diff --git a/skimage/segmentation/slic_superpixels.py b/skimage/segmentation/slic_superpixels.py
index 1adba964..4c4a7921 100644
--- a/skimage/segmentation/slic_superpixels.py
+++ b/skimage/segmentation/slic_superpixels.py
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ from skimage.segmentation._slic import _slic_cython
 from skimage.color import rgb2lab
 
 
-def slic(image, n_segments=100, compactness=10., max_iter=20, sigma=1,
+def slic(image, n_segments=100, compactness=10., max_iter=20, sigma=0,
          multichannel=True, convert2lab=True, ratio=None):
     """Segments image using k-means clustering in Color-(x,y,z) space.