Sigma FP’s below $1k USD

[Ninpo33]

Have spotted a couple Sigma FP’s at $950 U.S. this week. Exciting times for anyone like me who couldn’t justify the price tag a few years ago but now wants to dip their toes into a cinematic RAW workflow. Plenty on KEH, eBay and Japanese sites hovering right at $1,000. And the FP-L can be had for $1,500. 
 

There’s a big 20% off sale at KEH right now as well so plenty of great deals for the next few days on slightly used equip. Now if they would just give us an open gate or Anamorphic friendly crop for 1.5x - 2x and I’d be really happy. 

[eatstoomuchjam]

FWIW, you can record in anamorphic-friendly modes on the fp, but you can't do it in raw (so you'll be limited to a mediocre h264).  The trick is to use the director's viewfinder feature.

I ended up trading in my fp and fp-l because I realized I was never using them because they didn't actually do anything better than any of my other cameras - and when set up to record 12-bit raw, even with the darkpowerlabs rig, they became as big as my R5.

Thanks for the heads-up, though, on the KEH sale!  I hadn't heard of it - my CN-E set (currently 14,24,50,85) just grew to include a 35.  😃

[Ninpo33]

1 hour ago, eatstoomuchjam said:

FWIW, you can record in anamorphic-friendly modes on the fp, but you can't do it in raw (so you'll be limited to a mediocre h264).  The trick is to use the director's viewfinder feature.

😃

Yes thanks. I consider the FP a camera that really shines in 12 bit raw but everything else is kind of crap. There is a really nice new SSD sled for NVME SSD’s from 52 Weeks that’s a tiny little package for raw shooting. I think at below $1,000 it’s a fun little camera. 
 

 

[eatstoomuchjam]

Agreed that everything other than 12-bit raw from the fp is a bit crap.  It also has a fairly dim non-flippy screen which requires using an external display, add-on EVF unless you want to sit directly behind the camera and hoping that you're not outside on a sunny day.

Bottom mounted sleds can be a bit tricky because you'll either need to make it taller to handle 1/4x20 or lose the tripod mount.  It looks like 52 Weeks went the route of losing the mount, but making the sled Arca-compatible.  That can work, but only if you're the kind of monster who puts on their tripod mount sideways (making the use of almost any video-friendly tripod head pretty awkward, since the Arca Swiss mount on them is usually front-back vs side-side).

Anyway, that sled is not too dissimilar from the DPL solution.  You might also consider their "FP mate" side-mounted SSD sled option which won't need a cable and which also doubles as a weird/awkward left-side hand grip.

https://darkpower.aliexpress.com/store/1102339831/pages/all-items.html?productGroupId=40000005805009&storeId=1102339831&sortType=bestmatch_sort&shop_sortType=bestmatch_sort

[MrSMW]

Please please please Sigma make another but with less deal-breakers (for me) (and many others).

My ‘most wanted’ camera that I have never been able to own.

[Ninpo33]

3 hours ago, MrSMW said:

Please please please Sigma make another but with less deal-breakers (for me) (and many others).

My ‘most wanted’ camera that I have never been able to own.

Yeah, all the newer tech and this thing will rock. IBIS, PDAF, 6k open gate, Anamorphic modes…

this guys channel may have been posted here before but man, he gets such magic images out of the FP. 
 

 

[inde]

Privately, under US$1000 is the price for these at the moment until some youtuber decides they are the most bestest undiscovered thing since sliced bread. again..

However, one thing that turns me off these (I almost bought one) is the opaque workflow required in Resolve. On the BM forums there are some informative posts but it's unclear to me still what the recommended workflow is. I don't want to get into it but this is what Sigma has put on their blog. What is annoying is this tutorial is not clear or, as I understand it, even a proper color managed workflow.

If you take a Sigma FP sample DNG into Resolve it's fine and I love how it looks set to clip in the raw tab. I guess I am just saying it would be a lot clearer if Sigma and BM would together and just say, 'this is the process..'. I think behind the scenes they have worked it out because of the seemlessness of Resolve (18.5.1). It's just all a bit opaque. 

After trying out the various workflows, I am happy with both CDNG and Braw. I don't need full frame so I've stayed away.

P.S. Sigma is probably the coolest most amazing photo company eva 🥰. The lenses are amazing, I've never had a bad one. The short films they've produced are great, this one is drop dead gorgeous. I'm just having a moan about how Sigma CDNGs and Resolve work together.

[MrSMW]

The thing about the FP is apart from it being as cool as fuck, is it’s size/weight and the image it produces.

I looked at every possible way of making it work for my needs including:

L model for the AF.

Rear tilt screen mod or rigging a monitor at the rear to use as a tilt (because not a fan of top mounted monitors).

24-105 f4 purely because of the OIS.

SSD for the storage so not relying on a single SD card.

Needs a cage and grip or just too unwieldy.

But it kept coming back to the same thing which is other than the outright IQ, Lumix’s S5ii.

And that is essentially what we want, - everything the S5ii can do, but in the FP body and with its IQ.

Along with Tamron, my favourite line up of lenses.

For zooms, Tamron but for primes, Sigma.

However, if Sigma produce a longer focal length sibling to the recent 28-45mm f1.8 also with internal zoom, it’s game over for me.

The 28-45 is almost a dead cert for next year for me for one of my systems, - either my Sony stills, or my Lumix video, but it will be determined by a number of factors and one of those (two actually) is what Lumix does with the next gen S1 line, or what Sigma do (if anything) with the FP line.

If there is any next gen FP following on from the L, as long as it can tick a combination of various boxes, I reckon I’d go all in not just on L Mount, but all in on Sigma full stop.

It’s up to Sigma, not me to make it happen, but FP-L with IBIS and tilt screen alone, that would be enough for me as those are the two things it doesn’t have that are the biggest deal breakers for me.

[eatstoomuchjam]

I'd go another way and say that if they make a newer fp, the most important thing for me would be a better internal recording mode.  Ideally, it'd be 12-bit, but I'd settle for a good H.265 (or ProRes).
Second for me would be a small internal EVF, doesn't need to flip.  Runner up could be a tilting screen that doesn't require a complicated mod.
Third would be some combination of better DR and faster readout.

For anything else - resolution, IBIS, etc, it's less important to me...  but 1/2 address the things that for me, tend to result with the fp being almost as big as other cameras (which have faster RS, 6-8K internal raw, etc).  I'd use it mostly with M mount glass, especially my beloved collapsible 50/2.