The title of this blog post is very intentional and while I am certain that Sigma would have promoted the hell out of it if a former Apple affiliated Designer (hardware or software) were involved with the development of its newest camera the BF, the design of this camera is basically Apple if they sold a camera in 2007 instead of the iPhone. Call this an Apple QuickTake and package it with a portrait lens from Leica have Sir Jonny Ive with a bespoke customer pickup option as a perfect compliment to Apple’s Digital Hub and you have the Sigma BF. It reminds me a lot of EVE from Wall-E being designed by Jony Ive and how awesome I thought that was. I mean just LOOK at this launch catalogue (PDF link)
Introducing the Sigma BF (homepage)
Ever since I saw the initial news last night, this camera has been infecting my brain. My purchase of the Leica Q2 (Ghost Edition) 2 years ago came at the tail end of months of research. I have a few requirements but it came down to a travel camera with a full frame sensor in a beautiful body and exceptional craftsmanship at 24-35mm focal length and an ultra-fast lens (f/2 or faster). I also really had to have a lens that was not removable because I regularly go to events like concerts where professional cameras (I.e. detachable lenses) are forbidden. With a child on the way and wanting a camera that could live in our dining room table for quick portraits or brought with us to outings and in a smaller form factor than my Canon R5, I swallowed my financial pride and coughed up nearly $5,000 for an opened (but new) Leica Q2 from an American who bought it in Berlin and “didn’t like the color”.
Let’s clarify what this camera is not. It is not a professional’s camera but that’s to say you won’t see it on sidelines of sports events, in use at concerts or wedding except to be a second camera body for specific kinds of images where the lighting, subject and scene are still and can be framed in an artistic way with a specific glass that you can use for such a moment (like a 35/50mm Leica f/2 or f/1.4 lens). Professionals may use this camera but the amount of shots they’ll take compared to their workhorse (Nike/Canon/Sony) bodies will be minimal save for a few exceptions.
This camera is not going to have the fastest auto focus, most pixels and honestly any versatility. It has no removable storage and it has no hot-shoe to add a flash or other accessory. There is no electronic viewfinder or way to add one. There’s also no in body stabilization (IBIS) and maybe most egregiously even for the social media types is the screen doesn’t move and flip up for easy selfies..which by the way is a reason I bought the Leica Q2 over the Q3 because I actually don’t need a screen that flips up or down. It’s unnecessary to me. There’s really only a single I/O and that’s a 10gbps USB-C port that charges the battery that is removable as well as utilized for transfers.
There is more magic though and that’s the revolutionary interface that the photographer uses to take a photo. I’ve said this many times on the blog but I only leave Auto mode on my cameras when I need to such as a situation in bright or dim lighting where I’ll enter Aperture-Priority mode on my Canon full frame bodies to lock in the Aperture and set the exposure compensation to give me decently lit subjects so I’m not suck in Lightroom trying to save an underexposed portrait. My Leica Q2….Autofocus and Auto mode. I don’t touch the focus ring. The focus is slow and I curse at it but it’s faster than my fingers. It’s sacrilege to have $15,000 worth of cameras and lenses in your bag and shoot in auto but I love my photos so that’s a system that works for me. I can shoot in manual and learned on my Canon AE-1 but I don’t like to or have to.
I share this because the user interface, if it sucks won’t matter much to me because I’ll probably just turn the camera on and shoot with it and not worry about that but I love the iPod Click Wheel like interface and think I’ll really vibe with it. You slide, click, spin and nudge your way through many settings and it’s the most Apple-Like interface I’ve seen on a camera with that beauty being thrown out once you enter the camera’s settings which is just a boring list (like the Leica, Canon, Nikon, etc.). I expect we’ll see many software updates from Sigma the first 12 months as things are tweaked and improved.
Unlike the Leica where if I want a different focal length from the 28mm my Q2 came with, I have to buy the new Q3-43 that just came out which has, you guessed it, a 43mm focal length. Spending $14,000 USD on two cameras from Leica just to get 2 focal lengths…now that’s art! It goes without saying I have not purchased a new Q3 and don’t plan on it. The Q2 is excellent for my use and I love the images it produces of my daughter. You haven’t seen any of these because I don’t share photos of her online except maybe once or twice.
Sigma who makes nearly 100% of their profit from lenses is not following Leica and instead making their BF camera compatible with the L-Mount which has support from Panasonic, Sigma and even Leica. I can purchase nearly 500 different lenses and they will work with this body so I won’t be able to bring it to concerts but eBay has thousands of used Leica L-Mount lenses for sale that will allow me a lot of flexibility and experimentation. I’m beginning with a 50mm but will probably add a 24-70 f/2.8 from Leica as an everyday carry zoom lens.
Speaking of carry, it has one camera strap, not two. It’s meant to clutch (using a strap attached to the tripod mount like Peak Design’s Anchor Mount). You could also just attach one wrist strap to it but with the L-Mount, that could mean toting many pounds of glass from one strap on your wrist so I doubt many people will do that. I would with a sort of 20mm pancake lens like Panasonic’s f/1.7 pancake I had on my PEN camera back in the day.
The cost of this camera is $1,999. That’s the camera, a sensor cap, a battery and a USB-C cable. There’s a 1 year warranty and no option to extend it so of course I pre-ordered this camera with my Amex that extends the warranty by one year.
Oh yes…I ordered one. I still might cancel my order once reviews come out because this camera MUST outperform my Leica Q2 to be worth keeping. We’re talking investing about $4,000 for the body and two used lenses which is a significant amount of money and if the Leica Q2 I already have outperforms it, I won’t be keeping it.
Apple made a camera (not really but sure) and I’m so excited to hold this beautiful piece of work in my hands but only if the performance, image quality and user interface meet my expectations. A full frame L-Mount camera in a tiny format is really exciting. Yes there’s the Panasonic S9 for $700 less and nearly identical in every other specification with MORE features, the S9 looks nothing like this Sigma camera and so I think the lack of features and art of it easily make this camera worth considering.
I’ll update this post if I cancel my order. I did not order a lens yet and will grab a few poor condition used L-Mount lenses and experiment with those over the Summer.
