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Sigma BF: The Camera Apple Would Make?
Apr 20, 2025
Review on Cult of Mac: https://www.cultofmac.com/reviews/sigma-bf-review More Apple news: http://www.cultofmac.com Produced by Extra Ordinary for Cult of Mac Music composed by Will Davenport, arranged by D. Griffin Jones The #Sigma BF is a #camera unlike any other. The Sigma BF is a work of art as much as it is a piece of equipment — and in that sense, it is just like all the classic #Apple products. Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 1:11 Design 2:58 Controls 5:31 Picture Quality 8:08 Video Quality 9:39 Missing & Miscellaneous Features 11:23 Conclusion Follow us! Threads: https://www.threads.net/@cultofmac Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@cultofmac
View Video Transcript
0:00
people describe a product as Applelike
0:02
if it's minimalistic really expensive a
0:07
bit behind on raw specs and missing a
0:10
bunch of industry standard features As
0:13
someone with a more nuanced opinion of
0:15
Apple I think it goes a bit deeper I
0:17
describe something as Appleike if it
0:20
knows what it's good at does that to the
0:22
best of its ability and does absolutely
0:26
nothing else Whichever opinion you have
0:29
the Sigma BF certainly ticks all the
0:32
boxes It's a work of art as much as it
0:35
is a piece of equipment And in that
0:37
sense it is classic Apple product
0:41
design The Sigma BF is a full-frame
0:45
camera meaning its sensor is 36 mm x 24
0:49
mm the exact same size as a full frame
0:52
of 35mm film with an aspect ratio of 3:2
0:56
This bigger sensor means it's better at
0:58
capturing light and pixels are sharper
1:01
It's mirrorless so the body is somewhat
1:04
compact but you're definitely not
1:06
fitting this in a pocket because it
1:08
requires an attachable lens The look and
1:11
feel of the camera is what captured the
1:13
attention of Apple fans It looks like it
1:16
was designed by Johnny Iive with its
1:18
solid aluminum unibody milled from a
1:20
single block of metal You can count the
1:23
number of seams with your fingers even
1:26
if you only have three fingers One half
1:29
of the front is textured with a diamond
1:31
pattern for grip A few different
1:33
surfaces are brushed rather than
1:35
sandlasted with beveled edges around the
1:38
buttons to break up the look There are
1:40
three affordances for ergonomics A notch
1:43
taken out of the bottom right corner for
1:45
your palm a thumb scoop to help your
1:47
grip and sides that are slightly tapered
1:50
in The front is flat There's no
1:53
protrusion to wrap your other fingers
1:54
around but it's still comfortable to
1:56
hold The full package is a touch heavy
1:59
for one hand so I brace it underneath
2:01
with my left hand for control of the
2:03
aperture and focus too The build quality
2:06
as you may expect is absolutely
2:09
immaculate The tactile feeling of the
2:11
buttons the aperture the focus the
2:14
automatic manual switch are all solid
2:18
and clicky notches on all the moving
2:20
parts and dials line up perfectly every
2:23
time Nothing wobbles Nothing is cheap
2:27
plastic Even though I have absolutely no
2:30
reason to detach and reattach the lens
2:33
because it's the only one I was sent and
2:36
even though I struggled to put it on the
2:37
first time live on our podcast I find
2:40
myself taking it off and putting it back
2:42
on all the time simply because it feels
2:45
so mechanical so tactile and so
2:48
satisfying to click together The release
2:50
button is springy when you hold it down
2:53
The lens snaps into place with a weight
2:56
that tells you it's secure After just
2:58
two weeks with the Sigma BF every other
3:01
camera looks like a labyrinthian puzzle
3:03
box of inscrable knobs and pointless
3:07
buttons Say what you will about the
3:10
staunch minimalism and expensive CNC mil
3:14
design Every other camera should at
3:16
least work like this Now Sigma didn't
3:20
send me a manual but the controls both
3:23
physical and onscreen are intuitive
3:26
enough for me to figure out naturally
3:28
The dot button on the bottom turns the
3:30
camera on and off The play button
3:33
switches between capturing and playback
