… Sigma and Wabi Sabi

Iain G Foulds wrote:

Iain,

If "Sigma is an obscure and irrelevant camera manufacturer because they settled on flawed products" why do you bother with anything Sigma at all.?

… Sigma is an obscure and irrelevant camera manufacturer because almost no one has ever heard of it, and it has otherwise no influence on photographic technology. After 20 years of shooting Nikon, I only heard of SIgmas through a comment by Don Cox (I believe) at another forum.

… Sigma images are in a class by themselves. They are a specialized camera. They are not a general “all purpose” camera. I only comment because Sigma allows itself to be judged as just another all purpose camera, and appears to design towards becoming just another all purpose camera.

… And, thanks for the good comment on my images. The cleanness and clarity of the Foveon opens up great compositional possibilities.

Sigma's marketing of its cameras has been a mystery. They insist on trying to compete with mainstream products. Which doesn't work because neither the camera bodies nor the sensors can compete feature for feature.

They would be better off marketing their wares as special purpose that stand aside from the mainstream, emphasising uniqueness.  They could start by making their gear fixed ISO rather than pretending they have any hope of making useful ISO 3200.  Focus on the special properties of the sensor and turn the weaknesses into selling points. All that stuff.  The "New XPan", or something unique, so customers will buy their stuff for the right reasons, not because they mistakenly thought it had more dynamic range and less noise than Sonican.  A big problem is that reviewers simply compare Sigma to mainstream on the standard features and find Sigma wanting. They need to establish a niche vision exclusively of their own. Somehow get photographers talking about stuff Bayer can't do, rather than laughing at stuff Foveon can't do.  They have been brave enough to make the sensors and brave enough to break the mould with industrial design, but very conventional with marketing.