Sigma has announced the BF mirrorless camera, an interesting and - to an extent - weird compact full-frame that looks strikingly different from any other commercial camera in the same segment.

Sigma went for a radical approach, and the BF is best defined by what it lacks compared to a traditional full-frame camera. It has no electronic viewfinder, no hot shoe for flash or accessories, no memory card slot (it has 230GB of internal memory), and no ports except for a single USB-C. 

That’s all part of Sigma’s plan to distill the act of photography to its essential elements. The shooting mode dial, which Sigma calls a “holdover from the days of film photography,” was replaced with direct access to five fundamental settings: Shutter speed, aperture, ISO, EV compensation, and color mode. The current configuration can be controlled through a small, secondary “Status Monitor,” which displays the currently active setting, while the main display only provides an “unobstructed view of the subject.”

The Sigma BF’s new design deserves a mention in itself. The camera unibody frame is carved from a single block of aluminium, and it takes the company about 7 hours to mill one. The body also lacks a proper grip, a bold choice that prioritizes the design philosophy of the camera over any ergonomic consideration for photographers. 

After all, the Sigma BF is not meant to be a workhorse camera for professional shootings but more of a daily photographic companion for instinctive and simplified shooting with a very high level of image quality.
The BF name has an interesting origin, which adds to the refreshingly unusual approach Sigma applied to this project.

“BF stands for beautiful foolishness,” said Sigma’s CEO Kazuto Yamaki in an interview with PetaPixel. “This is a phrase taken from the very old book — I think probably over a hundred years old — called The Book of Tea by Okakura Tenshin, the Japanese researcher. At that time, he wanted to tell the spirit of the Japanese culture, and we have the tea ceremony. Through the tea ceremony, he tried to tell what the essence of Japanese culture is. In the book, he said: let’s enjoy the time and the beautiful foolishness with a cup of tea. So this camera is for daily use. Daily life is full of joy and nice relaxing time, which he calls the beautiful foolishness.”