Camera
The vivo X60 Pro+ might be the best smartphone out there for photographers – if you can find one
Have you ever wondered what would happen if a smartphone manufacturer put nearly all of its research and development funds into developing the ultimate camera system for its flagship device? The resulting phone might look a lot like the vivo X60 Pro+. This device, which was made in partnership with Zeiss, features a four-camera array, including ultrawide, 1x, 2x and 5x periscope camera modules, as well as LIDAR focusing and top-of-the-line optical image stabilization technology.
The vivo X60 Pro+ is a flagship smartphone and while it does lack some features you might expect from a range-topping device nowadays (such as Qi wireless charging, an ultra-high-resolution display and robust IP-ratings for dust and water resistance), the X60 Pro+ makes up for those omissions with what may very well be the best camera array on any smartphone.
Key specifications:
- Main camera (1x, rear): 50 MP 1/1.3-inch GN1 sensor, 23mm equiv. F1.57
- Ultra-wide (0.6x, rear): 48 MP ultra-wide gimbal camera, 14mm equiv. F2.2 (114º AOV)
- 2x telephoto camera (2.2x, rear): 32 MP sensor, 50 mm equiv. F2.08
- 5x telephoto camera (5.4x, rear): 8 MP sensor, 125 mm equiv. F3.4
- Selfie cam (1/2.8″,0.8µm): 32 MP, 26mm equiv. F2.5
- 4320p/30 fps, 2160p/60 fps, 1080p/60 fps video
- 5-axis video stabilization, HDR10+ video recording
When it comes to where the vivo X60 Pro+ fits in the company’s lineup, and how you can get hold of one, it gets a little confusing. The X60 Pro+ is the flagship, sitting above the similarly-named X60 and X60 Pro, but there’s a new X60t Pro+ that swaps out the sensor behind the 50mm equiv. lens. All the devices were launched with different model numbers in different regions at different times, with some features and specs across regions being limited.
The device we have for review is the global version of the X60 Pro+ (model V2074), which appears to be available to purchase only through online retail platforms such as AliExpress and eBay, with prices ranging from ~$900 to $1,300. We have contacted vivo for additional information on availability, but have not received a response as of the time of publication.
Something else to keep in mind when purchasing an X60 Pro+ is that although the global version of the device does have 5G connectivity, it only supports certain bands. You can find out which 5G and LTE (4G) bands inside the X60 Pro+’s modem are supported in your region using this tool from Kimovil.
Externals
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From the front, the X60 Pro+ bears a striking resemblance to Samsung’s S20 lineup, complete with a ‘punch hole’ selfie camera, curved display and and even the same button layout—a volume rocker and the power button, both one-third of the way down on the right-hand side. The frame of the device is constructed of a blue-anodized aluminum that matches the faux ‘vegan’ leather on the back of the device that, surprisingly, feels and looks almost identical to the real thing.
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As with most smartphones nowadays, the first thing you’ll notice on the X60 Pro+ is the 6.56” Super AMOLED curved display. While the resolution (1080 x 2376 pixels, ~398 ppi) feels lower than what you’d expect from a $1,000+ flagship smartphone, opting for a lower resolution means the device can hit a 120Hz refresh rate and offer 1,300 nits of peak brightness, making it suitable for capturing and watching HDR10+ content (Netflix actually just approved it for HDR support). And if you think you’re concerned about the lower pixel density, don’t be. It’s nearly unnoticeable unless you’re looking extremely closely at text or UI elements and not once throughout capturing images or video did my brain recognize the discrepancy compared to the likes of my iPhone XS (~462 ppi) or a friend’s Pixel 5 (~432 ppi).
As a whole, the device feels nice in the hands. It feels substantial and the curved edges make it comfortable to hold – a welcome detail considering the phone measures in at 158.6mm x 73.4mm x 9.1mm (6.24” x 2.89” x 0.36”). This puts it in a similar size group as a Samsung S21 (not S21+) and a bit larger than the iPhone 12 Pro. I’d say I have relatively average-sized hands for someone 6′ 2″ (188cm) and I found it was usable as a single-hand device, but definitely more comfortable when interacting with it using two hands.
