Some price drop

Sigma Drops the Price of the SD1 Camera by $6,400

The Sigma SD1 is an impressive camera that packs some very cool technology. It boasts a 46-megapixel image sensor that captures red, blue and green colors in each pixel. As cool as it is though, shelling out $10,000 for a camera is more than most people were willing to do.

Sigma has announced that the Sigma SD1 is being relaunched as the SD1 Merrill, named for Dick Merrill, the late co-creator of the SD1's Foveon X3 image sensor. The Merrill will carry a much lower price tag of $3,300 and while some manufacturing methods have changes, the camera is the same.

The SD1 was in trouble from the start price-wise. "Even with this revolutionary image sensor, we could not solve issues related to some of the manufacturing methods before the start of mass production," reads Sigma's press release. "the production cost ended up substantially exceeding our originally expected price."

Sigma also says that there will be something in place for people that bought the SD1 at its original price. The current plan is to offer a program to get SD1 owners discounts on new Sigma products. " This support program will provide points that can be exchanged for our products," says Sigma. " It will be applicable for all Sigma products including both current and new products to be released this year."