What is it about the Sigma fp that makes it desirable to a certain segment of photographers?

Small, visually boring from the front. Indestructible. Capable and 

anonymous. No big logo on the front of this camera. Nothing you'd 

need to cover up with black tape. This one is already "stealthy."

The Sigma fp is such an interesting product. It's small, hard to hold without an add-on grip. Bereft of the usual popular features (it's contrast AF only, no eye level finder, no weird picture modes, pixie battery life, L mount only, and a scandalously thin menu system). On the other hand it can shoot RAW 4K video to an attached SSD. And on the other, other hand it has color like no other camera I've used. 

I think the camera is sexy, desirable and niche-y precisely because it's a specialized tool that's more about taking great images than it is about making everything super easy for photographers. Yeah. You have to work with the fp to get what you want. But when you do get what you want it sings beautifully. 

How else can you explain that two photographers who represent the opposite ends of the aesthetic and technical spectra; Kirk Tuck and Michael Johnston, can agree so wholeheartedly about a camera that each uses to create images so different from the other?

I bought mine when they were first announced. Well, at least when they were first available. That was back in early 2020. I've probably shot 30,000 frames with the camera and rarely use it at all for video. A minor breakthrough for me was when I got progressive lens eyeglasses and decided that it would be okay to forego an eye level finder and use the rear LCD for all my composition, etc. I gave up thinking about getting the EVF and, when I use the camera for work stuff I'm just fine using the gigantic loupe that Sigma made for the camera. 

When I use the camera for fun (most of the time) I like to strip it down to the barest essentials and work that way. It makes sense because in its most distilled form, using no loupe or EVF, and no grip, just the original 45mm lens (without even a lens hood) it looks so much like a point and shoot camera to most people. And it's most people that I want to photograph when I'm out and around. Not camera lovers. Also, I am finding out, belatedly, that most people absolutely ignore you if you are going full amateur and are composing on a rear camera screen with the camera held out in front of you in your outstretched arms. 

But since the fp is easily as good as a Leica, at least as far as image quality is concerned, that anonymity is like a super power hand delivered by this camera in spades. I used mine all weekend out on the streets here in Austin and the people I pointed the Sigma fp at rarely acknowledged that it was even there. Much less that I was taking their photograph. No "stranger danger" with a bland looking, small camera.

But there is another side to the fp. It's that the sensor is magnificent and the color science is just right --- for me. Sometimes I use the fp in a totally different configuration. On a tripod. With Leica glass on the front. With the big loupe on the back. And I use it this way to make product photographs and lit, studio portraits --- even environments portraits. And, as Michael Johnston has written at least several times, when used this way it's his modern version of a view camera. Control, control, control. 

I used to bitch about the battery life but I gave up caring. There are so many high quality battery options for this camera. And they are, for the most part, inexpensive. They are also the same type of battery that powers the Leica CL camera and generations of Panasonic cameras. You can pick up serviceable batteries for $20 and vetted, Sigma batteries for around $45. Problem solved. Just bring a Baggie(tm) full of the batteries when you go out to shoot. 

And you can just imagine how incredibly cute and seductive this metal,  rectangular box looks when you use it with Leica M lenses on it. Eye-watering goodness.   

 

sometimes. Most of the time, it's just a walking around camera. 

A snapshot camera with the potential to gobsmack pixel peepers. 

the Sigma fp dressed up for work. Ready to go into the office or to 

work from home. Configured here with the Sigma 24-70mm f2.8 Art lens, 

a Sigma handgrip and the infamous loupe.

You know that curved building on the edge of the lake in downtown 

Austin that I seem to enjoy photographing all the time?

Well, here's what it looked like in its infancy about four or five

years ago. Acres of rebar and a deep, deep pit. 

Yes. The fp can do "monochrome" and it doesn't even 

need to be converted. But if you're feeling rich then buy one, send it 

off and you can have a custom version. 

Used an fp late last year on a photo shoot for a national 

accounting firm. Environmental portraits in the office space. 

It worked really well for that. Really well. 

Skin tones are delightful right out of the camera. 

I've used a lot of top-of-the-line cameras but none of them have exuded the sheer "personality" of the fp. You either love it or you use it for a week, sell it and then curse me for months for having written so much nice stuff about it. 

It's not a universal camera. It's not an all purpose tool for someone who is constantly doing different kinds of assignments. Rather, it's a specialized camera for someone who already has a different system for fast moving work; a person with fast focusing needs. And you definitely need a second system if  your work entails using flash --- pretty much at all. But, if you've got other working cameras and you find them boring or too easy to use and you need some friction in your process this is for you. Just be aware that having some friction in the process doesn't mean the camera doesn't have the potential to make great images, it's just that getting them into the camera is pretty much all on you. It's not a camera with training wheels that's there to save you. It's willing if you are capable. 

I don't always nail everything I shoot with the fp but that's what makes it fun for me. It's the challenge. But a challenge with outsized rewards. 

In many ways it's the anti-Sony. And that's okay with me.

These are just my opinions. I don't make money having opinions about cameras. There are no links here. We don't sell cameras either. Nope, Sigma didn't give me a camera (but I wish they'd give me a second fp, just for back-up) or a car or a trip to Spain. I'm writing about the camera because I really like using it and think it's largely been marginalized by doltish "influenzers" with contagious and flawed points of view. Mostly driven by a desparate need for cash. So, take it all with a grain of salt but be aware that I'm not trying to separate you from a tiny fraction of your net worth just to rationalize my own purchase of a wildly eccentric but wonderful camera. Your mileage will most likely vary. But that's okay too. More for me.