Latest news with #SigmaBF
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
22-04-2025
- Lifestyle
- Yahoo
What's the most interesting camera of 2025 really like to live with?
When you use DPReview links to buy products, the site may earn a commission. During the three weeks I've been shooting with the Sigma BF, a surprising number of people asked me what I thought of it. I'm not necessarily going to suggest you should go out and buy one, but I can honestly say I really enjoyed it. Partly because it prompted me to think more about the photos I was taking than I have done in a long time. In principle I was on vacation, but I thought it might be an opportunity to rekindle my love for photography, distinct from my job that requires that I take photos all the time. Winters in Seattle are particularly hard: the skies are reliably gray and I've lived here long enough that I'm rarely surprised by a photo opportunity I've not noticed before. For the past few years, all my best sample galleries have been shot while traveling. Buy now: Buy at Adorama Buy at B&H Photo Buy at B&H Photo So I set myself a challenge: in keeping with Sigma's claims that the Sigma BF is intended as a device to help you capture everyday life, I decided to try to take at least one photograph every day, to document my trip. There are very few contexts in which you can use this combination of words, but the Sigma BF proved it to be an almost perfect tool for the job. I should start by saying that I failed the 'one photo a day' challenge I'd set myself. I arguably failed it in two ways: there were a couple of days where, either due to spending the day in transit, or because I was catching up with friends, I decided to leave the camera in my shoulder bag. But I failed in the opposite way, too: although the challenge was to take one photo a day, there were days on which I couldn't narrow things down to a single photo. For instance, a day spent shooting with a friend from the the Oxford Flickr group (circa 2007) meant shooting too diverse a range of images to be able to limit myself to a single shot. It was one of those days where the act of having a camera with me prompted me to recognize a wealth of photo opportunities I'd have otherwise missed. Sample gallery This widget is not optimized for RSS feed readers. Click here to open it in a new browser window / tab. Meeting up with an old photography friend, in the midst of his black-and-white photo challenge, meant I shot far more than my photo-a-day target. Photos: Richard Butler And I'm quite comfortable with these failures: the 'one photo a day' concept was meant to be a source of motivation: not a chore. There was no room in my luggage for a straightjacket. On which subject, I think there was only one occasion on which I found myself feeling restricted by the choice of the Sigma: it was a grabbed shot of a vintage bus, which I was hoping to take for a friend who loves historical transport. It started to pull away in the same instant I'd decided to take a photo. The camera turned on quickly enough but, in the split second I had to adjust the shutter speed to cope with the bright sunshine and its sudden movement, I turned the dial the wrong way, made my overexposure worse and missed the moment. The rest of the time, the BF felt like the right tool for the job. Its exposure-focused interface and pleasantly clutter-free screen constantly asked the questions: "what are you trying to photograph, and how do you want to capture it?" It constantly asked "what are you trying to photograph, and how do you want to capture it?" I packed the BF, a 35mm F2, 24mm F3.5 and 90mm F2.8 into a small bag I could hang off my shoulder, pretty much all the time. There was still room to carry a warm scarf or a jumper, along with my sunglasses: the essentials for spring in the UK, so carrying a bag felt necessary, rather than burdensome. For me, these lenses made an excellent trio. I quickly grew to love the outrageous vignetting of the 24mm, rarely bothering to engage corrections and instead often adding a similar effect to some of my 35mm shots, using the in-camera processing. The 90mm makes an excellent portrait option, letting me capture friends and strangers alike and, like the 24mm, is a suitable small, lightweight addition to the camera body. There are a couple of ways in which Sigma could improve the BF, and I've sent some feedback, following my trip (why isn't it quicker/easier to toggle a setting between automatic and manual control, for instance). But overall, I found the considered approach to shooting that it demands was exactly what I needed to remind myself what sets photography as a hobby apart from smartphone snap shooting. The Sigma BF isn't trying to be a rival or a substitute to most of the cameras on the market, and if judged on their terms, it comes up short. But as a device for encouraging you to capture the world as you pass through it, and engage with the process of doing so, it's an absolute delight. Irrespective of its looks, the way it's so focused on exposure, composition and nothing else is inspiring. Despite what you might assume, if you've not used it, the user interface isn't a series of compromises to fit with the camera's minimalist look, it's an original and seriously-considered attempt to answer the question: 'what do you really need to take photos?' It makes Leica's very exposure-focused UI look cluttered and conventional by comparison, though it's unarguably a little slower and occasionally fiddly, if