Rating: 
Summary: The best image quality currently available at any price
Review: Given reasonable light, this DSLR bests all others in overall image quality with its 10.2M sensors and astounding sharpness. The best digital portrait camera in existence. Don't be fooled by the camera's 3.5MP rating--that is non-interpolated--all other digital camera manufactures, including all DSLRs, list only interpolated resolutions as their MP rating. This inflates other cameras' MP rating by a factor of 3 times relative to the SD-9, since they count each Red, Green, and Blue sensor as a sigle "pixel." The SD-9 counts a full set of three sensors, one Red, one Green, and one Blue, as a single "pixel." Foveon.com claims the SD-9's image quality bests film for any given capture area, and approaches medium format film quality for enlargements up to 40 inches. Some report that sharp enlargements up to 8 feet on the long side are possible from the SD-9's interpolated 14MP output files. The camera's software is the best available. The SD-9 always works losslessly, so be sure to compare only RAW mode specs when comparing to other DSLR's operating speed and convenience of workflow. Price is amazingly low for a DSLR with so many sensors, now below [$$$]...Hopefully Amazon.com will match them soon. Not the best DSLR for low light--low light noise is a weakness. Still, can produce very fine low light/night pics with experience.
Rating: 
Summary: This camera is great..
Review: I got mine last week, and it's image quality is the best of any digital camera. My only complaint is that for the price they skimped on the little things... Specifically one of the battery doors is poorly made (I broke it after inserting the batteries :-( ) But after shooting pictures almost continuously over the holidays, I have to say that the Sony 717 doesn't compare. Lance
Rating:
Summary: amazing picture quality
Review: i have had this camera for almost 2 years now and am still in love with it. i use the EX series 15-30mm lens and there isn't a situation i have found where this camera doesn't kick the [...] of any other digital camera (except for maybe the new SD10). i have a friend with a Canon that cost a ridiculous $9,000 and her pictures look like junk in comparison. i recently took a photo i took with my SD9 at a canyon in new mexico and had it blown up to over 3 feet wide. of course, the file size is absolutely huge, but the print out is stunning. you cannot even see the pixels.
i love this camera. it is amazingy easy to use and the pictures come out wonderfully.
Rating:
Summary: The sharpest images you can produce
Review: I'm a bit late in writing this review since I've had my SD9 for one year.
The image quality of photos using the SD9 can be quite stunning. The level of sharpness achieved by the Foveon sensor is amazing - it can resolve detail that Bayer sensor cameras (all other digital cameras fall into this group) simply cannot. Couple this camera with one of Sigma's "EX" lenses, particularly the super-sharp 50mm EX macro lens, and you'll love the results. I enjoy macro photography and this camera is excellent at macro photography.
I'm certainly not in the league of a real photographer as I'm just a casual type who enjoys taking pictures. As they say, the proof is in the picture and I've seen the proof! Forget about the megapixel rating and the fact that the Sigma is "only" 3.4 MP. The Foveon sensor has 3.4 million photosensors for each primary color - that's 10.2 total MP - while a 6 MP Bayer sensor has 6 MP for all three primary colors.
Why a four star rating rather than five? This camera is not without it's issues, like all cameras. The SD9 is not a very good low-light performer. If you need ISO speeds faster than 100 then the SD9 may not be for you. High ISO shots are noisy although you can get very usable high ISO photos if the conditions are ideal. The SD10 addressed this issue. The SD9 does not have a built-in flash but those units are not suitable for serious flash work anyway. This camera can only use Sigma SA mount lense so the choice in lenses is not as wide as for a Canon, Nikon, or Minolta user but Sigma makes some very, very good lenses and they certainly offer more choices than I can avail myself of. If you want in-camera jpg files, look elsehwere. The SD9 shoots only in RAW format and you have to process the photos. This is actually the best way to shoot, there is so much that can be done with a RAW file that one cannot do with a TIFF or jpg. The Sigma Photo Pro software is a gem of an application that is extremely powerful and easy to use.
Again, look at the results and you'll see that this camera is an extremely capable performer.
Rating:
Summary: Great pictures, hefty price
Review: I'm basically a point and shoot kinda guy. Before this I owned a run of the mill Olympus D-490.
Wow, what a difference. I've been snapping away for over 2 weeks with this little gem and am shocked at the picture quality. It's amazing what a little jump in technology can do. This X3 chip produces great color, fantastic detail and it's easy enough to have running in minutes, providing you have all the batteries, and it takes alot. The downsides are that it's heavy, like a couple of pounds w/ the lens and flash (sold separately). It's expensive, try shelling out 1.5k USD and telling your wife it's for a camera. Ouch.
