Sigma Says Full-Frame Foveon Sensor Still in Development, But It’s Not Close
Sigma’s full-frame Foveon image sensor project has faced significant challenges, but the company’s CEO says it is still working on Foveon image sensor development.
Speaking with photographer and YouTube content creator Matt Granger, as reported by Mirrorless Rumors and Digicame-Info, Sigma’s CEO Kazuto Yamaki explained the status of the Foveon image sensor, and why photographers may still be waiting a long time before a full-frame Sigma Foveon camera reaches market.
“We are still working on the development of the [Foveon] sensor. We are still in the stage of technology development, so we still have not started the design of the actual sensor. We are still working on the design of the pixel architecture,” Yamaki tells Granger.
“But there are — to be honest, the project has been a little bit delayed… because every time we run the wafer and get the prototype sensor, we found some technical issues because we have never designed a sensor by ourselves.”
Sigma has had a Foveon team, but Sigma’s CEO says that now, it is primarily a Sigma Japan engineering team working on the project.
“I think the technical problems have been narrowing down. If we become confident that the technology is ready for production, we start to design the sensor and then start the production,” Yamaki adds.
It does not seem like major progress has been made in 2025, as Yamaki’s updates on the Sigma Foveon project align with what he said when PetaPixel spoke to him about Foveon at CP+ in Yokohama earlier this year.
“We are still working on it. We have the project team who’s been working on this project. Unfortunately, it’s been taking more time, much more time than we expected, and it’s delayed, delayed, delayed. Because every time we make a prototype, we find some technical issues, but we are making progress little by little because we already promised to deliver the products with the Foveon sensor,” Yamaki told PetaPixel in February.
This latest update, which sounds a lot like the one at the beginning of this year, echoes the same sentiments Yamaki shared in February 2024, at which point Sigma was confident that it would have a prototype sensor before the end of the year. The full-frame Foveon project has been in development to varying capacities at Sigma since 2016, and it is increasingly difficult to believe that all the technical challenges can be overcome.
In February 2024, Yamaki told PetaPixel that a full-frame Foveon L-Mount camera was still “at least a few years away,” but that was with the expectation that the company would have reached the prototyping stage by now.
‘I think the technical problems have been narrowing down.’
Sigma’s team of engineers, who PetaPixel met last week at Sigma’s headquarters in Aizu, Japan, is an exceptionally talented group. Even if a full-frame Foveon camera does not necessarily feel much closer to reality now than it did nearly a decade ago, it is unwise to bet against Sigma.
However, given the amount of work that has gone into the project and the niche qualities inherent to Foveon sensors, which limit their practical applications for many photographers, it remains difficult to envision the project being financially worth it. Sigma has shown time and again that it can find success where other companies dare not even try, but this project is particularly challenging.
Image credits: Sigma