3:36
You can hold your finger on the button
3:38
without clicking it to get an instant
3:41
preview of the last photo you took The
3:44
ellipses button adjusts interface
3:46
settings like grid lines volume
3:49
brightness and on-screen displays The
3:52
dial spins around like an iPod click
3:54
wheel clicks in all four directions and
3:57
clicks in as a button This adjusts your
4:00
shooting settings You can set the dial
4:03
to have easy access to adjusting
4:05
exposure ISO shutter speed digital zoom
4:09
and more The screen itself is also a
4:11
touch screen so you can tap it to change
4:14
focus Unfortunately some of the
4:16
on-screen controls are tapable but not
4:19
all of them which is a little confusing
4:23
Regardless the onscreen UI is incredibly
4:26
intuitive and largely stays out of your
4:29
way A secondary status display shows
4:32
extra information relevant to the
4:34
context It shows exposure in shooting
4:37
mode battery percentage while you're
4:39
charging the number of items in playback
4:42
mode and more Usually whatever it's
4:45
showing is what changes when you spin
4:48
the dial Besides the power button and
4:50
shutter button the other three buttons
4:52
are pressure sensitive and solid state
4:55
with haptic feedback Now let me just say
4:58
before you get worried they are
5:01
incredibly well done They feel exactly
5:04
like real buttons but they should be
5:07
more reliable over time Now you also
5:10
might be worried that solid state
5:12
buttons mean they won't work if you have
5:14
gloves on but that's not true They're
5:17
pressure sensitive not capacitive like
5:20
your smartphone So they worked with
5:23
everything I tested it with gloves a
5:26
thick blanket even a completely
5:28
non-conductive piece of plastic The
5:31
picture quality is phenomenal 24
5:34
megapixels isn't the highest resolution
5:36
for a full-frame camera Other cameras go
5:39
to 40 megapixels but the trade-off is
5:42
that the pictures are incredibly sharp
5:44
and low light performance is fantastic
5:48
The Sigma BF uses L-mount lenses which
5:51
are manufactured by Sigma Leica
5:54
Panasonic and Samyang They sent me the
5:57
recommended 50mm prime lens Now prime
6:01
lenses don't zoom in or out but the 50
6:04
mm focal length is a sweet spot for
6:06
natural photography portraits and
6:09
landscapes although it's much too close
6:11
for taking selfies And the minimum focus
6:15
distance which is how close you can get
6:17
before things start to get blurry is a
6:20
rather long 18 in The full-frame sensor
6:23
means its performance in the dark is not
6:26
only far and away superior to every
6:29
smartphone It doesn't need to use any
6:31
computational photography to take
6:34
amazing pictures Now my house has
6:37
terrible lighting It's pretty shaded A
6:41
lot of rooms are pretty dark through
6:42
most hours of the day and most rooms
6:46
only have one or zero lights I can take
6:50
pictures in the late evening with
6:52
virtually no grain that would only be
6:54
possible at peak daylight hours on my
6:57
iPhone On the downside it doesn't
7:00
support HDR or high dynamic range so
7:04
indoor daytime pictures shot against a
7:07
window are going to have the background
7:09
blown out While the full-frame sensor is
7:12
great at capturing light the lack of any
7:14
computational photography means you have
7:16
to consider the dynamic range when
7:18
you're framing a shot Whereas Apple
7:21
aggressively processes images so that
7:24
you never have to think about it
7:25
Importing photos just like any other
7:27
camera is incredibly easy You just plug
7:30
it into your Mac and the Photos app will
7:32
let you import everything that's new Now
7:34
its RAW photos take up roughly three
7:37
times the space as JPEGs You can shoot
7:40
in a combined RAW and JPEG and the Apple
7:43
Photos will import both as one combined
7:46
image It's easy to switch from JPEG to
7:49
RAW and use the built-in editing
7:51
interface to fine-tune the image
7:53
Unfortunately for those photos where the
7:55
JPEG is good enough and you'd rather
7:57
save space there's still no way in the
8:00
Photos app to throw away the RAW part of
8:04
a JPEG raw image But that's on Apple not
