Latest news with #BF
Hypebeast
6 days ago
- Automotive
- Hypebeast
Kenny Scharf and Hot Wheels Hit the Gas on "Karbombz" Thunderbird
Summary Ever wanted a piece fromKenny Scharf's 'Karbombz!' series, but couldn't commit to copping a full-sized ride? You're in luck. The graffiti legend is teaming up withHot Wheelsto bring his cosmic chaos to the 1967 Ford Thunderbird – in full and toy-sized versions. The collaboration marks a full-circle moment for Scharf, who grew up in the buzz of LA car culture and, like many, had an obsession with Hot Wheels as a child. The car, titled 'Zooom!,' transforms one of the brand's 'Original 16' models with a cast of fiery red, spray faces. Finished with American Racing 500 Mono Cast wheels and BF Goodrich Silvertown Redline radial tires, the life-sized one-of-one keeps it old school with a pop surrealist twist. The full-sized ride is set to be inducted into the Hot Wheels' Garage of Legends, joining a roster of real-world builds that will go on tour as part of the upcoming Legends Tour. For Hot Wheels fanatics, Scharf collectors and art lovers alike a 1:64 die-cast Hot Wheels version, which will be available forpurchasestarting June 9, 2025. Built with a full-metal chassis and neo-classic wheels, the mini 'Zooom!' will release in two editions: 100 signed ($300 USD) and 100 unsigned ($35 USD). Each comes packaged in an acrylic case on a character-filled base, with a certificate of authenticity and a decorative slipcover. In addition to the art car drop, Hot Wheels will also release a range of wares, adorned with the many faces of 'Zooom!'. Head to the Mattel Creationswebsiteto check out the entire Hot Wheels X Kenny Scharf collection for yourself.
Engadget
16-05-2025
- Engadget
Sigma BF hands-on: Minimal to a fault
In February, Sigma announced the Sigma BF. It's a full-frame, interchangeable lens camera with just a shutter release, a dial and three buttons. That minimalism speaks to me, and I felt the BF was potentially transformative. Photography is one of my favorite hobbies, and I've always felt modern cameras are too complicated. When I received a unit of the Sigma BF to test, I wanted to love it. Unfortunately, it might be too simple. It all starts with the design. The Sigma BF is one of the industry's few unibody cameras. It's carved from a single slab of aluminum, a process Sigma says takes seven hours to complete. The result is a camera unlike any I've used before, with build quality that surpasses either of my current Fujifilm models, the X-E3 and X-S20. Now, I know what you're thinking: The BF looks like an ergonomic nightmare. Surprisingly, it's not too bad, thanks to the inclusion of two beveled edges where your hands meet the bottom of the camera body. Igor Bonifacic for Engadget Still, it's missing a few features that would have made it more comfortable to use, likely due to the limitations of its unibody design. For one, a proper grip would have been nice, especially when you're using a heavy 50mm lens like the one Sigma sent me for testing. The BF is also missing a hot shoe mount, so third-party thumb grips are off the table. Most annoying of all, it only has a single strap eyelet, so if you don't want to use a neck strap, you'll need one that attaches to the camera's tripod mount. I don't own one of those, so I had to carry around the $2,000 BF in my hand the entire time I was using it. You can imagine how that felt. The BF offers a very different shooting experience from your typical digital camera. As I mentioned, it has only a shutter release, a single dial and three buttons (one for powering the camera on and off, one for reviewing your photos and footage and one for accessing the overflow menu). There's also a touchscreen, but you wouldn't know it at first, because other than when selecting a focus point and toggling some options, you won't be using it much while shooting. The BF's one dial is the primary way to interact with the camera. To adjust your exposure, you first press left or right on the dial to cycle to a specific setting, and then spin it to tweak the levels as desired. A second smaller screen above the dial allows you to adjust those parameters without interacting with the main display. Igor Bonifacic for Engadget Alternatively, you can press down on the center of the dial to open the BF's "dual