time's against you. What kept catching me off-guard is how good the autofocus is, both in performance and implementation. I was able to leave the camera in AF-C, knowing that eye detection would do its job if there was a person in the photo and that tapping on the screen would focus on something specific if I wanted, even if I continued to adjust my composition. As with the rest of the interface, it's not a complex system that can be adapted to cope with every possible eventuality: it's a system that's so simple but effective that you don't need to think about it, for the type of photography the BF is intended for. Buy now: Buy at Adorama Buy at B&H Photo Buy at B&H Photo Overall, I loved my time with the BF. A little like the Fujifilm X100 series, it's one of the few cameras it might make sense for me to buy, because it's not trying to do the same thing as most of the cameras I have to use for my job. It's the unusual, though-provoking (and, apparently, comment-worthy) device that lets me capture my life in the gaps between having to take photos for work. Putting together a gallery while on vacation usually risks being something of a busman's holiday. And yet despite spending a couple of weeks constantly thinking about photography, I've arrived back in the office refreshed and ready to see what's arrived in my absence. Sample gallery This widget is not optimized for RSS feed readers. Click here to open it in a new browser window / tab. *Approximately
Business Wire
22-04-2025
- Automotive
- Business Wire
Kyocera Integrates HAPTIVITY ® Technology into Sigma BF Mirrorless Camera
KYOTO, Japan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Kyocera Corporation (President: Hideo Tanimoto; 'Kyocera') announced today that HAPTIVITY ®, its proprietary tactile technology that replicates realistic touch sensations, has been integrated into the Sigma BF, a full-size mirrorless camera to be released this month. This is the first application of HAPTIVITY ® in a mirrorless camera. HAPTIVITY® is a groundbreaking technology that harnesses Kyocera's piezoelectric ceramic vibrating elements to create truly immersive tactile sensations. Biomechanically engineered vibration waveforms provide tactile feedback by stimulating neural receptors in the user's fingertip, providing physical verification when a button is depressed and released — or even simulating the feel of a physical button where none exists. Kyocera's HAPTIVITY® technology integrates seamlessly into Sigma BF's three recessed rear buttons (Function Dial, Options, and Playback — including the dial's up, down, left, and right touchpoints), for accurate, comfortable, intuitive operation. Haptic feedback ensures reliable performance by enhancing user confidence and avoiding duplicate commands. Kyocera envisions a future where HAPTIVITY® becomes a ubiquitous, high-performance tactile technology. With its piezoelectric ceramic vibrating elements, HAPTIVITY® has the potential to revolutionize consumer and automotive applications as an essential component of the next-generation human-machine interface. It can improve the user experience for any device having physical buttons, or having screens and panels designed to provide tactile feedback. *HAPTIVITY is a registered trademark of Kyocera Corporation. Kyocera's patented tactile transmission technology optimally controls pressure detection, reproduction of the feeling of pressing a mechanical button, and vibration activation using a combination of piezoelectric elements, vibration amplification mechanisms, control circuits, and software. Features of HAPTIVITY ® 1. Excellent vibration response HAPTIVITY® uses a piezoelectric ceramic vibrating element with excellent touch-response, delivering physical feedback that instantly confirms user input and eliminates duplicate commands. 2. Realistic tactile feeling A mechanical button delivers two sensations: on press, and on release. Conventional tactile technology generates a single sensation (when pressed), which differs from the tactile feeling of a button. In contrast, HAPTIVITY® generates an initial vibration when pressed, and a second vibration when released, providing a more realistic button sensation. 3. Tactile confirmation improves operation Immediate tactile feedback confirms user input instantly, ensuring reliable operation and eliminating ambiguity. This makes HAPTIVITY® ideal for demanding applications, including mobility, telemedicine, and industrial equipment. 4. Recessed buttons save space, increasing design freedom HAPTIVITY® facilitates compact, thin, flat designs, allowing recessed buttons that promote space-saving and greater freedom of design. Details of "HAPTIVITY" About Kyocera Kyocera Corporation (TOKYO:6971, the parent and global headquarters of the Kyocera Group, was founded in 1959 as a producer of fine ceramics (also known as 'advanced ceramics'). By combining these engineered materials with metals and integrating them with other technologies, Kyocera has become a leading supplier of industrial and automotive components, semiconductor packages, electronic devices, smart energy systems, printers, copiers, and mobile phones. During the year ended March 31, 2024, the company's consolidated sales revenue totaled 2 trillion yen (approx. US$13.3 billion). Kyocera is ranked #874 on Forbes magazine's 2024 'Global 2000' list of the world's largest publicly traded companies, and has been named among 'The World's 100 Most Sustainably Managed Companies' by The Wall Street Journal.
