After we applauded the present style for retro digital camera designs – as exemplified by the Nikon Zf and the OM System OM-3 – what to make of the pared-back Sigma BF?
Sigma says it has intentionally stepped away from any typical digital camera design parts within the pursuit of “radical simplicity” and the concept of “an on a regular basis digital camera” that additionally works as a substitute for a smartphone.
After all, with a price ticket simply shy of $2,000 / £2,000 / AU$4,000 earlier than you add an L-mount lens, the BF is something however “on a regular basis” – and, as a full-frame L-mount mirrorless digital camera, it’s up towards some fairly severe competitors.
However there, I believe, is the place many people reviewers are going mistaken and – however I’m conceding solely presumably – lacking the purpose of the BF. Regardless of which manner you have a look at it, Sigma is difficult all the things we predict {that a} modern mirrorless digital camera must be… and, certainly, what it ought to do and the way it ought to do it.
The BF is certainly radical and its designers have relentlessly pursued their objective seemingly fully shut off from any taint of custom or conference. We’re informed that ‘BF’ stands for “lovely foolishness”, which was a time period initially utilized in reference to Japan’s conventional tea ceremony. Nevertheless it’s apt as a result of, whereas the digital camera is undoubtedly lovely, it’s exhausting to not conclude it’s additionally silly.
The one-piece aluminum bodyshell is a piece of commercial artwork, and right here the simplicity works superbly; it seems to be nice and feels even higher. However then someone has dived into Leica’s Das Wesentliche playbook and brought the idea of stripping all the way down to the naked necessities manner past what the Germans have ever dared.
There’s greater than a touch of the Leica T within the Sigma BF, with each the design ideas and their execution having a lot in widespread. However Leica didn’t go fairly as bonkers with the delete button – which, maybe to Sigma’s mind-set, means it didn’t go far sufficient, so the ultimate outcome was a compromise.
However has Sigma gone too far? At what level does sustaining a purity of design in any respect prices begin to come at the price of another issues, particularity practicality and value?
The BF doesn’t have an digital viewfinder, there’s neither a hotshoe nor a built-in flash, no reminiscence card slot, no wi-fi communications, no bodily shutter and no IBIS. The monitor display screen is fastened and there’s one interface – a USB C port – together with only a handful of exterior controls.
You’d suppose there’s some necessities in that little lot, wouldn’t you. However the digital camera’s huge inside reminiscence is sweet (if doubtlessly problematic) and lots of photographers don’t use flash – particularly with the excessive ISO efficiency of a 24MP full-frame sensor being so good. And I, for one, don’t use any wi-fi features in order that’s not a difficulty for me.
The actual biggie – particularly for me in Australia, the place the solar shines so much – is the fastened monitor together with the absence of an EVF. For a digital camera supposedly designed primarily for eager photographers and with the acknowledged intention of eliminating “all the things that distracts out of your interplay with the picture”, not together with a viewfinder is a really large miss certainly.
It’s seemingly a few of this has to do with sustaining a purity of type, however perform has suffered accordingly. The BF’s consumer interface is sweet, although not so simple as Sigma would have you ever imagine – however then it actually can’t be, with a digital camera that has a reasonably first rate function set. If, like me, you’re of A Sure Classic, you’ll have to unlearn some fundamentals, but it surely does work nicely and turns into ever extra environment friendly with observe.
Messing round with the basics of digital camera design has had blended success prior to now – the Leica T sequence had a relatively quick life – which is certainly one motive why the retro digital camera designs are doing so nicely.
The Sigma BF is as audacious as it’s daring, but it surely’s more durable to pin down precisely what it’s… style assertion, fashion icon, status product, distinctive high-end digital camera or an expensive point-and-shooter? There’s the potential to be all of this stuff and, regardless of my preliminary misgivings, it’s enjoyable to make use of if often irritating (which is able to certainly go over time).
Considering exterior the sq. is all the time a chance, particularly when there are such well-established – and accepted – guidelines of engagement, as is the case with digital camera design and operation. Sigma is to be recommended for taking a completely completely different path, however there’s no query that the way in which forward from right here could have its challenges.
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Check out our full Sigma BF evaluation, and if it wins you over then try the greatest L-Mount lenses to pair with it.