Internals
At the heart of the X60 Pro+ is an Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G chipset that consists of one 2.8GHz Kryo 680 core, three 2.4GHz Kryo 680 cores, four 1.8GHz Kryo 680 cores and a single Adreno 660 GPU core. The device lacks a microSD card slot, but is available in models with either 128GB or 256GB of UFS 3.1 solid-state storage, which come with 8GB or 12GB of RAM, respectively.
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Communication specs include 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6 dual-band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.2, GPS, NFC and the sole physical I/O on the device is single USB-C port on the bottom of the device (sorry, no 3.5mm headphone jack). There’s also an under-screen fingerprint sensor, an accelerometer, a gyro (which likely helps with image stabilization as we’ll get to below), proximity sensor, compass and color spectrum sensor (for adjusting the color shift of the screen based on your environment).
The device is powered by a 4,200mAh non-removable battery that offers fast charging via the USB-C connector up to 55W. I measured that 30 minutes of charging would give me about 80% battery capacity, and a further 15 minutes would finish it up. I would like to report a precise range for how long you can expect the battery life to last on a given day, but the reality is it varies greatly on how you’re using the device and what features you have turned on/off.
On days when I was shooting photos and video from a full charge, the phone would last for about four hours of on-display time, which I found impressive considering the amount of processing power required to capture such high-resolution photos and video. When going about more casual usage, such as browsing my RSS feeds, scouring Reddit and watching YouTube videos, the phone would easily hit six hours of on-display time and last throughout an entire day and halfway through the next before needing to be charged.
Software
With the internal hardware out of the way, let’s cover the operating system and software. The international version of the X60 Pro+ runs on Funtouch 11.1, which is vivo’s custom skin for Android 11.1 While there are some benefits to vivo’s Funtouch OS, such as the proprietary camera app that makes the most of all the camera components that I’ll dig into below, the system is loaded with vivo-branded bloatware, including a default wallpaper app that displays images that are actually not-so-discreet advertisements, which you’ll find out if you accidentally tap on the wallpaper on the lock screen.
However, if you remove the bloatware from view, delete all the apps that can be deleted and choose your own wallpaper, the experience is not all that different from stock Android 11, which is very decent overall.
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| A trio of screenshots showing the first-party camera app user interface (and the plethora of camera modes). |
As for the first-party camera app, it is easily the most comprehensive camera app I’ve come across. So much so it’s almost overwhelming at first. However, that’s to be expected when you consider this device is effectively four point-and-shoot cameras in one with plenty of software-powered capture modes to boot.
Upon first opening the camera app, you’ll see six capture modes displayed at the bottom: High Resolution, Night, Portrait, Photo, Video and Pro. Six modes weren’t enough though apparently, so under a seventh ‘More’ tab, you’ll further find eleven more capture modes, including: Panorama, Live Photo, Slo-mo, Timelapse, AR stickers, Supermoon, Doc (a built-in document scanner mode), Astro Mode, Pro Sports, Long Exposure and Double Exposure.
Camera modules
vivo hasn’t held back when it comes to stating the photographic capabilities of its X60 Pro+ smartphone. The phrase ‘Professional Photography’ is printed on the top of the device and the camera bump is emblazoned with details and specifications of the onboard camera modules. This might seem like overkill for a smartphone, but vivo has the hardware – not to mention the partnership with Zeiss – to back up its marketing material.
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| A close-up shot of the main (1x, wide) camera module with the 2x and 5x telephoto modules below. |
The main (1x, wide) camera on the X60 Pro+ is a 23mm (full-frame equivalent) F1.57 lens with a 1/1.31″ Samsung S5KGN1 sensor (1.2µm pixels) behind it. It features dual-pixel phase detection autofocus (PDAF) and sensor-shift image stabilization.
