SIGMA fp Style 01

Co-founder of THE GUILD and CXO at YAMAP.
After founding “Mobile and Design” in 2012, Ando has been involved in planning, developing and consulting as well as producing videos, mainly for mobile applications.
In 2013, he co-founded the creative farm “THE GUILD”. In 2019, he joined the mountain climbing platform “YAMAP” as CXO (chief experience officer).
Co-authour of “UI GRAPHICS~improve future interface design and UX by studying successful UI graphics and ideas~” published from BNN Shinsha and others.

THE GUILD
YAMAP

I work as a designer and occasionally shoot photographs and videos, too. I am also part of a mountain climbing service called “YAMAP”, which means I often go into the mountains myself.
Photographing the scenery is one of the greater pleasures of mountain climbing, but as I try to travel lightly, I take an APS-C sensor camera with me on my hikes instead of a full-frame camera. However, when I encounter views that take my breath away, I often find myself wishing I had a full-frame camera with me instead. Therefore, since the annoucement of the SIGMA fp, I was looking forward to its launch.

The very first impression I had when I took the SIGMA fp into my hands was that it is even lighter than I expected. Despite its full-frame sensor and its impressive specs, at 420 grams (battery included!) it is even lighter than the APS-C camera I’m using. I was also shocked by the small size of the camera itself. I tested the camera with SIGMA 45mm F2.8 DG DN | Contemporary lens, and even though the lens is made entirely out of metal—included the lens hood—I was surprised by its extremely light weight.

I also thought the camera is very beautifully designed. They only printed absolutely necessary information onto it, and they used the same font for the lens and the camera which creates a beautiful unity. Even the logo made me feel the absence of design compromises—while most cameras are garnished with prominent logos on the front of the camera, the fp’s approach is inconspicuous and unobtrusive.

In addition to the SIGMA 45mm F2.8 DG DN | Contemporary mentioned above, I also borrowed the wide-angle SIGMA 14-24mm F2.8 DG DN | Art lens to make the most of the mountain scenery.
The 14-24mm F2.8 DG DN | Art lives up to its remarkable reputation—its images are crisp and clean across all corners. This lens will be a powerful tool for anyone trying to take photos in the mountains. It is also known as an ideal companion for night-sky photography—I was very excited about this aspect since I often stay overnight on mountains in the Alps, with perfect conditions to see the stars above. Unfortunately, I didn’t camp in the mountain during this particular trip, so I’ll have to wait until the next time.

In the evening, I visited the “Yamamichi Festival” that was held at the foot of Mt. Iwate by an outdoor gear company Yama to Michi. I tried to photograph the traditional o-bon dance, when everyone at the festival participates in a large dance circle—a difficult motif since the entire scene keeps moving in low light, but the SIGMA 45mm F2.8 DG DN | Contemporary on the SIGMA fp nevertheless provided me with clean photographs even though I used it hand-held.

There aren’t many L-Mount lenses on the market yet. Luckily, I own many manual Leica M-Mount lenses that I’ll enjoy shooting with as I wait for new L-Mount lenses to be released.