New York Times
11-04-2025
- New York Times
This $2,000 Mirrorless Camera Is Beautiful, Simple, and Exasperating
The Sigma BF is all hard edges and offers minimal grip. Michael Hession/NYT Wirecutter It's a pain to hold. The BF's control scheme may be refreshingly straightforward, but it's accompanied by some baffling ergonomic decisions that suggest Sigma's engineers were a little too focused on form over function. For one thing, the BF's precisely machined aluminum edges are surprisingly sharp. They won't cut you, but they aren't comfortable over a long day of shooting. On top of that, the front side of the camera offers no grip, aside from a diamond pattern etched into the metal, and it has just a small lip for your thumb on the rear. I found that lip unexpectedly useful, but nevertheless I almost always found myself carrying the BF by the lens barrel when I wasn't actively shooting. Doing so simply felt more natural and comfortable. Even more frustrating is the fact that the screen doesn't tilt or articulate in any way. It's fixed, like that of an early digital point-and-shoot. And it doesn't get especially bright: On a cloudless New Mexico winter day, I bumped it up to the maximum brightness setting, and the battery promptly drained before my very eyes, which were still fighting horrendous glare just to make out the image on the screen. This camera calls for a pancake lens or two. Unfortunately, there is just one tiny lens available for L-mount, and it has a rather restrictive f/8 fixed aperture. Most L-mount lenses are chunky and heavy, which leads to a front-heavy feeling on a small body like the BF. Even the smallest i-series Sigma lenses, such as the 17mm f/4 and 45mm f/2.8, are all metal and thus fairly heavy for their size. That gives confidence in their build quality but doesn't lead to the best shooting experience with this camera. I encountered a few image-quality issues. Although I loved the BF's output in general, I did notice a few problems that Sigma may or may not be able to address with firmware updates. To start with, the automatic white balance and exposure both got fooled on several occasions, delivering overly warm color rendering under mixed incandescent and LED light, blowing out bright areas in some shots taken under noonday sun, or delivering unusually dim results in others. In this scene, the BF's automatic white balance skewed heavily toward warmer colors under indoor lighting. Ben Keough/NYT Wirecutter And here, it blew out my dog's face, destroying detail in her white fur. Ben Keough/NYT Wirecutter In this scene, the BF's automatic white balance skewed heavily toward warmer colors under indoor lighting. Ben Keough/NYT Wirecutter I also noticed some moiré patterns with certain i-series lenses. That result speaks to their sharpness, and it isn't particularly surprising considering Sigma's choice of a sensor lacking a low-pass antialiasing filter, but it also leads to less than desirable JPEGs in certain scenarios. Other cameras without antialiasing filters manage to avoid this issue, so hopefully Sigma can correct it. Finally, I experienced some issues with the rendering of JPEG files on macOS. Specifically, when using the Preview app to examine JPEG files, I found that highlights sometimes appeared extremely blown out, almost posterized. I didn't see this problem in DNG files or in the same JPEGs when I opened them in a third-party app like Photoshop, so this seems to be a problem related specifically to macOS system-level rendering, perhaps due to the fact that the BF outputs 10-bit JPEG files, as opposed to the more standard 8-bit variety. JPEGs from the BF rendered oddly on macOS in the Preview app. Note the posterization around my dog's eyes and feet. Ben Keough/NYT Wirecutter The camera has no viewfinder and gives you no way to add one. The screen issue wouldn't be a serious problem if the BF had a viewfinder, but it doesn't. It also lacks a hot shoe (or even a cold shoe), so you can't add an electronic or optical viewfinder accessory. And since it has no wireless connectivity, you can't use your phone as a viewfinder, either. This is a huge miss. You can forget about image stabilization. The Sigma BF doesn't include in-body image stabilization, as many other mirrorless cameras do. That wouldn't be problematic if Sigma's L-mount lenses were optically stabilized, but only its extreme telephoto zooms have that feature. As a result, this camera is harder to use in low-light situations than many of its rivals, and it has to rely on higher ISO sensitivity settings to compensate for its inability to shoot at slower shutter speeds. Panasonic and Leica (the two other major lens makers in the L-mount alliance) do offer stabilized glass, but Leica lenses are prohibitively expensive for most people, and the only stabilized, non-telephoto lenses that Panasonic produces are the Lumix S 28–200mm f/4–7.1 Macro OIS (3.7 inches and 0.9 pounds) and Lumix S 24–105mm f/4 Macro OIS (5 inches long and 1.5 pounds). Neither lens is a particularly good match for the tiny BF. The battery life is atrocious. Sigma suggests that you can expect to get about 280 shots out of the BF on a full charge. Judging from my experience, that claim seems optimistic—especially if you have to boost the screen brightness. Shortly after receiving the camera, I took it for a 20-minute walk around my neighborhood and watched with growing anxiety as the battery level dropped by 20%. You have a few ways to mitigate the battery drain: You can tap the power button to put the camera into sleep mode or long-press it to turn the camera off completely. I found that the battery still drained, slowly, in sleep mode, but turning it off between shots was a great way to eke out more life. As usual, we recommend picking up another battery or two if battery life is a concern for you. Michael Hession/NYT Wirecutter Seriously … why is there only one strap lug? This one we don't understand at all. Dual strap lugs are a standard feature on serious cameras. Only the cheapest disposables tend to come with a single point to attach a strap, and that makes sense there since those cameras are so lightweight and, well, disposable. For a solid-aluminum camera that costs $2,000 and weighs a full pound without a lens? Yeah, nah. Having just one strap lug basically forces you to use a wrist or hand strap rather than a neck strap, which means one of your hands is always occupied while you're walking around with this camera. I happen to be a fan of wrist straps, even with a heavier camera like this, but why remove the choice?
