The Sigma BF is a beautiful minimalist camera that demands patience and attention

Note: This review was first published on 15 July 2025.

The first camera review I did was way back in 2004 for the daily newspaper I worked for. In the 20 years that followed, I have reviewed all kinds of cameras, from quirky 3D compact cameras to niche digital rangefinders to flagship professional mirrorless cameras like the recent Canon R1.

But the latest Sigma BF (S$2,988, body only) is a camera that even a veteran reviewer like myself can’t quite put my fingers on. Even though it lacks many basic features found in modern digital cameras, I would love to own one. Why? Read on to find out.

Less is More

One of the 10 principles of good design by famed German designer Dieter Rams (who inspired ex-Apple designer Jony Ive) is—“Good design is as little design as possible”.

In other words, good design strips away all the distracting bells and whistles and concentrates only on the essentials. It’s a return to simplicity and purity. And essentially, this is what the boutique Japanese imaging company Sigma have done with their new BF camera.

You see, the BF has a long list of features that are missing. To start, it lacks an electronic viewfinder (which I usually prefer to compose photos). It doesn’t have a hot shoe, any audio ports, built-in flash, or even an articulating screen. It also lacks in-built image stabilisation and—get this—it doesn’t even have a memory card slot. Happily, storage isn’t really an issue since it comes with 230GB of built-in storage, which is good for roughly 14,000 JPEGs or 4,300 RAW files.

What it lacks in features, it makes up for with the way it looks. The BF’s body is carved from a single solid block of aluminium in a process that takes over seven hours. Even the body cap is made of aluminium. The result is an all-metal unibody that weighs just 446g (inclusive battery). More importantly, the overall aesthetic is clean, refined, and so good that there’s no question it’s destined for design museums all around the world in the future.

To my eyes, it’s almost as if Jony Ive is secretly working at Sigma. The minimalistic design ethos goes down all the way to the button layout. Apart from the shutter release button on top, there are only four other buttons—a play button, a power button, an option button, and a multi-functional dial wheel with a centre button. These buttons are all situated at its rear next to a 3.2-inch 2.1-million-dot touchscreen display.

At the back of the camera, a small status monitor sits above the knurled dial wheel and beside a minimal thumb rest. In front, there isn’t much of a grip apart from the knurled texture. Depending on how you hold your camera and how strong your fingers are, you might feel tired holding the BF for long periods. I’m sure accessory makers will be coming up with grips for this camera soon.

At its heart, the BF is a relatively compact camera with a 24.6-megapixel full-frame sensor. It also supports L-mount lenses. The BF is comes in black and silver. For this review, I have the silver BF and I’ve paired it with a silver Sigma 50mm f/2.0 DG (S$938) prime lens. I find the silver model to be better looking, but that’s my preference. Sigma is releasing a few L-mount lenses in silver to complement the silver BF. This particular review setup costs less than S$4,000, which is reasonable considering that it is a full-frame camera with a fast, high-quality prime lens.

Is Essential Enough?

My brief for this review was not to evaluate the Sigma BF as a typical camera, since it isn’t a typical camera. Instead, I was asked to answer this question: “Why would you want to get the Sigma BF when there are cheaper, more user-friendly, and arguably more capable cameras on the market?”

For starters, it’s hard to make a direct comparison because the BF has no obvious rival with a similar feature set or design ethos. However, if judged solely based on price and allure, the closet competitor would probably be the Fujifilm X100V. Even so, this isn’t an entirely fair comparison, considering the X100VI is a fixed lens camera and has a smaller APS-C sensor. The Sigma has a larger full-frame sensor and has an interchangeable lens body.

The closest camera to the BF I can think of is the Leica T/TL series (I reviewed the TL2 in 2017 for The Straits Times), which was released more than a decade ago. Like the BF, these cameras were also carved out of aluminium blocks, but had way more buttons and featured only APS-C sensors.

In other words, I think Sigma has pretty much created a category on its own with the BF, much like Fujifilm has done with its X100 series. But in this case, Sigma did it with a full-frame interchangeable-lens camera.

Being such a beautiful camera, it might be tempting to dismiss the BF as a case of form over function. However, I believe it’s better to evaluate whether a camera designed to be so simple can still perform well in real-life situations.

The handling of the BF is quite different from, let’s say, conventional cameras. I can usually figure out and operate any camera within a minute of it reaching my hands, but I needed more time to master the BF.

