In 2020, Sigma announced the disappointing news that its work on a groundbreaking Foveon sensor was delayed indefinitely. However, in a recent interview, Sigma’s CEO has said that work is underway, having restarted the project from scratch.
In a broad-ranging interview with filmmaker Johnnie Behiri of YouTube channel CineD, Sigma CEO Kazuto Yamaki confirmed that the manufacturer had previously been forced to abandon the project completely and start over, and while it seems that there are still problems to solve, Sigma is still hard at work attempting to bring it to market.
Rather than photosites sitting behind a color filter array — a mosaic of red, green, and blue — and each recording the luminosity value for one of the three colors, the pixels in a Foveon sensor can capture full color. Three photodiodes are stacked, each tuned to red, green, or blue, therefore removing the need to demosaic the data from the sensor in order to calculate which colors the camera is seeing.
In other significant news, Yamaki confirmed that it is aware of the demand for Sigma to make lenses for Fujifilm cameras and the company is now “seriously thinking about it.”
With the possibility of faster processing speeds inside cameras, could Sigma be inching closer to making Foveon a reality? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
I was under the impression that the issue with Foveon wasn't the processor speeds, but rather the physics of the sensor design, which is why it suffered from poor high-ISO performance.
Sitting here with my Foveon camera second-guessing my reality.
Good things come to those who wait
I would love to see the Foveon sensor in a fully capable camera body - one that has state-of-the-art tracking autofocus and a nice fast frame rate.
Something that will compete with Canon and Sony's flagship models, not just something that competes with their mid-range prosumer models.
I mean, it'd be a shame to have this great sensor, but not be able to use it effectively for fast-moving wildlife and sports action photography.
Even without a revamp to improve high ISO performance, a Foveon equivalent of a D850/A7RIV-level camera with a more common mount would be a fantastic option for studio photographers.
I had no clue Foveon was still a project. How long has it been since the start? 20 years?
The last new camera with a Foveon sensor was the Sigma Quattro H. They’re supposedly working on a full frame sensor camera with the new L mount which a lot of people were excited about. I have a DP2 Quattro which I love, but it’s not an all-around camera. It’s a base ISO camera and autofocus is pretty weak, but when you nail a shot it’s amazing for the price.