Sigma SD14 on Vacation

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.