Fan of Quirky: Sigma fp

(Posted this on the interim site, moving it here.)

I've always had kind of a thing for quirky cameras (hello, Pentax Q, Fuji X10) and small cameras (Q, Pen-F, GM5), so when I started looking at full-frame, what would catch my attention but the fp?

Things I love:

• Size/handling
• Easy to customize grips and handling
• Great rendering, especially good low light performance
• Simple but effective controls - I honestly prefer having a few controls that are easy to get to and reconfigure over festooning a body with buttons, and the fp strikes just the right balance for me.

Things I wish could be improved:

• IBIS would be nice to have. I currently work around the issue by limiting shutter speed to 1/60, which is workable because of the good high-ISO performance, but far from ideal.
• Neither viewfinder is ideal. The LCD Viewfinder is surprisingly effective, but very bulky. The EVF is less bulky, but still awkward and has a tendency to catch on things when you're pulling it out/putting it back in - also, it's further from the grip than I'd like (though I do appreciate the upper-left position).
• For manual lenses, something Olympus does that I wish others would pick up on - you can save up to 10 lens name/focal length/max aperture entries, which are used for running the IBIS but are also written to EXIF. Much more convenient than going back and tagging the pics later.

Any other fp lovers out there?

i think its a beautiful looking camera. I don't have have one but i do have a few foveon sigmas. on my dp1 quattro i use the lcd viewfinder and honestly its the best viewfindr ive ever used on a camera. i love the large view it gives. and im not concerned about the bulk.

the thing that stopped me getting the fp was the rolling shutter from the slow electronic shutter readout. if they fix that on a new version i would go for it.

cheers

I bought the fp so as to have a full-frame camera for use with my old SLR lenses (mostly Nikkor AI). The view with the loupe is excellent and the results certainly do justice to most of the lenses. However, the 20mm and 24mm Nikkors don't work well -- the corners are smeary. (So I bought a Sigma 24mm f/3.5, which is excellent.)

Don

I bought the fp so as to have a full-frame camera for use with my old SLR lenses (mostly Nikkor AI). The view with the loupe is excellent and the results certainly do justice to most of the lenses. However, the 20mm and 24mm Nikkors don't work well -- the corners are smeary. (So I bought a Sigma 24mm f/3.5, which is excellent.)

Don Cox

Got fp and fp-L, in anticipation of a foveon sensor.
Alas, still waiting... 😢

Looks like a cool rig though…especially with older lenses.

Bulk is important for me; size was a major factor drawing me to the fp in the first place, so I hate anything that bulks up the camera. :( Otherwise, the LCD loupe was very effective; with it attached, the fp feels almost like a mini-Hasselblad or Mamiya medium format.

Rolling shutter generally isn’t an issue for me; I shoot landscape/architecture/still subjects almost exclusively. Something that can be a related rare issue is color fringing when shooting the output from a DLP digital projector.

Each camera has it's "quirk's". If just going by looks, I think it looks great and I am sure the images it captures are equally great? ;)

I shoot with the Fuji Xpro 3 which has been called everything from "gimmicky" to "great" but it's perfect for me and I have learned to love and work with all of it's "quirk's". Not a bad looking camera also :)

Heh. Would you like some samples? ;)

I’ve got a Fuji XE-2s, and while it’s a good camera, it never really captured my heart. I did love my X-10, beautifully machined, great lens, good IQ for the sensor size, and operated like a premium piece of equipment (sadly, the XE-2s couldn’t match that).

If you don't mind sharing, sure thing :)

I felt the same about the X-E1. Being an older camera in the Fuji line it just felt slow to use, but I think it's because the X-pro 3 already spoiled me.

In the end i ended up selling it but there are times I question myself it it was the right choice. Oh well.

Never had the pleasure of trying the X-10 but I've heard great things about it. How different was it going from Fuji to the Sigma?

Dan

Hi Don. I had to look up the FP sample gallery on DPR before its gone and now I wish I could get my hands on an FP to try it out for a few days!

Dan

hi don are you having issues with the forum? you posted but no text? cheers

Don't worry, it will all make sense soon.

Don

Was actually shooting M4/3, and it's still my other 'primary' system; I tried the X-E2s because I wanted to see if the X-10 magic was there, and sadly it wasn't, so I kept shooting M4/3. Overall... both sides have their pluses and minuses. Most of my thoughts on picking up the fp are covered in the pluses and minuses above - shooting almost exclusively manual, I really miss the Olympus cameras' ability to store multiple sets of lens metadata and write it to the EXIF automatically. Crop factor is sometimes a gotcha; when shooting the fp I sometimes miss the extra reach M4/3's crop factor gives you, and sometimes get trapped trying to handle extra FOV in compositions.

Some samples:

Taken with the Vivitar 28/2.5 (Kiron version); love the tonality and the gloss on the Electra's nose.

OM Zuiko 50/2 Macro - one of the best macro lenses I've used.

Another great one with the Kiron 28/2.5; love the clarity and tonality.

OM Zuiko 35/2

Leica Elmar 90/4

Leica Elmar 90/4

(For context, here's what the lighting was like:)

Pentax-M 35/2.8 with a Kenko 'Mirage' prism filter. Another dark museum environment.

Pentax-M 35/2.8, ISO 6400. Looks very clean for 6400, at least to me. <wry g>

Kamero 35/2.8 - Private-label lens, acquits itself surprisingly well!

An example of the color artifacts I mentioned above when shooting output from a digital projector.

OM Zuiko 24/2.8

OM Zuiko 24/2.8

OM Zuiko 24/2.8 - another ISO 6400.

OM Zuiko 24/2.8 - I really like this lens!

thanks for all these examples. i have that same vivitar 28mm lens and used it a little bit on the sd quattro H. and while it worked well in terms of no colour casts etc, the optical performance didnt seem as good as yours looks on the fp.

Do you have an example of a landscape or anything outside taken with it? at a lower f number, maybe f5.6 or lower? EDIT: nevermind ive just looked thru your flickr and found some good examples.

cheers