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Panasonic confirms they will launch new affordable FF cameras but still insists no APS-C L-mount is on the roadmap

The french website Photorend interviewed Yosuke Yamane, Director of Imaging Business Division at Panasonic:

Panasonic has 10% market share in the $3,000 camera segment:
These three models are offered at more than € 3,000, which has enabled us to obtain more than 10% of the market for full-size mirrorless (for the range of devices over € 3,000). It is in line with expectations and we are satisfied with the results.

Best selling S cameras:
among our three models, the S1 is the one that sells the most (in terms of quantity), because its price is affordable. However, S1H sales are higher than expected due to its significant appeal to the video and film industry. The S1R sells less than the S1, but allows us to mark our intentions for the industry, especially for professional photographers. Rather than chasing numbers, we would like to convey the message of our determination in the development of photography.

2020 market forecast:
The full-size hybrid market will experience greater growth this year. Compact or SLR cameras will be on the decline.

More affordable full-format device:
we would like to expand the product line, and you should wait for the next announcements from Lumix cameras.

French market goal:
we want to become number 1 for full format hybrid cameras on the French market.

APS-C L-mount camera is not coming:
our strategy is very clear: we will strengthen the Micro 4/3 mounts and the L mount in full format. A small L-mount sensor could cause confusion on the market. We have two sizes of sensors. If we have three, this could cause confusion, so we will not develop an APS-C version of the L-mount and will focus on the full screen.

Panasonic considered making the L-mount compatible with m43 lenses:
Sony’s E-mount supports both APS-C and full frame, but we don’t expect a large number of users using large, full frame lenses to turn to small Micro 4/3 sensors. A common Micro 4/3 and full format system therefore makes little sense.
We understand this request and we seriously considered the issue when we developed our full format cameras to offer a unified format for full format and Micro 4/3 sensors, but we decided not to do it because we think it would does not bring great added value for the user.

Covid 19 effects:
we are trying to minimize the damage caused by the Covid-19 [Response dated March 5, 2020. Editor’s note]. We have a production site in China, but near the eastern coast, towards Taiwan, so the damage is not as great as in other cities; 80% of the employees have already returned to the factory, but some suppliers still have difficulties. In these circumstances, we try to minimize the damage. Camera factories in China are starting to operate again right now.

Sigma CEO Yamaki: Sigma FP not selling as well as expected, new compact FF lenses coming

Sigma chief Kazuto Yamaki was interviewed by Dpreview:

Focus on lens design for mirrorless system:

It’s simply because we’ve had higher demand for mirrorless lenses. The mirrorless camera market is stable compared to DSLR. If you look at the market statistics you’ll see that the decline in DSLR sales is quite significant. This decline gets steeper every month.
We’re also seeing a decline in sales of our DSLR lenses, so naturally we have to focus our efforts on the development of mirrorless lenses.

Strong DN Full Frame lens sales:

They’re doing very well, especially our 24-70mm F2.8. It’s been very well-received. We’re still catching up to demand for that lens. We’ve been enhancing our manufacturing capacity, continuously, but we still can’t meet demand. Even in the current difficult situation, demand for that lens is still very strong.

About the Sigma FP sales:

It sold quite well at the beginning. Early adopters were very interested, and purchased the camera immediately. We’ve received a lot of emails from customers, which I’ve read, and we have a lot of customers who are very happy and satisfied with the fp. We’ve also been monitoring feedback online, through Facebook and Twitter; things like that.
To be honest though, sales have declined considerably [since launch], especially in Europe and America. It’s still selling well in Japan, but overall sales have been lower than expected.

Development of small FF lenses:

Going forward, we will still try to deliver the highest-possible quality products. But we will have two main streams of products. One is for very serious photographers, like our existing ‘Art’ series. But another line will be high quality, premium lenses, but much more compact. And very stylish, like our 45mm F2.8, with metal housings, and high quality aperture and focus rings. We will expand that kind of range for street photographers, or those who need smaller, stylish, high-quality products.

About the Sigma Foveon L-mount camera:

The development of the sensor has been significantly delayed. We are still working on it, but there are still several technical problems we need to overcome. If everything goes well, we should be able to release the camera next year. But if we continue to face technical problems the camera may be delayed further. We haven’t stopped developing the camera, but without the sensor we can’t move very fast.

I damn hope to see this new Foveon camera next year!!! 🙂

Very wild rumors about a new Panasonic S1V (?) L-mount cinema camera

A chinese film maker Yu Yue reports about a possible new cinema L-mount cinema camera that might be named Pansonic S1V. He also spilled out those specs:

New enhanced version S1H(S1V?)
4K 120P Netflix approved codec,
11.8M pixels CMOS
Great low light performance,
Enhanced all pixels DFD,
4K 120P HDR 12 Bit Raw external recording,
Coming this year.

I really haven’t heard anything about such a camera yet. Drop me a message if you know more about this!