DIY Photography

Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time

Search

Submit A Story

Sigma is developing small L Mount lenses to go with the Sigma fp

by 15 Comments

The L mount alliance is a funny thing. On one corner of the triangle, you’ve got Panasonic, traditionally known in the digital world for making pretty outstanding and fairly small, Micro Four Thirds cameras. When it comes to their full-frame mirrorless, though, they seem to be about as big as DSLRs, with lenses to match.

But in another corner, Sigma seems to have taken over the reins of small cameras with their Sigma fp. It still has that “big lens” problem, though. Now it looks like Sigma is planning to do something about it, according to an interview with Sigma CEO Kazuto Yamaki by Gizmodo Japan, and is working on some smaller lenses to use with the fp.

[Read More…]

The Sigma fp is a webcam right out of the box

by 7 Comments

COVID-19 got everybody to create and upload content. If you are just using your webcam, you need nothing more. If you want to up the quality, you need a DSLR or a mirrorless camera to utilize the bigger sensors, better lenses and nicer overall look.

Most “serious” cameras, though, can not operate as webcams and need a gizmo called a capture card. It’s a device that turns your camera’s HDMI output into a stream that a computer can take via its USB port. Elegato HD60 series (ranging from $179 to $350) is a family of such devices for example.  But! Sigma took the Sigma fp a step further and you can use it as a webcam right out of the box. Sigma’s blog details the exact steps to use the fp as a webcam.

[Read More…]

Sigma fp mirrorless camera to receive HDR, cinemagraphs and 120fps RAW video capability

by 1 Comment

Sigma was expected to make some big announcements during the cancelled CP+ event last month. Initially, it was suspected that it might be the company’s long-awaited L mount Foveon camera, but those hopes were soon dashed. Sigma hasn’t forgotten about their Bayer sensor L mount camera, though, the Sigma fp.

A new Version 2.00 firmware update for the Sigma fp has been announced and will be released at some point during “summer 2020” (they haven’t gotten any more specific than this yet). The update promises to add some cool new features including 120fps CinemaDNG RAW, cinemagraph and HDR shooting, amongst others.
[Read More…]

How I shot Sigma’s promotional photos for the Sigma fp

One of the things I enjoy about photography is creating product images, my good friends at Sigma Imaging UK recently asked me to create some images for a new promotion.  I wanted to take some time to go over how I created these images in the hope to inspire others.

The first step was to visualize a way to display the promotion creatively since it was two different options of free accessories you could claim when buying the camera I decided to create two images of each option with the Sigma fp in the frame.  This way people can see exactly what was on offer.

[Read More…]

Keeping it small, using rear filters for the Sigma 14-24 f2.8 Art DG DN

by 4 Comments

A while ago Sigma joined the L mount alliance along with Panasonic and Leica.  Although it wasn’t really till recently that we started to see the true results of this collaboration when Sigma released their new fp camera.  They also released several “designed for mirrorless” lenses like the 14-24 f2.8 Art DG DN. Those lenses are both smaller and lighter than their DSLR counterparts.

One of the new features of the 14-24f2.8 Art DG DN lens is the built-in rear filter holder. It allows you to lock in a gel filter, which you can cut using the template provided with the lens.

This is a relatively inexpensive way to reduce the amount of light coming into the camera. I used to cut ND gels to fit into my MC-11 adaptor and while they worked, the gels could easily scratch, bend and crease, while also reducing image quality a little. I don’t know, maybe it was the particular ND gel I used.

What if you wanted something that is more durable with better optical performance, but without needing a huge 150mm filter system to attach onto the front of the lens?

Introducing the Kase rear filter set designed exclusively for the Sigma 14-24 f2.8 Art DG DN.

[Read More…]

Sigma fp to receive LOG profile and RAW over HDMI video next year through firmware update

by Leave a Comment

Our friends at Cinema5D had the chance to chat with Sigma recently at Inter Bee 2019 in China. Naturally, they chatted about the Sigma fp mirrorless camera. If you’ve not been keeping up, the fp is a camera capable of shooting full-frame 12-Bit CinemaDNG RAW. But those are huge files. So, other options are required for those who want to keep file sizes down or to be able to record RAW to an external device like the Atomos Ninja V.

Sigma says during the interview that a future firmware update coming in 2020 will add a LOG picture profile, and provide RAW video output over HDMI. They also say that if you do choose to shoot CinemaDNG, you will be able to play it back in-camera – something it can’t currently do.

[Read More…]

Sigma CEO: we will make smaller lenses, but bigger cameras

by 13 Comments

Over at Saloon De La Photo in Paris, Sigma held a quick Q&A session with Mr. Kazuto Yamaki, CEO of Sigma. There is a wonky angle capture of this talk, if you want to see the entire thing (starts about  40 minutes into the video). It is a long session, with many interesting questions, but photographer Paul Monaghan took a few key notes from this session and allowed us to share them.

The first take is that the new up-coming full-frame Foveon will not be in the FP format:

[Read More…]

Here’s how Sigma builds the fp – the world’s smallest full frame mirrorless camera

by Leave a Comment

I always love Johnnie Behiri’s behind the scenes looks at how the kit we used is made. He recently treated us to a look inside the Fujifilm factory to see how they make the GFX 100 (and Part 2), but now he’s gone back to Japan to see how Sigma builds the Sigma fp – the world’s smallest full-frame mirrorless camera.

[Read More…]

The Sigma FP tops the sales board for Japanese retail giant Yodabashi Camera

by 7 Comments

Well, this is a bit of a surprise. Sigma appears to have finally made a camera that’s a sales hit. At least for Japanese retailer Yodabashi Camera. Yodabashi Camera is one of the largest camera retailers in Japan, with online sales second only to Amazon. Their latest report says that for the last two weeks in October, the Sigma FP was their most sold camera, ousting Sony from the top spot.

[Read More…]

First look at the Sigma FP pocket camera

by 2 Comments

Granted, it’s not much of a pocket camera once you stick one of those L mount Art series lenses on it, but the Sigma FP is still a pretty tiny camera. It represents Sigma’s first L mount camera in the Sigma/Leica/Panasonic alliance announced at Photokina 2018. It’s not quite the full-frame Foveon beast we hoped for, but it still looks pretty good.

We caught up with Sigma at PhotoPlus 2019 to find out more about the Sigma FP and what it can do.

[Read More…]

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Recent Posts