We have some new products to talk about this morning, beginning with Sigma's super-simple new BF, which stands for "Best Friend." Not really, but that's how I'm going to remember it.
Sigma calls it "radically simple" and that appears true. It doesn't use memory cards—it has 230 GB of built-in memory which is enough for 14,000 JPEGs or 4,000+ DNG raw files. It has fewer buttons than a film Leica. The body, machined from solid aluminum, is a rectangular cuboid, but with a difference, in that there are subtle touches here and there to make it more hand-friendly. The menu system has reportedly been simplified and rationalized, and the camera offers a first from Sigma: face recognition for humans and animals.
There are many kinds of simple, and this is simple like a race car car, pared down to essentials. Like my FP, the camera has no viewfinder other than the fixed viewing screen, no mechanical shutter and no image stabilization. The BF is a little taller and significantly wider than the FP, but thinner. It weighs more, but by less than an ounce.
Purpose? To be easy and natural to use, and to get all the feature-creep crud out of the way of just having fun taking pictures. The price is a steep-ish $2k, but this is an "I want it" item, not an "I need this for my business" one—and it's highly unlikely to be the only camera its owners possess—so no complaints. Can't wait to see one!
More news from Sigma
Sigma has also redesigned its logo and brand typeface. And has a new pop-up store in Manhattan to help introduce the Best Friend: 21 Spring Street in Nolita. And has just announced silver chrome versions of all its i-series L-mount prime lenses. (Here's mine, for example. Sporty, no?) And has a new FF super-telephoto zoom, the 300–600mm ƒ/4 DG OS Sports lens, available in Sony E and L-mount, which the company says will equal the image quality of prime lenses in the range. And a new, relatively inexpensive ($699) do-it-all crop-sensor zoom with an almost 19X zoom ratio, in Sony E, Fujifilm X, Canon RF, and L-mount.
Mike
Original contents copyright 2025 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)
Featured Comments from:
Eugene: "Re 'BF'—Sigma CEO Kazuto Yamaki says it stands for 'Beautiful Foolishness.' Ha."
Kenneth Sky: "It's designed for generation Z in the hope of getting them off their smartphones."
Ron Poore: "Wow! it looks like a cleaner and more menu-centric camera than my favorite old Pentax K-01 (which was also over-priced at launch)."
Mike replies: I didn't think anyone remembered the K-01. That was an odd bird!
ChrisC: "It looks like a camera Apple would design if they were to get back into standalone digital cameras."
s. wolters: "Nice attempt to reinvent the camera. Hopefully BF does not stand for Big Failure."
Bryan Geyer: "No EVF = Blatant Failure."
Hurrah for onboard memory - I never understood this memory card thing. Maybe some kind of industry cabal? Oh, I love conspiracy theories!
Camera manufacturers could still provide both, but really if you can't transfer data, wired or wirelessly, either your camera is f****d, or you are a film guy
Posted by: Richard John Tugwell | Tuesday, 25 February 2025 at 12:52 PM
And it's not even April Fool's Day!
Posted by: Dave Riedel | Tuesday, 25 February 2025 at 12:55 PM
If the new Sigma camera's internal memory is corrupted or fails, you've either got a very expensive paperweight or will likely spend quite a bit getting it repaired (assuming it is even repairable), as opposed to just replacing a cheap SD card.
Pass.
Posted by: Ken | Tuesday, 25 February 2025 at 01:48 PM
I salute Sigma (once again) for having the testicular fortitude to create a product from their instincts and hearts. Honestly, though, it's not a design I'm drawn to try. That unforgivingly sharp block body, a flush unmovable rear screen, no evf... it seems inspired mostly by industrial surveillance and inspection cameras rather than an evolutionary spur of current consumer electronic design.
But, hey, that's just me.
Posted by: Kenneth Tanaka | Tuesday, 25 February 2025 at 01:50 PM
I think it is not fair to say the BF is radically simple because it has fewer buttons and dials than a mechanical camera. The mechanical camera had some buttons and dials ... and that is all it had. The BF had buttons and dials ... and a menu system with three pages of menus, and a touch screen.
It is like saying a keyboard with one key is radically simple: it looks like it but you have to learn baudot code to use it.
Probably it is radically simple by the standards of the awful metastatized interfaces people are now used to. But it is not button-per-function-and-only-three-functions.
Posted by: Zyni | Tuesday, 25 February 2025 at 01:54 PM
At last, simplicity at 1/3 Leica prices! Count me in.
