When you use DPReview links to buy products, the site may earn a commission. The Sigma BF isn't a template all other cameras should follow – there are plenty of times a camera designed around a viewfinder is valuable – but it's a fascinating take on what a picture-taking device can be.
Photo: Al Power
No, I'm not trolling you. If I'd wanted to just prompt incredulous or angry comments, I'd have opted for the Sony RX1R III: a camera I genuinely really like, but recognize only appeals to a very narrow group of photographers that happens to include me.
The Sigma BF is simply a really good camera. This may not be obvious if you can only view it from the perspective of how other cameras work, but if you're able to put your preconceptions to one side and try to look at things anew, it's a consistently elegant piece of design. And I don't just mean the eye-catching body.
Ignore the looks, look beyond the basic specs and stop worrying about how many dials you think a camera should have. Ask yourself, instead, what is a camera for? It's to take pictures, perhaps to inspire or encourage you to take pictures, and to capture the light emerging from the scene as best it can.
Completely aside from the exterior design, the ability to shoot more true-to-life images without having to switch modes or worry about compatibility would probably be enough to make the Sigma my Gear of the Year.
Photo: Richard Butler
Most modern cameras are built on well-established conventions. They may have done away with the mirror and the film, but a lot of them are still shaped like SLRs from one end or other of the 1980s. Or, perhaps, they resemble 1960s rangefinders, but they're all products of established thinking. They are a series of decisions made long ago, repeated out of habit with any new ideas and features (often clumsily) lumped into already overwhelmed menu systems.
Opinion: the Sigma BF is not the revolution I'd hoped for, but the effort that's gone in it is obvious
After a flurry of experimentation in the early 2000s, cameras settled back into a series of familiar shapes and archetypes. And, right back to some of those early models, they shot 8-bit JPEG images designed for printing or viewing on the CRT monitors of the day.
The Sigma questions all of this. It isn't designed to fit in with the established camera aesthetic, its interface isn't an outgrowth of design decisions made twenty years ago and it doesn't think photos are solely about prints or playback on a type of monitor people no longer have.
Instead, it's a body designed to appeal to people who don't think of themselves as photographers. It doesn't obscure your view of the scene behind a bewildering head-up display of incomprehensible icons, but instead is designed to just show you your framing. And it shoots images optimized to make the most of modern displays and phones.
We've been stuck using standard-DR JPEGs since the dawn of digital. Almost all modern cameras have an option to capture true HDR imagery, but do so in the HEIF format that remains poorly supported and awkward to share. The BF shoots HDR photos with every shot, and embeds this additional tonal information into otherwise standard JPEGs, so you have universal compatibility with added vibrancy and realism when viewed on an increasing number of modern devices.
Technology: the Sigma BF brings a breakthrough for photography
This 'Ultra HDR JPEG' approach has also been adopted by Google for its Pixel phones, and is central to the marketing push behind Hasselblad's X2D II camera (which takes the extra step of providing an HDR-capable rear monitor). In any other year, the Hasselblad might have been my Gear of the Year for this feature alone, but it was just one element of what makes the Sigma so original.
I was asked, when I first wrote about it, whether I was only excited by the Sigma because it's a refreshing change after nearly twenty years of using and writing about cameras that, for better and worse, operate in a broadly similar manner. It's a question I'd already asked myself while I was using the camera. I genuinely believe it's not.
Photo: Al Power
None of which is to say the BF is perfect. The interface would definitely benefit from another round of refinement, now it's been in more people's hands. Image stabilization would certainly be a benefit, as would a faster sensor, better suited to use without a mechanical shutter. A less sharp lip along the leading edge of the camera and a less comically small battery wouldn't go amiss, either.
Experience: What's the most interesting camera of 2025 like to live with?
Ultimately, though, these Gear of the Year articles aren't necessarily meant to be about the best equipment released in any given year, but the one we had an enjoyable or memorable experience with, and the BF excelled in that regard. Not just because it accompanied me on some enjoyable travels, not just because it's interesting, but because, when I looked back at my photos to write this article, they really jumped out at me.
I liked this photo already: well worth all the antihistamines I had to take to take to visit a pub with cats, but downloading it and viewing it on my phone recently made me realise I'd never seen it in full HDR. Download it, look closely in the cats' eyes and tell me the BF doesn't make sense.
Sigma 35mm F2 DG | F2. 2 | 1/40 sec | ISO 250
Photo: Richard Butler
I published a gallery of images from the Sigma before we discovered is HDR feature, and I realised I'd not gone back and re-examined my shots on an HDR display. All of a sudden, the steam rising from the Punjabi meal I'd enjoyed in London caught the sunshine again, making my mouth water; the eyes of the pub cat I'd photographed glowed a liquid green to grab my attention. The photos I already knew were illuminated afresh.
Richard's Sigma BF sample galleries:
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2025-12-4 18:00