layer" menu system. As the name suggests, Sigma has organized most of what you might need across two levels of menus. For example, say you want to switch the camera from matrix to spot metering. That involves pressing down on the dial, scrolling over to one of the exposure settings, tapping the center of the dial again, and then using your thumb to press the touchscreen and enable spot metering. Accessing most of the settings you'll need won't be as tedious, but this worst case scenario demonstrates where the experience of shooting with the Sigma BF falls short. The BF isn't great for capturing fleeting moments. In ditching most of the physical controls modern cameras are known for, the Sigma BF makes it difficult to change multiple settings simultaneously. I was most annoyed by the BF whenever I wanted to shoot a fast-moving scene. All JPGs taken straight from camera with no editing. On one of my photo walks with the Sigma BF, I saw a father riding a bike with his son in the seat behind him. With my X-E3 or nearly any other camera, capturing that moment would have been simple. I could have changed the drive mode, focus system and shutter speed independently of one another. On the BF, I had to adjust each setting consecutively. By the time I was done, the father and son were long gone. Some of the BF's shortcomings could be addressed if Sigma at least allowed you to edit the quick settings screen to show fewer options. I don't need easy access to change things like the aspect ratio, for example. In 2025, every new camera ships with an overly bloated menu system, and in that regard the Sigma BF is a breath of fresh air. However, allowing the user to make their own tweaks would have made for a much better experience. And that's the thing: With the BF, Sigma breaks camera interface conventions that are conventions for good reason. Let me give you one of the more frustrating examples: The camera inexplicably doesn't offer an easy way to measure the exposure of a scene. There was no meter to indicate whether I was about to under- or overexpose a shot, and I couldn't add one to the main screen. Igor Bonifacic for Engadget The only way I could see a histogram, my preferred method for nailing exposure, was to access the second layer of the interface from one of the capture settings. This is an especially confounding decision because you can half press the shutter to make quick exposure compensation adjustments with the control dial, but as soon as you do, the BF jumps out of whatever menu you were looking at. If digging through menus isn't your thing, there are two live view overlays you can enable to see if you've clipped your shadows or highlights. The first is your usual zebra pattern. The second, which Sigma calls False Color, turns most of the screen grayscale and uses warning colors. Neither felt as precise as a proper exposure meter or histogram. On paper, the BF is a decent camera for video, with support for 6K recording, HEVC encoding and L-Log. Unfortunately, the BF's minimalism is a weakness here too. To start, framing a shot is a challenge since the camera has a fixed screen. Getting usable footage is also tricky. The BF doesn't offer in-body image stabilization, and while there are a few L-mount lenses with built-in stabilization, most wouldn't be practical to use with the BF due to their size and weight. Igor Bonifacic for Engadget If you've gotten this far, you're probably wondering if I have something positive to say about the BF. Well, the best thing about the camera is that it takes genuinely great photos, which is what makes all its shortcomings all the more frustrating. The 24-megapixel, backside illuminated sensor and Sigma's lenses capture and render detail beautifully without being clinical. The BF also has great subject detection autofocus that makes shooting portraits of people and pets easy. The Sigma BF has some interesting ideas about what a camera can look like in 2025, but those ideas are often marred by poor execution. As a first stab at a minimalist camera, the BF has enough going for it, and with refinement, I could see future versions evolving into something special. For example, I'd love to see Sigma find a way to include a flip-out screen in the BF's unibody frame. Until then, $2,000 is a lot to ask for a camera that could be so much more.