Posted by: SWRick | Tuesday, 25 February 2025 at 02:14 PM
The new Sigma BF is certainly intriguing; it reminds me of a full-frame Canon SD1000. Still, I’m not sure. I’d have to play with one and see how that rear LCD does in bright sunlight. But count me interested.
Posted by: Steve Biro | Tuesday, 25 February 2025 at 03:39 PM
From my first digital camera in 2001, there was always a USB cable in the box, for transferring images. Eliminating the card reader reduces manufacturing costs.
Posted by: MikeR | Tuesday, 25 February 2025 at 04:32 PM
Cool industrial design.
Posted by: Bob Rosinsky | Tuesday, 25 February 2025 at 04:50 PM
The Sigma product makes me think of an iPhone-like device with interchangeable lenses. BIG interchangeable lenses.
Posted by: Speed | Tuesday, 25 February 2025 at 07:15 PM
Looks slick and slippery. I would accidentally drop it. If it WiFis or Bluetooths the data to your computer or device, that'll save on having the USB jack replaced when [not if] it wears out. I like Sigma because they have made good and different stuff these last few years. Will this catch on where the Zeiss ZX 1 didn't?
Posted by: Keith B. | Tuesday, 25 February 2025 at 07:28 PM
> Hurrah for onboard memory - I never understood this memory card thing. Maybe some kind of industry cabal? Oh, I love conspiracy theories!
For those of us who'd like our devices to last, it's not wonderful to have built-in a part that will by definition fail, probably sooner rather than later.
Imagine how you'd feel if it came with a built-in battery that couldn't be replaced without disassembling the camera and using a soldering iron?
Posted by: Dave H | Tuesday, 25 February 2025 at 07:57 PM
I guess the foveon sensor is as deceased as a Monty Python parrot.
Pitty. I was particularly piqued by this TOP post. A foveon sensored camera would get me to dust off my wallet.
Posted by: Kye Wood | Tuesday, 25 February 2025 at 08:05 PM
When I first saw this I thought wow, that's interesting. Mike, I have been reading with interest about your setup with your Sigma FP. I think the BF looks like a great minimalist camera, if I had one I would get an M - L lens mount adapter and use my legacy Leica M lenses on it for a compact system that I could take on bike rides or hikes.
Posted by: Gary Nylander | Tuesday, 25 February 2025 at 11:41 PM
Fewer buttons (and no dials) just means doing things via a screen rather than through those physical controls. I don't think of that as simpler and I actually quite like buttons and dials so long as there aren't too many.
Posted by: Chris Bertram | Wednesday, 26 February 2025 at 03:32 AM
No viewfinder.
Hard Pass.
Posted by: William Lewis | Wednesday, 26 February 2025 at 04:44 AM
Everything the BF has is to my liking. But it does not have everything I like. I miss IS and a flip up (and down, please) screen. Just to mention two.
Posted by: Christer Almqvist | Wednesday, 26 February 2025 at 05:46 AM
For those concerned about failing camera memory, how about the memory in the phone you likely carry in your pocket? In my case, my phone's data is automatically downloaded (uploaded?) and saved in "the cloud."
My concerns about failing memory are more about the one that lives between my ears. Of course, I have decades of photos (hard copies and digital) as backup for that.
Posted by: Speed | Wednesday, 26 February 2025 at 06:20 AM
It looks like the difference between Leica vs Sigma is simplicity and functionality vs just simplicity. I suppose that practical functionality pushes the price up 3x.
Posted by: Ilkka | Wednesday, 26 February 2025 at 06:35 AM
Yeah, but...
A lack of buttons does not necessarily mean simple operation. My flashlight has only one button, but requires arcane combinations of long, short, and multiple presses to change the brightness, etc.
The BF seems to have lots of menu choices to wade through. Multiple file formats, film color distortions, all the usual stuff. It's just made more difficult with fewer buttons.
Posted by: Luke | Wednesday, 26 February 2025 at 06:44 AM
Looks like a brutelist ux with all the ergonomics of an office stapler. I’d wager it’s longevity similar to Lytro. But hey, one has to push boundaries…
Posted by: Bob G. | Wednesday, 26 February 2025 at 07:29 AM
Just a warning. IF you want no card cameras, those cameras MUST be fully communicative. Your data shouldn't be living on the camera forever, it should be easily moved elsewhere.
Here's where things get problematic with the current choices: (1) Bluetooth is too slow; (2) Wi-Fi has proven to be poorly developed in the camera world; and (3) if you expect USB connectivity, those cameras with small batteries have to charge/power at the same time as moving data.