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| A close-up shot of the Zeiss and T* branding, with the ultrawide camera module behind it. |
The 48MP ultrawide camera is a 14mm (full-frame equivalent) F2.2 camera module powered by Samsung’s half-inch IMX598 sensor (0.8µm pixels). It features advanced sensor-shift stabilization technology that vivo refers to as ‘Gimbal Stabilization 2.0.’
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| A close-up shot of the 2x and 5x periscope camera modules, complete with the Zeiss Vario-Tessar branding and LED flash array. |
The 2x camera module uses a 1/2.8″ Samsung S5KGD1 sensor (0.8µm pixels) and is a 50mm full-frame equivalent F2.08. The 5x periscope camera module offers a 125mm full-frame equivalent focal length and uses an 8MP OmniVision OV08A10 sensor. The front-facing selfie camera uses the same 32MP S5KGD1 sensor from Samsung and offers a 24mm full-frame equivalent experience with an F2.45 aperture.
Still photos
So, we know the X60 Pro+ is no slouch in the specifications department, but does that translate to real-world usage? Absolutely.
Due to the sheer number of shooting modes the smartphone has to offer, the first party camera app is a little overwhelming to use at first. But with a few hours of familiarization, it becomes fairly intuitive and easy to get from one shooting mode to another.
One of the stand-out shooting modes of the X60 Pro+ is its Portrait mode. In addition to Zeiss’ signature T* coating on the lenses in the camera modules, which helps to dramatically reduce ghosting and flares, vivo also partnered with Zeiss to create a custom simulated bokeh effect, which results in background blur effect emulating the look of the Zeiss Biotar lens.
As for the accuracy of the depth map, I found the X60 Pro+ was proficient at distinguishing the subject from the background. Compared to an iPhone 11 Pro and a Pixel 5, the vivo was always the fastest to focus on the subject and overall tended to have the most accurate matte, particularly on tricky areas like hair.
Compared to an iPhone 11 Pro and a Pixel 5, the vivo was always the fastest to focus on the subject and overall tended to have the most accurate matte, particularly on tricky areas like hair.
Another standout stills mode onboard the vivo X60 Pro+ is its Night Time mode. Considering the 1x camera module features a (relatively) large 1/1.31“ sensor (1.2µm pixels) inside and sensor-shift image stabilization, Shots taken using the Night Time capture mode are impressive. As visible in the below comparison, the X60 Pro+ captures far more detail than the iPhone 11 Pro, which is no slouch. Colors do come out more saturated than I’d personally like to see, but overall the amount of light it can pull from a scene that’s nearly completely dark to the human eye is outstanding.
vivo has also included a dedicated Macro mode that can either be turned on automatically when it detects a close subject or activated manually when in the ‘Pro’ shooting mode. Images captured in the Macro mode appear less sharp than non-macro images, but it offers a decent magnification ratio with respectable images as a result. Below is a gallery of macro shots taken with the X60 Pro+ in various scenes:
The last capture mode I spent a good time poring over is the X60 Pro+’s High Resolution mode. When shooting in High Resolution, you can use the ultrawide, 1x and 2x camera modules, which will yield 48MP, 50MP and 32MP, respectively. You can also use an even higher 100MP mode when using the 1x camera module, which provides a respectable improvement over the 50MP capture mode.
Below is a gallery of images captured with the X60 Pro+’s High Resolution modes from each camera module, as well as comparison photos captured with an iPhone 11 Pro at the same location:
As for your day-to-day captures with the standard (auto) capture modes, the X60 Pro+ delivers. Switching between cameras is simple and the versatility is great. Personally, it feels as though vivo goes a little too hard with the contrast and saturation on its straight-out-of-camera JPEGs, but that’s not uncommon to see with most smartphones. One area where vivo hasn’t seemed to go overboard with is noise reduction; while you can tell some is being used, particularly in low-light scenes, the ‘watercolor effect’ isn’t nearly as pronounced in images shot with the X60 Pro+. Below is a collection of images captured in four scenes (each with very different lighting), with each of the four camera modules:
Video capture
As with stills, the X60 Pro+ has a lot to offer in the video department. While its overall video quality is great and on par with other flagships at this time, its stabilization performance is what sets it apart from its contemporaries.
