The new L-Mount camera from Sigma, the fp, will arrive in UK dealers in early December and will cost £1,999, a little more than we had expected. However, the kit, with the 45mm f/2.8 lens, is good value at £2,399. This lens was clearly designed with the fp in mind; weighing only 200g it makes for a very light full-frame rig.
That 45mm lens is small yet the camera looks (and is) tiny by comparison. Despite the lack of viewfinder, this rig is one of the smallest and lightest full-frame options available 
Look how the L-Mount fits the camera with hardly any space to spare. It’s quite a remarkable achievement whichever way you look at it.
The camera appears to have been available for some time in other markets. Patrick Leong of findingrange.com has already written his first impressions of the camera and Macfilos reader Tony Vidler got his fp in time for a recent trip to Moscow. He might be encouraged to share some of his photographs with us in due course.
We are looking forward to getting a hands-on as soon as the bodies become available here.
I really expected to like the fp ..I really wanted to like the fp (..before I tried it..) but now that I have tried it, I really, really dislike it.
I’ve got a big batch of Canon lenses, and thought “Great! Small camera, will take Canon lenses like, say, the small 100mm f2, using that Sigma L-to-EF fully electronic adaptor”. And I thought “I’ve got a batch of M lenses; the fp’ll be great with its Sigma L-M adaptor!”
No. It focuses s-l-o-w-l-y (contrast detection); it keeps hunting if Continuous Focus is selected, even once it’s latched on for a moment; and it’s s-l-o-w to autofocus – much slower than, say, a Canon SLR or Canon mirrorless R – and although it magnifies the view in the centre with manual focus lenses, the lack of a tilting screen (..and, of course, the lack of a built-in finder..) means holding it at arm’s length while it tries, and tries, and tries to focus.
I often shoot indoors and in low light, but its autofocus is fooled, in my testing anyway, by backlighting, and there’s just not enough ‘instant control’ over what you’re doing. I want shutter speed, aperture, exposure override (i.e; easy ISO adjustment) and quick focusing all in one go. It can’t do all that in one go.
It’s, essentially, the exact opposite of the game-changing Canon 5D MkII ..that was the camera (in 2008) which changed everything by being not just an extremely capable stills camera – but also with fullHD, full 35mm stills-frame (36x24mm) movie capability! ..That’s a movie frame TWICE the size of normal 35mm cinema film ..allowing the same degree of out-of-focus ‘bokeh’ we see with stills cameras to be used in home-made movies ..by just using your ordinary stills camera lenses!
The fp, by contrast, is a very capable, tiny, minimal video camera (..which then needs to be fitted into a gimballed ‘rig’, with a proper viewfinder screen attached, and possibly an external recorder..) which can, incidentally, also take stills ..up to a point, Lord Copper.
But it seems pointless to transfer your M lenses from a 24mpxl M camera to the physically smaller 24mpxl Sigma fp, as there’s no eye-level critical-focus viewfinder on the fp (which is available as an extra small lump on top of the M10) without adding firstly the extra Sigma grip for the fp, and then the extra Sigma external finder, ..thus getting back to the size of an M. (The fp has about the same ISO capability of the M10: up to about 50,000.)
There’s no advantage to manual focus on the fp compared with manual focus on the M10. I don’t often use a 50mm or 45mm lens – so the small Sigma L-mount 45mm is of no interest to me (..I generally use wide-angle 10mm, 14mm, 18mm, 21mm or telephoto lenses..) and I have no interest in buying a whole new suite of L-mount lenses.
Its autofocus speed is pitiful compared with the market leaders (Sony, Canon, Nikon ..though I haven’t tried autofocus Fuji lenses since the original X100F, as APS doesn’t appeal to me) and the Sony A7 series cameras do so much more; the Mark II series provide stabilisation with M lenses, the A7S series provide exceptionally high ISO, and the Techart M-to-Sony adaptors provide autofocus with M lenses on the Sonys! ..and the Sonys have a silent electronic shutter, like the fp does.
So although I really thought I’d like it ..and really wanted to like it, and had my money in my pocket ..it really is not for me. The versatile Ricoh GXR with its M-mount module appeals to me more (and I have one) than the Sigma fp. I know the fp is about a third the price of a (new) M10, but the fp is – for me – a kludge. Its still-shooting capability is an “add-on”, a secondary capability, to its primary rôle as a tiny hi-def video camera. And its stills-shooting capability is not a revelation ..in the way that the revelatory video-shooting capability of the Canon 5D MkII was.
So, sorry Sigma: the idea was very nice ..but the execution not. Maybe it’ll be better in Version II. I’ll stick with my present mirrorless camera(s). It’s the Mercedes/Swatch ‘Smart’ of full-frame cameras; it’ll get you where you want to go, but not fast, and without much comfort, and with no spectacular advantage over anything else ..except that it’s a bit smaller and lighter. Th-th-that’s all, folks, to quote those old cartoons.
Hi Foxfan100 — In the US this lens is expected delivery in Mid-January – not sure what that means for the UK (but the Fp is already in the US and still expected in the UK) – Perhaps late January in the UK?
I’m not planning to buy an fp, but, for my Leica CL, I do need to get my hands on the Sigma L-mount 70mm f2.8 DG Macro Art Lens, which is still not yet in stock with any UK dealers. Is the imminent appearance of the fp any sort of sign of the possible arrival of the 70mm lens; or have you any news on this?
Thanks.
Sorry, I don’t have any news on this. I don’t think there is any connect between the cameras and the lenses as far as Sigma dealers are concerned. I will ask Ivor at Red Dot Cameras if he has any news.
Not sure if you have seen but the lens is now available, definitely at Wed photo.
Wex photo.
Thanks, Mahesh. Is this the 45mm you’re referring to? I had thought it was generally available but perhaps it ran out because it had such good reviews.