Sigma Wants to Make Fujifilm GFX Lenses But the Market Isn’t Big Enough
With full-frame Canon RF and Nikon Z mounts remaining closed to Sigma, it’s not hard to think that the company might want to expand its support elsewhere if it’s possible. A natural place to do so would be on the Fujifilm GFX mount.
Sigma’s CEO, Kazuto Yamaki, has wanted to make lenses for larger sensor systems, but the costs of doing so outweighed the return on investment.
“I [am] personally very much interested in supporting medium format. Again, it’s a small market, but I have some interest,” he said in 2024. Two years ago, the GFX 100 II was fairly new and the GFX 100S II had not yet been announced.
The former was praised by PetaPixel‘s Chris Niccolls as “the ultimate medium format camera on the market” and a significant upgrade over its predecessors. The latter introduced better autofocus, better IBIS, and improved displays to this historically more affordable model, and made a strong case for itself compared to the more expensive GFX100 II.
These are two strong options at the mid and high-end portions of the market, and the GFX 100S II appears popular enough that dealers can’t keep stock. But is that popularity enough to support investment from a third-party lens manufacturer? For now, Yamaki says no.
“I’m still personally interested in supporting the larger sensor camera system, but we have many, many projects in our wish list and we have to prioritize,” he tells PetaPixel.
“And I know many, many enthusiasts use Fujifilm GFX cameras, but unfortunately, the number of customers is not as big as that of full-frame sensor camera users. So as a company, in order to survive, especially in such a type of situation, we need to prioritize the projects or products that have larger demand.”
So, despite what appears to be strong sales, at least from the perspective of what constitutes “strong” in the more niche segment that is medium format digital, there just isn’t a large enough install base yet for Sigma to take the plunge on devoting resources to it.
That said, Yamaki did not close the door on the possibility.
“But of course, a project for such a lens is at least in my personal wishlist,” he says.
Image credits: Fujifilm / Sigma