It requires Sigma software - I think if your going to charge an arm and a leg for a camera, it should take images in a standardized format. I appreciate the fact that the images in "sigma" format are infinitely manipulatable, but geesh. At least give us a choice if we want all that control in every shot.
The pics cant be blown up very much. Now as an aside, I'm no master with the software yet, but on Hi quality with autofocus on the darn thing makes great pics, but viewing at anything over 2:1 magnification in Paint Shop produces pixelated images. It's a quirk, but it matters to me. Other than that, like I said, images are great. It's fun to run because it's so much like a pro-shot camera, but still easy enough for the average PHD to run it. (PHD= Push Here Dummy ;)
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Rating: 
Summary: Inferior color
Review: It's hard to get decent color with this camera and its software. Skin tones come out too yellow. Resolution is good.
Rating:
Summary: has anyone tried this camera?
Review: My star rating doesn't count because I have not tried the product. Seattle customer, is it correct to infer that your opinion is not based on actually trying the camera? As I understand it, the Foveon image sensor in the SD9 is different from the sensors in the 6 megapixel cameras you refer to in that each pixel in the SD9 is capable of sensing either red, blue, or green light, whereas in the conventional sensors any given pixel can only sense one color. That means it takes three pixels in a conventional sensor to provide the true color data provided by one pixel in the Foveon sensor. There may be more pixels in an image from a 6 mp sensor, but many of those pixels are artificially created by computer interpolation rather than being based on direct sensing of incoming light. Also this means the conventional camera must take more time to process the image in camera.
Rating:
Summary: Good start by Sigma, but probably better to wait
Review: The Sigma uses a new kind of light collecting chip which senses R,B,G colours at each of the 3.4 million pixels on its chip. The more common chip used by all other cameras senses only one colour at each pixel. So the Sigma should win hands down! Not necessarily. 3.4Mp isn't many pixels. Sony, Nikon et al. have 6Mp cameras using the standard type sensor. At the end of the day, more pixels give better resolution. So a 6Mp sensor does as well as the Sigma 3Mp sensor for colour and resolution. Fuji has tweaked the standard sensor format to use hexagonal pixels and get better resolution out of their 6Mp sensor chip. In August 2002 the Fuji S2 pro is due out, and its 6Mp chip will produce 12Mp photos. That's 12 million pixels of info to make a photo. They do this by analysing the data from the 6Mp and modifying it to "fill in" extra detail and colour. The result to Joe bloggs on the street will be photos pretty close to ordinary 35mm quality. If Sigma produce a camera using their new technology chip but with 6Mp, then it will be a force to reckon with. Slight problems with Sigma are you have to use their lenses. The Fuji is made to use Nikon lenses. Canon and Nikon have their own equivalents to the Fuji. Personally I'm waiting for the Fuji S2 Pro as I already have a Nikor AF auto-focus lens which I'm not ready to pass up. The Fuji is going to cost less than its Canon/Nikon counterparts...
Rating:
Summary: the future of digital
Review: unlike some reviewers, i have actually seen and held this camera. while i only took 3 pictures, simply loading them and having a look is shocking. this camera and the underlying X3 chip blow away everything in digital photography today. getting all three colors (rather than one like all other digital cameras) in each pixel gives you images you can easily enlarge without loss and artifacts. this camera easily blows away cameras costing many times more. this isn't a true 3 MP camera. it is more like a 9 MP. but better.... there is no longer a reason to not go digital. getting 3 colors per pixel means no interpolation. that in turn means sharper, truer color, photos without artifacts. in short, digital photos without the digital look. some of the photos taken with this camera are as good as medium format film images. digital is not as good as film, it is now better.
Rating:
Summary: the future of digital
Review: unlike some reviewers, i have actually seen and held this camera. while i only took 3 pictures, simply loading them and having a look is shocking. this camera and the underlying X3 chip blow away everything in digital photography today. getting all three colors (rather than one like all other digital cameras) in each pixel gives you images you can easily enlarge without loss and artifacts. this camera easily blows away cameras costing many times more. this isn't a true 3 MP camera. it is more like a 9 MP. but better.... there is no longer a reason to not go digital. getting 3 colors per pixel means no interpolation. that in turn means sharper, truer color, photos without artifacts. in short, digital photos without the digital look. some of the photos taken with this camera are as good as medium format film images. digital is not as good as film, it is now better.
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