SIGMA CEO Kazuto Yamaki has issued an official statement about the Foveon X3 1:1:1 sensor development which was scrapped last February due to a critical flaw in the sensor design that would make it impossible to mass-produce.
SIGMA has gone back to the drawing board and restarted the research and development from scratch. SIGMA cannot give a timetable as to when they can tell us more about the new image sensor.
Statement from SIGMA:
First of all, thank you very much for your continued support and interest in our products.
In February 2020, we announced our decision to restart our plans for a full-frame Foveon X3 sensor camera, beginning with the development of a new sensor technology. We have not been able to share any information regarding this project in the time since, and I would like to use this short message to provide an update about the situation.
As previously announced, we halted the development of the project after the sensor we were working with could not go into mass production due to a critical flaw. As a result, we also terminated our contract with the sensor manufacturer with whom we had been collaborating. Further, we determined that the original sensor specifications would make it difficult to develop a product that will meet our and our customers’ high standards, and accordingly, we decided to go back to the drawing board.
At present, we are fully engaged in the research and development of the project, led by our head office, and are reviewing specifications to ensure that we will be able to satisfy the expectations placed on this project. While we have not proceeded to the development of a camera body yet, we will continue to do our utmost to create a camera in which we have full confidence.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the strong and ongoing support you have shown us.
All of our employees, including me, continue to do their very best to develop new and outstanding photographic technologies. Thank you for your patience and for your understanding.
Kazuto Yamaki
Chief Executive Officer, SIGMA Corporation
Sorry, I'm just, well.. French :D
After all if a Foven 20mp is classed as 60mp then an R5 45mp could just as easily be called a 90mp because of the dual pixel.
Dual pixel doesn't add to the resolution, although it has potential beyond what Canon uses it for.
The argument was just that if anything, it should be argued the the resolution is lower, not higher. Just like it should not be argued that having true color sampling makes 20 MP spatial resolution anything other than 20 MP spatial resolution.
What the eye can or cannot see doesn't really matter either, does it? It's what we can extract from given image data through digital processing that ultimately reveals to the eye many things it could not capture otherwise. And there certainly are scenarios in which debayering can fail, leading to visual artifacts.
The theoretical appeal of foveon is more about increased signal gathering than color detail in my personal priorities. Although in practice that hasn't been working out that great, as far as I'm aware.
And, for what it's worth, I think "dual pixels" are mainly for AF use (and incredibly great ones at that!), but I consider them so close to each other in a Bayer array that they behave more as a single pixel element in resolution than 2 pixel elements. But AF ability is just as important (or more) to consider as just QE & crosstalk and #pixel elements. And future quad pixels will even further improve AF ability.
So, to me, even if Sigma can get their Foveon sensor to work with good QE and acceptably low cross-talk, it still won't be enough to compete with Canon DP or QP technology unless it has some really good phase detection added to it, which may be asking too much of it in such a competitive and shrinking market of today. While I am rooting for them to succeed, I think it is going to be a very difficult uphill battle for them.
Listening to CEO Kazuto Yamaki reminds me of all their hard work and patience.
I love this CEO and his sincere and humble attitude, and I love Sigma as a company. I own the ART 50mm and the ART 85mm and could not be happier with the quality and value from these lenses.
Great thanks to you Kazuto Yamaki and great thanks to your team. I appreciate that you have the bravery to undertake this innovation in sensor technology and I look forward to the result when it finally arrives.