8:07
Sigma The Sigma BF is a photography
8:09
camera first and foremost The video is
8:13
impressive but you'll only want to use
8:15
it on a tripod This is not an action
8:18
camera nor a vlogging camera The first
8:21
clue is that there's no tople button to
8:25
switch between photo and video Video is
8:27
a mode in a menu that takes five button
8:31
clicks to activate It can capture 4K and
8:34
even 6K video up to 30 fps or 1080p
8:38
video up to 120 fps The continuous
8:42
autofocus works pretty well It can
8:45
automatically and pretty reliably detect
8:47
humans dogs and cats but it struggles to
8:51
track fastmoving objects That's one
8:54
advantage of the iPhone as the Pro
8:56
models have a LAR sensor There's no
8:58
optical nor sensor shift image
9:01
stabilization only digital I shot some
9:03
handheld video with the camera mounted
9:05
in the Moment filmmaker cage and even
9:07
with added grips on the side the video
9:10
was a little too shaky for comfort but
9:12
shooting in 6K gives you the wiggle room
9:15
to stabilize it in Final Cut Pro in post
9:18
without sacrificing resolution The two
9:20
built-in microphones are okay but
9:23
without any way of mounting a windcreen
9:25
their utility is somewhat limited The
9:28
fixed display and 50 mm prime lens are
9:32
two more clues that this is a camera you
9:35
set up and stand behind not hold in
9:38
front of you In pursuit of its radically
9:40
simple design the Sigma BF sacrifices
9:43
many traditional camera elements That's
9:45
right The screen doesn't flip out and
9:47
the camera doesn't have an optical
9:50
viewfinder The display is bright enough
9:51
for me to see on a clear and sunny day
9:54
but you might struggle if your eyes
9:56
aren't as good as mine or if you live in
9:58
a sunnier place than Ohio There's no
10:01
cold shoe mount for attaching a camera
10:03
flash or microphone If those are
10:05
musthaves you'll need to mount it in
10:08
some sort of cage that adds those back
10:10
There's no SD card slot You take
10:13
pictures and videos on the built-in 230
10:15
GB internal storage and that's it I
10:19
appreciate the simplicity I don't have
10:20
to worry about swapping and formatting
10:23
cards through a clunky interface but if
10:26
you're shooting a dayong event it's
10:29
possible you'll run into the internal
10:31
storage limits While it has a standard
10:33
tripod mount on the bottom there's only
10:35
a single attachment for a camera strap
10:37
on the right not the left or the bottom
10:40
limiting the types of straps you can use
10:42
It doesn't tag your photos with location
10:44
data so you'll have to do that by hand
10:47
if you care about such things The
10:49
speakers aren't very loud but again this
10:51
isn't really a video camera so it's fine
10:55
The battery life is a little
10:57
unimpressive I found it drained kind of
11:00
quickly while shooting The focus and
11:02
aperture dials much like the shifter in
11:05
a modern automatic car are a blend of
11:08
physical and digital They're not
11:10
directly mechanically linked to anything
11:13
In automatic mode you can spin them all
11:16
you want and the camera will just ignore
11:18
it In manual mode there's a slight
11:22
latency As smartphone cameras get better
11:24
and more capable every year full-size
11:27
dedicated cameras need to lean into what
11:30
differentiates them to stay relevant As
11:34
Steve Jobs put it himself if a product
11:36
category isn't marketkedly better at
11:39
anything then it has no reason for being
11:42
The Sigma BF is a camera distilled to
11:45
the joy of photography Other cameras
11:48
overcorrect on physical controls until
11:50
you're swimming in dials and buttons
11:53
Learning how to use them all feels like
11:55
studying for the SAT The Sigma BF gives
11:58
you everything you need to have fun
12:00
taking beautiful photos Every dial and
12:04
button is there to help you take
12:06
pictures and feel good doing it And
12:08
there's nothing else Other smartphones
12:11
are more convenient Other cameras are
12:13
more advanced But the Sigma BF is truly
12:17
one of a kind I'm D Griffin Jones with
12:20
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