India Today
26-04-2025
- Automotive
- India Today
Sigma BF camera review: Minimalistic, fun, and somewhat limiting
Sigma is a brand well-known to photography enthusiasts. But I am going to assume that most people outside this circle of photographers might wonder Sigma what? So, a quick introduction first: Sigma is a company primarily known for making extremely high-quality lenses for cameras sold by Nikon, Sony, Canon and others. Just like those brands, Sigma too is a Japanese brand. Lenses are fine but this is an innovative company. And it is with this spirit of innovation that Sigma has of late started playing with cameras. If you go to their website, you will see three Sigma-made cameras on it. Of them, the Sigma BF is the latest. Just launched globally, this is a camera that is going to formally come to India in BF? Sigma Boy Friend? No, the BF here stands for 'beautiful foolishness', something that PetaPixel highlights in its piece. This is also the phrase, 'beautiful foolishness', that captures the Sigma BF so well. It is beautiful, it is somewhat foolish and I absolutely love it for see, the Sigma BF is a relatively expensive camera. As a body-only option, in India it will sell at a price of Rs 1,99,000. Add a lens to it, and the price goes up. For example, as we reviewed it here — with the 35mm F2 Sigma lens — the camera would cost Rs 1,99,000 plus Rs 63,100 for the lens. That is Rs 2,62,100. Despite its price, I love it! One reason for that is its design. advertisement Designed like an artBy the looks of it, the Sigma BF has that chic vibe that some of us love. It's minimalistic, it is modern and clean. It is also something famed designer Jony Ive might have designed for Apple, had the brand ever decided to launch its own camera. Minimal buttons, a full-aluminium frame — Sigma, in fact, in the BF has gone with an all-aluminium unibody is stunning to look at. In other words, it is a head-turner, and in the ten days I spent clicking photos on Delhi streets and around, I received countless curious glances and questions about what exactly I was holding. Often people saw it, realised that it was a camera and uttered wow!For my review I was using the BF in silver colour — or the natural aluminium colour. But it is also available in the camera looks absolutely gorgeous, design is also about functions and not just looks. At the first glance you will see that it has a lot of things missing. Unlike regular full-frame cameras, it is smaller — but not pocketable — and it lacks those tens of buttons that on other cameras offer direct functionality. Instead, on the BF you can access this functionality only by getting into various options in an unusual design, one good part is the grip. The camera has a dual-finish design — one half is plain matte, while the other has a textured surface, which helps with grip while holding the camera. On top, there's a large circular shutter button on the right corner and two microphone holes in the centre. And that is all. On one side of the camera, there is a USB-C port. On the other side, there are holes for attaching a lanyard — which, by the way, you'll need to buy to the controls on the back, more than half the space is taken up by the LCD screen. This is a 3.2-inch screen. In terms of brightness, it could have been better. Given the design, the screen is fixed. So some more functionality is lost, something that other cameras provide through vari-angle screens. Then you've got just four buttons and a circular control dial. There's also a thumb rest on the I believe, will scoff at the design of the Sigma BF. They are probably too used to tens of buttons, and a particular grip-style. But I believe someone like me, who loves photography but finds the regular cameras too big, hideous and clunky, will love the Sigma BF vibes. Yes, you lose a bit on the convenience and features. But again, you do want to use the Sigma BF more than you would want a regular camera because it has this cool vibe to it. Tricky controlsOf course, there are limits to minimalism. Oversimplification can sometimes make things more complex — and that's exactly what I felt while using the Sigma BF. With fewer buttons and no labels for many of them, I ended up reading the manual first and then testing each button to figure out its this could also be because of muscle memory — from using other cameras that have a more familiar layout. With those, you just know what to do. But the Sigma BF was different, and it took me a while to get used to it. Once I memorised the functions, though, it became quite easy to switch between filters or change camera is a real delight to use if you are someone who wants to click photos more than you want to fiddle with settings. Although, this doesn't mean basic and key controls are not available. You can manually control everything — like shutter speed, aperture, metering, ISO and more. Or you can keep them on auto. But some of the more elaborate functionality such as granular control over speed of shooting, frame rates etc is cumbersome on this camera. This design essentially encourages you to keep the camera on auto most of the time and use it to point-and-shoot. Great photosNow, irrespective of its limitations, one part where the Sigma BF excels is in image quality. As noted earlier, this is not a camera fit for a lot of things — for example its limitation of frame rates (8 FPS) and lack of direct controls means it is not a camera you will want to use to