Sigma SD14 DSLR

Sigma Corp of Japan has postponed the launch of the Sigma SD14 digital SLR. Customers in the UK were given a truncated version of events compared to US customers, but the Sigma website did at least contain a link to the more detailed explanation. Here's both releases.

UK Press release:
To our valued customers,

The Sigma Corporation of Japan is postponing the launch date of the Sigma SD14 Digital SLR camera, which was announced at Photokina 2006.

The Sigma SD14 had originally been scheduled to launch between the end of November and the middle of December. However, during final preparations, an unexpected hardware problem caused us to change the release date of the camera.

Due to this design change, the release date is now expected to be towards the end of February and the beginning of March 2007.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this postponement may cause. Customer satisfaction is of the utmost importance to us, therefore to avoid disappointment, we feel it necessary to make these changes before releasing the camera to market.

For inquiries:
Sigma World Network Web
http://www.sigma-photo.co.jp/english/network/index.htm

US Press release:
Dear Customers,

I appreciate your strong and kind support for our products.

At photokina 2006, we introduced our next generation digital SLR camera, the Sigma SD14. At the time, we made it clear that we would begin shipping production cameras late November 2006. Soon thereafter, we revised our release plan from late November to the middle of December.

Of course we continued our development work on the SD14 in preparation for production and shipping. During this process, we found one issue that occurred occasionally and only under certain circumstances. Initially, we felt that this could be solved with a programming or processing solution. However, after careful investigation and many attempts at a solution, we have come to the conclusion that we need to make a hardware change to fix this issue completely.

All of us at Sigma regret very much that this will result in a delay in the availability of the SD14 until late February or early March 2007. Retail sales should start in mid-March.

We deeply and sincerely apologize to all of our current and future Sigma users for this delay. We are confident that the SD14 will be an important product for photographers. The results we have produced thus far have been outstanding. However, we feel that we would not be serving our community of present and prospective photographers well by delivering a camera with a known issue. We ask for your understanding. For our part, we will do our best to fix this problem and begin delivery of the SD14 as soon as possible.

The amount of interest shown in our digital imaging products at photokina 2006 and thereafter was very encouraging. Please note that the delay of the SD14 will not have a significant impact on the development work on other cameras or lenses. This work continues and we will announce delivery plans as they become firm.

At this time, I would like to once again express my gratitude to all of our Sigma customers for their support. Thank you very much for your understanding and we appreciate your patience in waiting for the SD14. We are confident it will be worth the wait.

Best regards,

Kazuto Yamaki
Chief Operating Officer
Sigma Corporation