Specifically, vivo uses what it calls ‘Gimbal Stabilization 2.0’ in the ultrawide camera module, which appears to be a sensor-based stabilization array that, as its name suggests, offers gimbal-like stabilization performance. In the 1x and 2x camera, vivo also uses sensor-shift stabilization, but the stabilization isn’t nearly as capable as the setup found on the ultrawide module.
As seen in the video comparison above, the X60 Pro+ offers an array of stabilization modes depending on the camera module and resolution you’re using. When shooting 4K video (either 30 fps or 60 fps), you have sensor-based stabilization for the ultrawide, 1x and 2x camera modules. When dropped down to 1080p, you have the option to use what vivo calls ‘Ultra Stabilization’ for the ultrawide and 1x camera modules. vivo doesn’t specify the difference between these modes, but based on our testing, it appears as though ‘Standard Stabilization’ uses only the physical sensor-shift stabilization while the ‘Ultra Stabilization’ uses both the sensor-shift and digital image stabilization.
The X60 Pro+ can also record 8K video at 30 fps with both the 1x and 2x camera modules. You don’t have any image stabilization or other fancy features during 8K recording and I did notice the live view display would sometimes drop frames during recording, but the resulting footage looks solid in well-lit environments. That said, considering the incredible quality of the 4K video the X60 Pro+ can capture, I’d suggest avoiding 8K video unless you absolutely need the resolution for whatever reason.
Final thoughts
The X60 Pro+ is an intriguing device from vivo. It lacks a few features we’ve come accustomed to seeing in flagship devices (most notably a high-resolution display and Qi charging), but in exchange you get perhaps the most impressive camera array on any smartphone we’ve seen to date.
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Is it worth the ~$1,200 or so it costs to get your hands on one in most markets? As is often the case, it depends. If you can get over the lack of wireless charging, the inability to add more storage and the bloatware that comes with its FunTouchOS, the answer is, without a doubt, yes. Simply put, there’s nothing like it out there right now. However, those are some big caveats, especially if you live in North America, where it’s 5G connectivity is limited for now to T-Mobile’s n41 (2.5GHz) band.
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In the month or so I’ve been using the X60 Pro+, more often than not, I’ve found myself leaving my larger dedicated cameras behind and slipping the X60 Pro+ into my pocket alongside my personal iPhone XS. The results might lack the image quality of a dedicated stills or video camera when examined in detail, but with the X60 Pro+ I genuinely feel as if I’m carrying a respectable hybrid camera, a set of primes and gimbal, all in a device that’s smaller and thinner than the owner’s manual that came with my Canon EOS R.
| A lunar eclipse, captured by Jamie Malcolm-Brown in November 2021. Used with permission. |
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in 2022. We have updated it with information about the current eclipse as a service to readers.
Starting tonight, March 13, through the early hours of tomorrow, March 14th, skywatchers in the Americas will be able to view the first total lunar eclipse of the year. The moon will turn a ‘blood red’ hue for a brief period as it passes entirely into the Earth’s shadow when lined up with the sun. Depending on where you are located, there is a specific time you can witness this phenomenon.
Time and Date, a top-ranking site for times and timezones, created a useful tool that allows you to make a plan by entering your viewing location. From there, it gives you pertinent information, including the total duration, what time each phase of the eclipse starts and the direction it’ll travel, plus altitude during these phases. A helpful animation gives you a visual of how it will appear, minute by minute, once it starts.
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| Time and Date created a free tool to help you plan your total lunar eclipse viewing, depending on your location. This is the data for Seattle, WA, where DPReview’s headquarters is located. |
If you plan on bringing your camera out for the ‘blood moon’, photographer Jamie Malcolm-Brown has some helpful tips for camera settings. Describing his process for capturing a lunar eclipse in 2021, he tells DPReview that ‘it was taken with [a] 200-600mm lens at 600mm, ISO 800, F6.3, at 1/3 sec. I bracketed the shots at 5 shots with an EV (exposure value) change of 1. Next time I would probably bracket 5 shots but with only an EV change of .3. The final image was cropped fairly significantly to fill the frame with the moon.’