Without a mode dial, you need to press the clickable wheel left or right to cycle through the different functions, like the aspect ratio and ISO. Next, check the small status monitor or the main display to confirm your selection. Then, you rotate the dial wheel again to adjust the value of that particular function.

After fiddling around with BF for around a day, I discovered it was best to leave the BF in a sort of “aperture priority” mode by leaving the shutter speed setting in auto. Thereafter, I can manage the aperture by using the aperture ring on the lens to get the right exposure. This way, I was able to get the shot I wanted while I roamed around to do some street photography.

Switching between still and video modes is cumbersome. A dedicated video button would have helped, but then, without IBIS, the BF isn’t a camera that was designed for videography.

Autofocusing of the camera is quite speedy and accurate for most situations. But I don’t think the BF will be fast enough for sports or wildlife photography. I tried but failed to get any decent photos, like I could with my own Canon EOS R7. The best snap I got was the one below of a bird.

As such, using the BF forces you to heighten your situational awareness, pay attention to lighting conditions, and visualise your shot before taking it.

However, in terms of image quality, the Sigma BF is right up there with the big boys. With its 24.6-megapixel full-frame sensor, you can crop any photo by as much as 50% and still pretty much retain the same image quality of the full-frame image, as you can see from the photo below.

The image noise performance is equally stellar. Even when shot at ISO 51,200, noise remained well-controlled despite the presence of some chromatic noise. This is evident from the stray cat I photographed below. You can still see the details of her fur and eyes.

The BF comes with 13 built-in filters, from Teal and Orange to Cinema, that let you achieve your desired look without post-processing. My favourite and most-used filter is Monochrome. It just has that nostalgic black-and-white film look that got me into photography in the first place.

Perhaps the biggest flaw of this camera is its poor battery life. During this review, the BF’s battery level dropped from full to just 40% after shooting just around 200 JPEG stills. In comparison, many full-frame cameras are able to shoot more than 1,000 JPEGs and see their battery levels only drop to 50%.

Thankfully, the BF’s battery is replaceable. So, you can change it if it’s running low and you have an extra battery. Alternatively, you can charge it via its USB-C port using a power bank.

Without a memory card slot, you will need a USB-C cable to transfer the images to your smartphone or computer. It has no wireless connectivity, so Bluetooth or Wi-Fi transfers are out of the question. It is a slight hassle but the process is actually fairly seamless. When it’s connected to your device, it will either show up as a hard drive or appear as a photo gallery. Thereafter, it’s a simple job of selecting the photos you want to import to your device.

To sum things up, the BF isn’t one of those cameras that you just pick up and start shooting with. To get the best out of it, you have to think about what you are trying to achieve and then prepare for it by setting up the camera in the right way and getting into the right frame of mind. It demands attention and focus, and for this reason, it’s not the easiest camera to use. But when you feel its cold milled aluminium body in your hands and when you nail the shot, the feeling of satisfaction is unmatched.

Conclusion

In case you’re wondering, the “BF” in Sigma BF stands for “Beautiful Foolishness”. Inspired by Kakuzo Okakura’s The Book of Tea, it refers to finding beauty in seemingly foolish or insignificant things.

This camera is not designed to make photography easy. Instead, it forces you to go back to basics, to be more aware of your surroundings, and to constantly think about your shot, and to engage with the camera’s controls.

For the same price as the Sigma BF, there are many capable cameras with more ergonomic designs and intuitive controls that produce excellent pictures. However, they lack soul or the “X factor”. They are merely tools with which you take photos, not items that inspire you to partake in photography.

And for me, this is what the Sigma BF is all about. Despite its flaws, it sparks joy in my heart. It’s such a cliche thing to say, but it’s really true, the BF is a camera that makes me want to go out and take photos with it.

So, should you get it? If you are already on a tried-and-tested system like Canon, Nikon or Sony with plenty of their lenses, it might not be an economically viable option.

But if you are jumping into the interchangeable-lens realm with no historical lens baggage, the BF can be a great start with the L-mount system. Even if you decide to move on from the BF in the future, you have the option of venturing forward with the Leica SL and Panasonic DC-S1 series.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the author of The Little Prince, once said: “The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart.” So, go to a shop and take a look at the Sigma BF, and use your heart to see if it’s right for you.

Note: You can find the Sigma BF at Alan Photo, Cathay Photo, M S Color, and TK Foto.