SIGMA fp Impression 04

Lately, I have been paying a lot of attention to portability. In the end, the biggest advantage of moving to digital is the lightness and the high performance of the cameras.
When it comes to film, I actually find myself moving towards large-format photography. In a certain sense, large-format possesses the ability to create photographs that digital cameras cannot really reproduce.

For me personally – since I shoot both photography and video, both for work and privately – the whole style of the SIGM fp is incredibly helpful.
In my shoots in the past, the presence of the camera I use has always played a helpful role in some way – taking an instant polaroid photo, for example, can even create a kind of upbeat mood during a shoot.
However, these days I am actually trying to achieve the opposite: how to reduce my awareness of the camera during the shooting process.

While I had concerns regarding the difficulty of use when I first held the small camera in my hands, they proved to be unfounded once I tried the camera out in real conditions.
The grip, in particular, is very effective and lets me keep the camera safe and stable in my hands.
Thanks to the small size of the camera it’s possible to approach your subjects freely, allowing for a shooting style that is more natural than anything I’ve tried so far.

The camera lends itself to both still photography and cinema shoots, but I feel that its potential truly lies in cinema. With a small body like that, it becomes possible to use the camera on drones as well, and I found myself being able to shoot in even narrower spots than I would have expected.
I’ve already started thinking of creating films that make use of the camera’s small size.
When it comes to commercials, I often shoot more personal, intimate movies rather than those that require large, complicated camera setups, so I think this camera will be of great help to me.

We’ve reached an age where movies can be shot on mirrorless or even compact digital cameras with ease.
However, actual high-quality works still require a high budget, and are relatively rare.
In this regard, I think the fp makes it possible to forego the need for large cin lenses and create high quality, personal movies with the smallest, lightest lenses available.
Of course, I’m still also very interested in highly professional shoots, with lots of peripherals and gear attached to the camera, but a smaller, cine-able camera at the core of such a setup will not affect the conditions of the shoot all that much.

However, with a compact size like this, I am able to take the camera with me on my morning walks and capture the events of my day in spontaneous works, just like whistling an improvised tune to myself.
At least for me, that will definitely be one way I will be using this camera.

This morning, I had to shoot in the pouring rain, due a typhoon.
But with the fp camera, I could still shoot whatever I saw, exactly how I saw it, without any hindrance.
The videos I took may be nothing special, and only trivial things, but then they simply capture my daily morning routine.