SIGMA fp Style 06

First of all, it is the versatile scalability concept of the SIGMA fp that fascinates me.
The concept not only makes it suitable for a variety of users, but it results in a camera that adapts to the growth of its owner and presents them with new possibilities. It brings with it unbridled freedom.

Photographic gear that is ingrained with this kind of idea will have a much bigger impact on resulting works than technical specs or features. With a flexible enough mind-set you’re ready to go and confront the world around you.
For example—even if you don’t have an opportunity to shoot in 4K RAW format yet or use drones and camera cranes at the moment, simply sliding the fp – and with it the potential to do all these things – into your pocket will change how you view the world.

…At any rate, that was my approach during the month I spent with the SIGMA. I used it with the SIGMA 45mm F2.8 DG DN | Contemporary lens – a perfectly balanced match – and photographed my daily life without giving too much thought to my motifs.

Looking back at the photos, I noticed that all of them show my son playing. I have almost exclusively taken typical Dad photographs.
Scalability does not come as easy as I thought.

So I tried to change my approach a little, and made my four-year-old son the photographer.
I’m a movie director, and the decisions of the cameraman are another ingredient to work with when you create something.
Although I had expected the SIGMA fp to be a little too large for four-year-old hands, my son managed to use the camera with ease and has been clicking the shutter button free of troubles.

It truly is a light setup, after all, and the grip accessory seems to play its part as well. The photos my son has taken reflect the way a four-year-old views the world. I find them fascinating for their lack of overthinking regarding focusing or framing. Anytime I went out together with my son, I made sure he had the fp with him.
The combination of a full-frame mirrorless camera and a four-year-old is another widening of possibilities brought about by the fp’s compact and uncomplicated design.

The next thing I’d like to try with the fp is snapshot-style stop-motion videos. I’d simply fix it onto a tripod and take a couple dozen photos, with the lightness of a sketch rather than the heaviness of creating “serious” works.

Putting the recorded footage together into a loop will be a small ritual part of the sketch. Thanks to this ritual, I can cut tiny loops out from the daily landscapes of life in secret. It’s a bit like hiding good-luck charms in places. This playful sketch idea, too, was inspired by the tranquil, almost poetic sense of the SIGMA fp.

Changing lenses is another fun thing to do in this case. When I tried out an old Leica M lens I had lying around, the images immediately had an air of familiarity to them. Actually, using the old Leica lenses with the fp feels perfectly relaxed. I’m deeply fond of the fact that, thanks to its design, the SIGMA fp does not radiate an aura of profoundness like many of the Leica camera bodies do.

And yet adding parts and accessories to the fp’s minimal rectangle feels as exciting as playing with a transforming robot or secret agent devices. There’s the naive charm of a gadget to this camera that manages to revive a child-like curiosity in me.
At any rate, I will continue playing in all kinds of scalable ways with the SIGMA fp in the future.