While useful for capturing more detail on the moon’s surface, you don’t necessarily need a long lens that extends to 600mm to photograph the blood moon. John Weatherby released a quick, helpful tutorial on Instagram outlining his process for getting the best images possible. For one, you can shoot at a focal length between 100–200mm if you want to include a foreground.
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Weatherby also explains that having a sturdy tripod and ball head is an absolute necessity. Ensuring that the lens is locked in securely will yield clearer images of the moon. Using the camera’s shutter delay or self-timer, or an external remote, will also help prevent blurry shots as the camera is likely to shake a bit once you press the shutter. PhotoPills, an app that helps you identify where the moon will travel in accordance with your specific location, is recommended as well.
It’s important to check the weather in your area as cloud coverage can potentially conceal the moon completely. Windy.com is a free app available on desktop, iOS and Android that, in my opinion, does a decent job of forecasting weather patterns. It’ll give you a visual of where clouds will appear at specific dates and times so you can determine the best place to set up in your state or country.
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| Windy.com, a free app, is an effective tool for forecasting weather elements, including cloud coverage. |
The next total lunar eclipse will take place on September 7, and will be visible in parts of Asia, Africa and Australia. If skywatching interests you, you’re in or near one of the locations where the eclipse is visible and weather permits, I recommend getting out for a few hours and witnessing this wonderful event first-hand.
| Photo: Benedek Lampert |
This weekend marks the start of the 2025 Formula 1 season, and one photographer is kicking things off with a series of photographs to celebrate. With a fine focus on detail and many hours of work, toy photographer Benedek Lampert has recreated F1 moments using Lego. This project is just the latest for Lampert, who has previously created life-like scenes of Lego versions of the Eiffel Tower and Shackleton’s Endurance.
In September 2024, Lego and F1 announced a partnership that included releasing numerous F1 Lego sets, some of which featured more realistic-looking models of F1 team cars. Lampert managed to get his hands on the entire starting grid and set to work on creating highly detailed, life-like photographs of the Lego F1 cars.
As with all of Lampert’s work, nearly everything was done in camera. “It’s extremely important to me that these are actual photos and not AI-generated graphics,” he explained. That meant lots of hands-on time to build sets and problem-solve special effects. He built the track scenery and crafted unique sets that allowed him to get motion blur, spinning wheels, smoke and water vapor without any editing work. Lampert explained that the only thing he added while editing was the cloud texture in the sky and rear lights in one image.
All said and done, Lampert says the project took 70 hours for the 10 final images. The photo shoot portion of the project took five days, with ten to twelve-hour days at times. You can see how he meticulously created each image in the behind-the-scenes video below, as well as the photos in the gallery above.
The Sigma BF is a minimalist 24MP full-frame mirrorless camera that offers distinctive design and an unconventional user interface.
Key specifications
- 24MP full-frame CMOS sensor
- Phase detection AF with human and animal detection
- No mechanical shutter
- 3.2″ 2.1M dot rear touchscreen
- Pressure-sensitive buttons with haptic feedback
- 6K video up to 30p, 4K up to 30p
- 1080 up to 120p
- Leica L-Log profile
- Zebras and False Color exposure displays
- 230GB of internal memory
- 10Gbps USB-C port, external mic compatible
The Sigma BF is available in Black or Silver at a cost of $2000. Sigma has also made versions of all its i-series primes to match the silver version of the camera.
Index:
What is it?
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The Sigma BF is explicitly not trying to be a do-everything, Swiss Army Knife of a camera. Sony’s a7C II already exists, bringing an EVF, multiple dials, a mechanical second-curtain shutter mechanism and in-body image stabilization, for a list price just 10% higher than the BF’s.
But if Sigma was trying to go head-to-head with Sony in the mass market, it probably wouldn’t be spending seven hours milling each camera out of blocks of aluminium, nor doing so in Japan: neither of which is the approach you take if you’re primarily driven to hit a specific price point.