record action such as runners or tigers running towards their prey. Instead, the Sigma BF is meant to be used as an everyday general-purpose camera and as a tool with which you can shoot streets. Photo clicked by Sigma BF camera advertisementMy review unit came with Sigma's 35mm F2 DG lens attached to it. There are other L Mount lenses which can be used with the camera, but I used it with this 35mm. In this role, it primarily functioned as a camera to do street I roamed around in Delhi — in Dilli Haat and Khan Market primarily — I realised that the 24.6-megapixel full-frame sensor in the Sigma BF is nothing short of magic. It is a brilliant sensor that excels in all lighting conditions. I also realised that the 35mm F2 Sigma lens is also at the image samples in this review, as well as image samples embedded here, and you will see that the Sigma BF captures brilliant colours. It even deals with scenes that have dynamic light extremely well. Photo clicked by Sigma BF camera Another bit that worked well as I went around clicking photos is the auto-focus system. It is extremely precise and fast. It also supports subject-recognition and there was not a single photo of a human or animal where the camera did not latch on to the eyes. You show it the eye, and it gets it. And not just gets it but sticks to it as are a number of colour presets in the camera, which make shooting fun. Despite its limitations — such as no SD card slots because of internal memory of around 230GB — and no viewfinder because of the unibody design, I liked using the Sigma BF. Once I was familiar with its controls, it was a joy to use because of the kind of photos it would let me click and because of how good its auto-focus was for daily, street-style see all 18 image samples in full size click on any photo battery, heat issueNow as much as I love the camera, I didn't like its battery life. On this aspect, the Sigma BF is average — and honestly, quite disappointing. On a full charge, after clicking just 50-60 photos, the battery indicator dropped by around 25 per cent. In around one and half of hours of shooting, I would often see the battery deplete to around 15 to 20 per cent. And in Delhi's heat, even during the golden hour in the evening, the aluminium body became noticeably warm. It heats up indoors as well, but in hot outdoor environments, the metal body of the Sigma BF works against BF camera review: Should you buy itDepends. This is a different kind of camera. It is lovely to use it, and it is adorable to look at. But it is also not a very practical tool for serious photographers. But for those who do street-style photography, or those who want another camera to complement their large main mirrorless camera, the Sigma BF makes some Sigma has done with the BF is that they have created a shooter that looks slick and performs great, but within limits. Its sensor, for example, is extremely good. The L Mount lenses are also quite good. But the BF is not as versatile, flexible and powerful as your regular full-frame camera, with similar price, from Nikon or Canon. Do keep that in mind when you look at the Sigma BF and when it tugs at your heartstrings.
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Tell Us How Politics Has Impacted Your Love Life
Hey BF Community! I'm Ashley, a writer at BuzzFeed, advising on all things relationships because they can be MESSY. View this photo on Instagram I'm asking the BuzzFeed Community to tell me about a romantic relationship or dating situation in your life that has been impacted by politics so we can work through it together. Maybe you've been in a situationship for YEARS, but didn't realize their political views were completely different from yours until you heard them discussing Trump's tariffs. Maybe you and your husband have agreed to disagree on politics, but his views on DEI have been causing a strain on your marriage. Or maybe you've been on a handful of dates with a woman you thought was the one, but she revealed that she spent A LOT of money on TrumpCoin, and now you can't look at her the same. If politics has caused issues of any kind in your romantic relationship, I want to hear about it. Share your issue in detail in the comments below, or fill out the form to remain anonymous. Your response could be featured in an upcoming advice column.
Buzz Feed
18-04-2025
- Politics
- Buzz Feed
Tell Us How Politics Has Impacted Your Love Life
Hey BF Community! I'm Ashley, a writer at BuzzFeed, advising on all things relationships because they can be MESSY. I'm asking the BuzzFeed Community to tell me about a romantic relationship or dating situation in your life that has been impacted by politics so we can work through it together. Maybe you've been in a situationship for YEARS, but didn't realize their political views were completely different from yours until you heard them discussing Trump's tariffs. Maybe you and your husband have agreed to disagree on politics, but his views on DEI have been causing a strain on your marriage. Nickelodeon / Via Or maybe you've been on a handful of dates with a woman you thought was the one, but she revealed that she spent A LOT of money on TrumpCoin, and now you can't look at her the same. If politics has caused issues of any kind in your romantic relationship, I want to hear about it. Share your issue in detail in the comments below, or fill out the form to remain anonymous. Your response could be featured in an upcoming advice column.
