Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest one of all? We all expect high performance and excellent quality results from a camera. The Sigma sd Quattro is one of the newest kids on the mirrorless block that comes with much praise and high expectations.
The Sigma sd Quattro.
A colleague of mine has been singing the praises of mirrorless cameras: trying to convince me to make the switch from DSLR to mirrorless over the last year and a half, professing that mirrorless cameras are the wave of the future. I have wondered, though, are they really? Do they possess the qualities needed to perform under any circumstances? While I’m a bit stubborn and am in love with my Nikon D750 DSLR, I finally succumbed to giving a mirrorless camera a shot (no pun intended), and do so with the Sigma sd Quattro.
KEY FEATURES
Some of its key features include:
- 39 or 51MP (equivalent) sensors
- Magnesium-alloy bodies
- Dust- and splash-proof
- 2.3MP digital viewfinder
- 3-inch 1.62 million dot LCD
- Sigma SA-mount, compatible with existing SA-mount lenses
- Top ISO 6400
- 2-mode, 9-point AF system
- Movement prediction, face detection, focus peaking
This body is 100% solid brick.
Image via Nikon D750 with Nikon 70-200mm f/1.4 lens.
The Sigma sd Quattro was recently released back in mid-July 2016 and can be found at Adorama for $799.00 (body only) or $999.00 (with 30mm f/1.4 ART Lens Kit).
Image courtesy of Sigma.
BODY DESIGN, ERGONOMICS AND HANDLING
It’s dust and splash-proof magnesium-alloy body literally looks and feels like a rectangular brick without its lens weighing in at 22 ounces (625g) without a battery and memory card with dimensions of 5.79”-W x 3.74”-H x 3.57″-D (147 x 95.1 x 90.8mm). Imagine how heavier of a brick it feels with the lens!
Off and on switch in the front of the camera.
Image via Nikon D750 with Nikon 70-200mm f/1.4 lens.
Despite its odd shape, it was surprisingly comfortable to hold despite many of the buttons and menus being in a completely different place than where located on my DSLR.
Buttons, Functions & Controls
The strategic placement of the buttons, functions and controls on the Sigma sd Quattro are all actually easy to get to, but they just take a little bit of time to get used to. For instance, the on/off switch is located on the front of the camera where the lens attaches to the camera body. The aperture and shutter knobs are both located in the traditional area of placement, but notice I said knobs – they are not dials literally embedded into the front and back of the camera. They are both knobs located on the front and back but on top of the camera.
Lock and Quick Set options are extremely useful.
Image courtesy of Sigma.
Playback is located on the bottom leftside of the camera whereas you typically find it somewhere near the top left – this was something I absolutely couldn’t adapt to – even after using the camera for almost a week. It does make sense for it to be there though as your thumb would usually rest near that area when holding the camera to review your images on the LCD anyway.
Dual display of controls.
Image courtesy of Sigma.
Something different that I hadn’t seen before was the switch to the left of the viewfinder. There are options for viewfinder (which is basically a live view mode), Monitor (for reviewing images or menus) and Auto (which I found to be a pretty cool feature as it acts as a live view viewfinder when held upright, like when a photographer is taking the photo and it becomes an LCD monitor when the lens is aimed downward, like when a photographer is reading a result or choosing a menu option. Evidently, there is some sort of auto sensor inside the camera that decides when the screen becomes what based on its positioning. This could be problematic when you are wanting to shoot something on the ground from above, but that is easily remedied by either using the actual viewfinder or selecting the Finder option for the LCD.
Menus
I found the menus to be less complicated than the menus of DSLRs – hands-down. They are easy to maneuver through and you only scroll sideways, not down through an endless list and everything is well organized and easy to find.
Among a few buttons are several simple screens of menu options.
Image courtesy of Sigma website.
A few things that caught my eye were the white balance settings options and the in-camera processing option. For white balance, in addition to the traditional 9 settings, you can also set up to three (3) custom settings for quick set purposes.
The RAW development feature allows you to make adjustments to your images inside the camera such as (1) exposure compensation, (2) white balance, (3) image quality, (4) image size, (5) aspect ratio, (6) color mode, (7) color space, and (8) tone prior to spitting them out as a JPEG image. Number (9) below is the option to begin development after you are done with your adjustments and (10) is the label for the adjustment function.
RAW Development options for developing images inside the camera.
Image courtesy of Sigma User Manual.
Display
The 3-inch TFT color LCD monitor boasts approximately 1,620,000 pixels, but who’s counting, right? The unfortunate tease is this: when the camera is turned off, it appears you have a full 3-inch monitor for your image reviewing pleasure, however, turn the camera on and you really have about a little under 2.5-inches as a reviewing pane on the left side and the rest as a settings display on the right side. Hey, what can you do?
Split screen.
When using playback, you can view single frames or a 9-frame multi-display. You can zoom in on the image to check for sharpness. The Sigma sd Quattro also offers a highlight display, as well as a histogram to show you the tonal range of an image.
Beautiful color playback (under gelled light…)
Image via iPhone 6.
As for shooting, the LCD can act as an equivalent to a live view mode when switched to Finder or on Auto when the camera is brought up with the lens pointed forward. One of the features of the Finder live view display (as well as a guide in the Viewfinder) that I found extremely helpful – considering I tend to have a 1-2 pixel tilt when I shoot – was the horizon level to help guide to a more accurately positioned image.
Ok, so this is not how extreme my tilt is, but this is the LCD display showing the level.
Image via iPhone 6.
