Sigma’s BF Camera Reminds You Why You Started Taking Pictures

To understand the Sigma BF, you have to start with the features it doesn’t have, in spite of being a $2,199 camera. It has no viewfinder, no memory card slot, no hot shoe, no built-in flash, no image stabilization for stills, no mechanical shutter, no Wi-Fi, and no dedicated microphone or headphone jack.So you wouldn’t use this camera for professional shoots, primarily for filming video, or for shooting sports, despite competing on price with cameras that can do all three.But that’s exactly the point. If you just want a camera, this is a deeply compromised option for the price. But Sigma wanted to make an extremely specific device for capturing life in the most pleasant way possible, and it refused to compromise that experience to make the camera more universally appealing.Though Sigma has long made its own cameras, the brand is known primarily as one of Japan’s best lens makers. Its Art lenses earned that reputation for their optical quality and lower prices than first-party alternatives; and when it does make cameras, they don’t compete with the broad market but offer something distinct. Their cameras hit some niche nobody had previously had addressed, and usually look pretty cool while doing so.Sigma BF. Courtesy of SigmaThe BF is even more distinct and idiosyncratic than any previous Sigma camera, and probably the most beautiful camera ever made. Its body is a single piece of aluminum, milled for seven hours out of one block, and its aesthetic purity matches the shooting experience — Sigma deliberately excluded features that would have been nice to have but would have distracted from capturing life and interrupted the body’s clean lines.Sigma BF. Courtesy of SigmaSome choices put design over functionality in an inadvisable but admirable way. The camera doesn’t take SD cards and instead relies exclusively on internal storage. It’s a great choice, making the whole thing operate so much faster than any other camera, whether you’re shooting, changing settings, or going through hundreds of photos. But that also means the only way to get the images off the camera is through its exposed USB port, which doesn’t have any weather protection. That’s pretty mad — but a rubber plug would look far worse, and the body is only rated for light rain anyway, so you wouldn’t want it out in much more than a drizzle.Similarly, it would be great if this camera had a built-in flash, or a hot shoe, or a hole for a strap on the left as well as the right, or a viewfinder, which I so miss — but those would have put more holes into that beautiful chassis, so Sigma cut them out. Other choices are a little more perplexing. The BF has the best interface on the market, with a wheel to switch between modes and select them, along with a touchscreen. But the touchscreen controls only some settings, and it’s never clear which ones, so you almost always just stick with the wheel. But it’s so fast and pleasant to use once you get used to it that you don’t care.Sigma BF. Courtesy of SigmaIn making this camera, Sigma rethought from first principles how a camera’s interface should operate, and the result so thoroughly surpasses every mainstream competitor’s interface. You control most settings through a rotating wheel and a set of haptic buttons, and a small secondary pill-shaped screen displays whichever setting you’re adjusting. You can hide every other setting from the main screen, leaving just the photo preview and the active setting on that second screen, which is how I mostly use it. It’s a little tough to understand at first, particularly with the many hidden submenus and options. But once you get used to it — to the quick flick of the wheel to change color settings or shutter speed, to the half-press for ISO changes or exposure compensation, to the sheer speed of everything — any other camera interface feels like a step backward. And the photos it takes are atmospheric, crisp, and beautiful.Sigma BF. Courtesy of Ross AndersonSample Sigma photo, unedited. Courtesy of Ross AndersonIt’s not a perfect camera, even if you love its constraints. Without a viewfinder, your only option is the screen, and it’s superb but too dim in bright sunlight. The digital shutter can create some strange rainbow artifacts when shooting in low-light indoor settings. The color modes are excellent, but ought to be more tweakable, and you can’t make or add new custom “recipes” like you can with Fujifilm. The battery line has been a constant complaint among other reviewers, and though I have a second battery in my bag at all times, I’ve only used it once, on a long day shooting outside.The most frustrating thing is the standby mode, which is utterly pointless. A soft press of the power button turns the screen off, leaving only the battery level on the small screen — and then, with a press of the shutter or another tap of the button, the camera is immediately on, ready to shoot. It sounds fantastic, but in standby it drains the battery as quickly as if you kept it turned on, meaning you should never intentionally use it. Thankfully the camera fully shuts down and turns back on quickly, and most of these flaws could be fixed with software updates.And the whole experience of shooting with this camera — from the gorgeous look, to the incredible build quality of everything, to the perfect tactile ratchet on the lenses, to the unbeatable software — surpasses that of any other modern camera.It’s a beautiful object, without going faux-retro like Fujifilm models, and its shots look utterly gorgeous. It’s a bad value as an “all-around” camera, but it is perfect for what it is. I should know: I bought one.Even if Sigma never fixes the issues with this shooter, this is still my favorite camera I’ve ever shot with.

Sigma’s BF Camera Reminds You Why You Started Taking Pictures

Sigma’s BF Camera Reminds You Why You Started Taking Pictures

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