DSLRmagazine (google translation here) posted an interesting Interview with Sigma CEO Kazuto Yamaki. Those are some of the interesting answers:
– We are checking the cine lens market and if there is a place for us there.
– We are studying to possibility to make a Full Frame f/1.8 zoom just like the 18-35mm f/1.8 APS-C lens. The issue here is to keep the size reasonable
– We are sure mirrorless will growth and we will expand our presence there
– I’ts a bit more difficult to make ART lenses for the Sony FE system because of the not so large diameter of the mount. We don’t know why Sony did this. Likely because the E-mount was meant for APS-C first and only after that they did use it for FF too.
– We are aware that Canon and Sony are working on a similar “foveon” technology
– Our current APS-C sensor match the medium format sensor quality. And it would not be a problem for us to make even larger (medium format) Foveon sensors. But the medium format market is shrinking…
– If we do a mirrorless system camera than we have to be sure to be able to support that system in future
– yes we have other companies interested in using our Foveon sensor.
– we expect companies to announce PRO stuff at CP+ in February
Very interesting as usual. Sigma and CEO Kazuto Yamaki are really a nice small family company and I wish them to keep having success in future!!!
12 Responses
Small family run business. You make it sound like a Italian restaurant not a multimillion dollar corporation.
The food in small family restaurent is always better then a chain restaurent. 🙂
Why don’t they make their own m43 body already? They already have 3 lenses for it that even cover APS-C.
To sum up: Everything in Sigma is wonderful, we will make everything, and we will be wildly successful.
OK.
This kind of manipulative spin straight from the CEO makes me not want to buy Sigma products ever again.
The diameter of the E-mount on Sony FE cameras is larger than that of Nikon DSLRs and of the Leica M system. The Zeiss Otus 1.4/55 and 1.4/85 with adapter are working beautifully on the A7 bodies. This mount diamater talk is a load of bunk, intended at hurting the E-mount brand.
Sigma was hoping for easy market dominance with its ART lenses, but saw their plans thwarted by all this new glass from Zeiss and Sony: the Otus line, the Loxia line, and of course that spectacular FE 1.8/55 from Sony. All these new toys are making the ART lenses look like too little too late. The ART lenses are too focused on the aging Canon and Nikon systems.
Mike, before launching an attack you need to understand a bit more about lens design. The issue with Sony mount is not just the diameter, but the smaller diameter combined with the very short register distance (i.e mount to sensor distance). Sony has a register distance of only 18mm compared to 47mm for Nikon and 29mm for Leica M. And by the way even with that, Leica lenses actually suffer from corner issues in digital cameras and Leica has to use offset micro-lenses in its sensor design, as well as software correction to handle those issues. However Sony cameras don’t have those offset micro-lenses in the sensor, so the lens design itself has to be eliminate smearing and color shifts on the edges. That is harder to do with the combination of an ultra-short register distance with a not so liberal mount diameter. You could still make good lenses for the system. It is just that they need to be substantially bigger and more expensive compared to what was possible if the mount design was more reasonable. Yes Otus works well but it is a huge lens which when put on an adapter becomes even larger.
There is no such thing as too short register distance. That is completely irrelevant point. You can always design lenses with a “built in adapter”, i.e. the last optical element sits rather deep inside the lens barrel. As the Sigma CEO said, the small diameter is the restring factor in the lens design. Having a different register distance makes absolutely no difference there.
Also your comment about the lack of offset micro lenses from Sony cameras is not true. Most of the Sony sensors have that feature: http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/11/08/sony-a7-microlenses-are-offset
>>>> You can always design lenses with a “built in adapter”,
Yes you can and then the lenses will be large, which is what I said. The problem is a combination of the short register distance and a small mount. It is interesting that in comparison to the 46mm for Sony, the EOS M mount has a 58mm mount even for APS-C cameras! And as a result of that EOS-M lenses are significantly smaller than the Sony e-mount APS-C lenses.
well Sony does exactly that, the rear element in FE24-70/4 and FE70-200 is quite far away from the lens mount
the small diameter/short flange presents problem only for making IBIS work
Yes there is. The flange distance is crucial to optics and sensor design as the ratio of distance from rear lens to center of sensor or to edge of the sensor is greater shorter the flange distance is. Combine that with a smaller bajonet diameter and you have serious problems with vignetting and edge quality.
Not even microlenses on pixels does help in there, why Sony is trying to solve as well problems developing a curved sensor that would eliminate the problems of inverse square law with round optics and square flat sensor.
I hope they won’t forget the A 6000 Sony.
Sigma please, make a fast and not very expensive telefoto for M4/3 75mm or 85mm f1.8