Whether you pick #1, #2, or #3, realistically, you need an automatic way of this happening, not a user-intrusive manual sequence.
I've been saying this since 2007, by the way.
Posted by: Thom Hogan | Wednesday, 26 February 2025 at 08:54 AM
Reportedly they can only make 9 bodies a day due to the 7 hour CNC process, so if you do manage to get one, you will be one of the few. Personally, if I wanted a small griplesss full frame L mount camera without a viewfinder, I would probably get the Panasonic S9, which is about $600 less, and comes in your color of choice. But I'm happy to see Sigma still having fun.
Posted by: John Krumm | Wednesday, 26 February 2025 at 10:15 AM
No hot shoe. That is minimalist!
Tom's sansmirror site indicates this camera can go down to ISO 6. I'll be curious to see how photos at that low ISO setting will look.
(https://sansmirror.com/cameras/camera-database/sigma-mirrorless-cameras/sigma-bf-camera-specificati.html)
Posted by: Dave | Wednesday, 26 February 2025 at 12:41 PM
I have several Sigma lenses for my Fuji cameras, and have been impressed by their quality. But I can't figure out why anyone would buy this camera, with all the other choices out there. Anything with a built-in hard drive is asking for trouble -- and you can buy 2TB SanDisk SD cards, with eight times the memory, for $250, so...Furthermore, it's not radically simple. I'll tell you what's radically simple -- I have (right now) three different camera systems, and all of them can be set on "auto" and all you do is press the button. 90% percent of the time, or more, you will do as well as if you'd gone through a laborious set-up. So there's that.
Posted by: John Camp | Wednesday, 26 February 2025 at 01:17 PM
Didn't Leica try this with its TL and TL2?
Posted by: Rick in CO | Wednesday, 26 February 2025 at 08:58 PM
In the voice of Clara Peller, of Wendy's advertising fame, "Where's the grip?"
Posted by: Sal Santamaura | Wednesday, 26 February 2025 at 09:20 PM
My applause for onboard memory seems to have stirred a few people up. Just to say I've never had solid state memory fail on any device, and I'm still using some that are more than 10 years old. I have however had a few memory card failures and even the contacts breaking in one camera. I now keep the card in the camera and transfer any images via USB
Posted by: Richard John Tugwell | Thursday, 27 February 2025 at 02:21 AM
When I look at the BF, and FP before it, I see bodies that would be suited to "slow" work, maybe on tripod, a sort of modern equivalent to 4x5 view or even medium format body, only smaller and lighter. I mentioned this in a comment on Kirk Tuck's blog. I seem to be out to lunch on this one. People seem to enjoy/want the additional friction of auxiliary viewfinders or quirky interfaces. Those things would not be especially bothersome in slow work, but that's not the target market so far as I can tell. I find this odd but then I don't know why we're replacing perfectly good modern automatic transmissions with new CVT or DSG designs.
Posted by: Robert Roaldi | Thursday, 27 February 2025 at 09:54 AM
I love this camera. Seems long overdue to me.
But I won't be buying it, my iPhone 15 Pro Max is my everyday camera.
(I also agree with Thom's take on connectivity)
Posted by: SteveW | Thursday, 27 February 2025 at 11:13 AM
Zeiss did try. We'll see about this one.
Posted by: cheech | Thursday, 27 February 2025 at 11:32 AM
I don't know when I've seen a less appealing camera. It's boxy as an old Argus C3, and as menu-driven as an smartphone. Without an EVF, precision composition is off the table. Handholding without image stabilization, you're usually losing resolution. So you put it on a tripod? That conflicts with the portability this camera implies. Using L lenses, it's probably pretty bulky, too. There's no apparent reason to choose this camera unless you want to be seen with a mysterious monolith hanging from your neck.
Minimalism in all things is getting on my nerves. Less isn't always more; most times, it's just less.
Posted by: John McMillin | Thursday, 27 February 2025 at 09:39 PM
I've preordered one, I'll report on it after it arrives and I get some experience. For me, it'll be a good excuse to get some L-mount lenses, as I await the delivery of the 'just-around-the-corner' Foveon FF (hopefully sometime this decade...).
For transfer of files, it plugs into an iPhone. That seems pretty convenient to me...
Posted by: Jim Kofron | Saturday, 01 March 2025 at 04:51 PM
This is not good design, it is merely style.
Posted by: Robin Parmar | Sunday, 02 March 2025 at 09:01 AM