Similarly, just looking at the specs, the BF might be mistaken for an unstabilized Panasonic S9 in a fancier body, but despite sharing a sensor, the two cameras couldn’t be more different.
Instead Sigma explicitly says the BF is designed for ‘everyday’ photography. An elegant object designed to be carried with you, rather than a utilitarian device you take when you’re taking photos. It’s absolutely not optimized for rapid operation, it’s not teeming with clever features. Instead it includes only the bare essentials for photography (or, arguably, slightly less than that, given its lack of mechanical shutter).
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Think of it like a Moleskine notebook: in many respects it’s not as practical for taking notes and recording ideas as the smartphone you’re already carrying, but the very process of carrying it with you acts as a prompt to look at the world and capture the thoughts you were having. The BF is trying to do the same.
It’s the difference between a camera that you’d grab when you want to go and take photos of something, vs a tool that encourages you to look for things to photograph.
Body and controls
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User interface
The best way to understand the BF is to note the dedicated settings display towards the top right-hand corner on the back of the camera. This displays one of ten parameters:
| Drive mode | File format | Aspect ratio | Focus mode | White balance |
| Shutter speed | Aperture value | Exp comp. | ISO | Color mode |
These are also the ten parameters that appear on the main screen if you press the center button on the back of the camera, in the pattern shown in the table above.
You can navigate between them by pressing the cardinal points on the rear dial, then scroll the dial to change the current setting.
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Pressing the center button lets you see and edit the camera’s core ten parameters, but the chosen setting is also shown in the dedicated settings display to the top right of the screen.
In this instance the aperture value is shown in dark grey because it’s being controlled from the lens. |
But you don’t have to press the center button and bring them up on the main screen: once you’ve learned their relative positions (and chances are it’s the ones in the bottom row you’ll change regularly), you can navigate around them just using the settings display. And, for me, that’s the key to understanding the BF: it’s designed so that the core settings can be adjusted without looking at the main screen. You can set the camera to show all the settings on the main screen,
In keeping with this idea, the touchscreen is almost solely used for positioning the AF point or selecting a subject to track: even if you summon-up the settings on the main screen, you can’t tap to change settings, just choose what to focus on.
Exposure modes
The BF has no mode dial, so exposure mode is set by selecting which parameters you want to be controlled by the camera. This is done via the main screen. Press the center button to bring up the settings then press it again to edit them, and the ISO, aperture value and shutter speed indicators show ‘Auto’ options above them, letting you engage and disengage automated control of each parameter.
Any of the exposure parameters that can’t be changed by spinning the dial, either because they’re set to Auto or because aperture value is being set by an aperture ring, is rendered in darker grey, both in the settings display and on the main screen display.
Other settings
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| Ten further settings, including the level gauge and options to display information such as focal length and focus distance are accessed via the three-dot button. Navigating down to the word ‘System’ takes you to the menu where fundamental settings such as date and time are edited. |
Another ten settings, six of which relate to how much detail appears on the main screen (exposure parameters, guides, virtual horizon, etc), can be accessed by pressing the ‘three dots’ settings button. At the bottom of this settings menu is the word ‘System’ which gives you access to a ten-option-long list of fundamental camera settings, including firmware information, copyright information, menu language and date/time.
That’s the extent of the BF’s interface: ten top-level parameters, ten settings and ten menu options. But what this doesn’t fully convey is the degree to which it’s a camera in which Shutter speed, Aperture value, Exposure compensation and ISO can all be set using just the settings display, leaving the monitor solely for focus and composition.
Handling
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The BF is a very solid-feeling camera, as you might expect from something hewn from a solid block of metal. The body itself is relatively light but the weight adds up as soon as you mount a lens of any appreciable size on it.
Despite it’s minimalist appearance, it’s quite easy to hold. The textured front-plate and raised thumb rest at the back mean you can get a pretty solid grip on the camera, and you can cradle the weight of the lens in your left hand if you’re working with anything larger than one of the compact primes offered by Sigma or Panasonic.