Viewfinder
The viewfinder juts out pretty far from the camera in the back and is located on the right-side of the camera where you would typically find it in the center of the camera. While it felt weird, I didn’t really find it too much of an issue or something I couldn’t get used to. One of the unique features I liked about the viewfinder is that it’s awning hangs a little farther out than anything I’ve used in the past, leaving less intrusion of ambient light into my viewfinder sight.
AUTOFOCUS & PERFORMANCE
The Sigma sd Quattro has three different focus modes: manual, single autofocus and continuous autofocus with a motion prediction function. The autofocus on this camera was pretty good overall. It also has both a phase difference detection and a contrast detection type autofocus system. Last, it has a nine-point autofocus select mode, a continuous moving mode where you can change the the size of the focus frame, as well as a facial detection mode – which aided me in capturing a sharper image of my friend on a bumpy subway ride shown later on in this review.
The focus lock can be sealed when the AEL/AF switch button is pressed or when the shutter release button is pressed halfway.
Speed and Continuous Shooting
While Sigma advertises the Sigma sd Quattro to have fast processing speeds, I found the top continuous speed sitting at ISO 100, f/5.6 at 1/160 of a sec to be just under 4/fps in both auto and manual focus modes. Perhaps I’m spoiled on a higher number of frames per second from my full-frame DSLR?
On a bouncy subway ride.
Image via Sigma sd Quattro w/ 30mm prime lens.
Shot at ISO 100, f/1.4 at 1/100 of sec – no tripod.
It was, however, quick enough to capture and process a clear image of my friend sitting on a bumpy subway ride with no unintentional blur.
IMAGE QUALITY
Colors
The color renditioning, when choosing anything other than “Standard” was better than expected as I spent a good deal of time shooting out in broad daylight, where my colors were likely to be more washed out than what they appear in the images below. However, in the image of my friend above and with the flowers further below, I was shooting indoors and still achieved nice results.
In shade.
Image via Sigma sd Quattro w/ 30mm prime lens.
Shot at ISO 100, f/5.6 at 1/160 of a sec.
In partial shade.
Image via Sigma sd Quattro w/ 30mm prime lens.
Shot at ISO 100, f/5.6 at 1/160 of a sec – no tripod.
In bright, sunny daylight.
Image via Sigma sd Quattro w/ 30mm prime lens.
Shot at ISO 100, f/5.6 at 1/320 of a sec – no tripod.
When I shot in a standard color mode, which you will see in the flower comparison below, the colors seemed a bit flatter than I would have liked, but I feel that mode has its use. In that flower image below where the Standard mode was used, it actually makes the flowers have a more watercolor, still life painterly quality to them, which was also a nice alternative option.
ISO and Noise
The ISO sensitivity scale on the Sigma sd Quattro goes from ISO 100 to 6400. While there have been a few mentions that setting ISO at anything higher than ISO 800 introduces a lot of noise, I did not find this to be the case when I shot these images for color comparison at ISO 1000 in a moderately lit room indoors using a tripod.
Colors in modes (left to right): Standard, Portrait, Vivid.
Image via Sigma sd Quattro w/ 30mm prime lens.
All shot at ISO 1000, f/1.4 at 1/60 of a sec on a tripod.
Additional Sample Photos
Image via Sigma sd Quattro w/ 30mm prime lens and an external flash.
Shot at ISO 1000, f/1.4 at 1/60 of a sec.
Image by Liz Daza
Image via Sigma sd Quattro w/ 30mm prime lens and an external flash.
Shot at ISO 100, f/5.0 at 1/250 of a sec.
Image by Liz Daza
CONNECTIVITY
The possible interfaces for the Sigma sd Quattro are HDMI (Type C mini-pin HDMI connector), USB (USB3.0, micro B) or a remote.
Image via iPhone 6.
STORAGE
Storage options for this model are an SD Card, SDHC Card, SDXC Card, Eye-Fi Card. Make sure to get a card that is a Class 10 and at least an 80MB/s read speed to avoid slowed performance. The SanDisk 32GB Class 10 U3 Extreme SDHC UHS-I Memory Card is a good choice card at a reasonable price.
Image via iPhone 6.
WHAT’S IN THE BOX
- Sigma sd Quattro Camera
- Li-ion Battery Pack BP-61
- Battery Charger BC-61
- AC Cable of Battery Charger
- USB Cable
- Strap
- Body Cap
- Sigma 1 Year North and South America Limited Warranty (3 Year USA Extended Warranty for a Total of 4 Years from Date of Purchase)
PROS and CONS
Pros:
- Comfortable grip
- Dust and splash-proof
- Weight is manageable
- Movement prediction
- Face detection
- A lot of nice color options
- No built-in flash (hey, that IS a PLUS because they are terrible light sources to use anyway – if you want a decent image!)
Cons:
- Continuous shooting speed of less than 4fps with or without autofocus
- No video option
- Can only process images with Sigma’s own converter, thus far…
- Only works with Sigma lenses
WHO IT’S FOR
This camera is not for anyone that needs a camera to be able to take a photo in a split second! I feel like it is a better choice where you have an extra second or two to take a shot, for example, when posing someone or when you are photographing a landscape. I don’t think it is so much for the street photographer or sports photographer due to its lower frames per second capture speed.
CONCLUSION
Overall, I think the Sigma sd Quattro is a great camera for experienced photographers and professionals, not casual, quick shooters. I am a portrait photographer that also likes to shoot and sell travel images, and this camera could serve great for that purpose.
