LCD doesn't matter too much. If you like to edit on the LCD screen it won't really be an option on the SD14.

Getting away from nit picking, I confess I really had a lot of fun with the SD14 on vacation. There were times when I could have gotten better shots with a Nikon D300 or Canon 40D, but I also did more "thinking" shots than usual because the SD14 demanded it for best results. Vacation is not a place where you normally shoot action sports so the slow display and write speeds were not a real issue. The 6-frame buffer was also enough for any sequences that were shot.

When the SD10 was in our hands for a few weeks it was just too annoying to learn to use and love. The SD14 is a lot easier to live with - if you accept its shortcomings and you are willing to work with it to reveal the strengths of the Foveon sensor. Some will be perfectly happy using the SD14, and others will complain bitterly about its shortcomings and quickly move on.

The lock-up problems we experienced early in our review never happened again once we switched to compatible CF cards. Going from many hard lockups to none has convinced us that those who are having lockup issues with the SD14 need to do some CF swapping to see if that may be their issue. The SD14 drove us nuts until the CF card swap; after the swap it behaved extremely well and actually became a fun camera to use. It's true that CF compatibility is better on most other cameras, but flash memory is cheap enough that if you're willing to invest in an SD14 adding a compatible CF card is easy enough.

What did using the Sigma SD14 on vacation teach us? It wasn't anything new, but we were again reminded that the camera matters a lot less than the skill of the person using the camera. Bells and whistles are great, but they are just tools and not a substitute for learning to take good images. We don't often work in RAW unless it is a critical image or the JPG is just too distant from our mental image to get to a usable final image. Working completely in RAW with the SD14 was another reminder of how much can be accomplished in RAW with just a little effort.

The Sigma SD14 is not for everyone, but it is definitely a useful tool for deliberate shooting and for those who want to exploit the "unique look" of Foveon images. We won't get into the argument of whether the Foveon color is more accurate, because we're not sure. When the Foveon is good it can be very good, but just as often the color misses the real scene and creates its own world of color. More often than not you can still capture the mental color you saw in processing the RAW files, but it is really a lot more fun to exploit the unique color world of the Foveon sensor.

Yes, you can shoot a vacation with a Sigma SD14, and you might even have some fun doing it. There are faster and more capable DSLR cameras, but if you have the time nothing else is quite like the Foveon sensor. It also helps if you are exploring the half-Dutch half-French island of St. Maarten, or if you are visiting the nearby trendy French island of St. Barts or enjoying the raw beauty of Saba or Anguilla.