However, we found that it was common for our ring finger to wrap around to the base of the camera as we held it, which quickly makes apparent how sharply angled the edge of the BF is. It’s not hard to imagine users adding a little tape to the lower edge of the camera or being tempted to chamfer the edge with a fine file, once they come to live with the camera.
I’ve primarily used it with the Sigma 35mm F2 prime and the Panasonic 20-60mm F3.5-5.6 lenses, both of which are small and light enough that it’s been comfortable to use.
Battery
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The BF uses a new 11.88Wh BP-81 battery. This will power the camera to a CIPA rating of 260 shots per charge. As always, the CIPA figure will tend to under-represent how many shots you’re likely to get, and we found it’s the camera’s propensity to show its charge percentage on its settings display that caused us to worry a little disproportionately.
Still, a rating of 260 is pretty low and means you may want to consider carrying a power bank if you plan to do more than occasional shots each day. Putting it on to charge overnight, just as you might do with your phone will probably be sufficient for everyday casual use, though.
A gentle press of the power button puts the camera into standby mode, but the battery will continue to drain at an appreciable rate. The BF starts up from cold quickly enough that this is usually a better approach.
Initial impressions
By Richard Butler
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| Even the body cap is an over-engineered delight. |
The Sigma BF is one of the most unusual cameras we’ve ever encountered. On paper it looks like an under-specced rival to the Panasonic DC-S9 or even the Sony a7C II. Or, perhaps even a slightly re-purposed Sigma fp. But, even though it shares components and a small rectangular body, the BF is quite unlike any of these cameras.
Sigma’s CEO, Kazuto Yamaki talked about completely re-thinking the camera’s interface to pare it back to the fundamental things a camera needs to offer, in an attempt to make it simple to use, with the aim of making a camera for everyday use. And the more I use the BF, the more I think I understand this intent.
The idea of a dedicated settings display, leaving the main screen as a means of composing your image and positioning the focus point is a refreshingly simple one, undermined only by the challenge of viewing a fixed LCD in bright light. The decision to display only one setting, rather than a full array of settings and icons makes it very quick to interpret and I did find it made me consider what changes I wanted to make, shot-to-shot, in a way I don’t on a more conventional twin-dial camera.
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Playback mode has three levels of information that can be displayed, this is the most detailed, but you can also opt just to see the top two rows of information, or just the first.
Touching, rather than pressing, the playback button lets you review the last image you shot, without entering the full playback mode, for as long as your finger remains on the button. |
This really hit home when I realized I prefer to set aperture from the camera, rather than using an aperture ring; I think the camera works best with everything controlled from the settings display, rather than trying to increase the number of control points.
Another surprise was how good the BF’s autofocus appears to be. Its subject tracking is very simple to use and impressively tenacious, while its eye detection works well and can be left turned on without minimal risk of the camera prioritizing nearby faces ahead of a different subject you’ve selected.
There are distinct downsides, though. The lack of mechanical shutter not only means there’s a risk of rolling shutter and that the camera can’t be used with flash, it also means it’s quite prone to banding caused by the inherent flicker of artificial lights. This can be fairly subtle at longer shutter speeds but becomes increasingly apparent in short exposures, limiting its use as an indoor camera, despite a sensor that works well in low light.
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Sigma 35mm F2.0 | F4.0 | 1/500 sec | ISO 400
Photo: Richard Butler |
Sigma’s sometimes quite dramatic color modes may not be to everyone’s tastes, and I’m not wholly convinced by the ‘Light Source Priority’ auto white balance mode, that tries to maintain some of the character of the detected light source. But even when the results are unexpected, they’re often interesting.
The BF’s battery life is also quite short. An external charger is available, if you want to keep a second battery topped-up, but mainly it’s a case of remembering to put the camera on to charge regularly, just as you might for your smartphone.
Other than a slight concern about the sharp lower front edge, I’m really looking forward to spending more time with the BF. It’s not a camera that lets you respond quickly to the unexpected; instead it’s one that makes you slow down and look for the photos you might otherwise not notice.
Sigma BF sample gallery
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