Sigma, the Foveon and we

Hello to all,

in an ultimately strategic move, Apple has recently gone public with its press department to inform its audience that it has discontinued the development of an "Apple Car". And the reasons come with it: You have to bundle your resources, and the investments of the last probably 1 1/2 decades in such a development have become too massive. This information is currently going around the world, and everyone who has been waiting for or had been interested in an Apple Car now knows where they stand and that a very good thing is unfortunately no longer being pursued.

I originally studied Roman Katholic theology at university. And there one could specialize in such a scientific study (which, in terms of difficulty, easily rivals a law degree...) in interpreting, explain, or, as is often said, *exegeting* the documents that the Vatican or even the Pope officially publish. The hierarchical levels alone, in which these texts from the Vatican are to be classified, are infinitely important. The layman often likes to speak of a "dogma" or "encyclica" - but even generations of experts argue about whether a corresponding text was an "ex cathedra" pronouncement or not. After such an *information* text has been published, the work begins with the question: "What are they trying to tell us?" It may also be worth noting that the Vatican publishes in Latin, but because at one time - when the Church was still "modern" - this was considered an universal language.

When I now look at Apple, the Vatican and the Sigma family company and its announcements, I don't have much difficulty in recognizing parallels and anti-parallels here. What the Foveon community (not to say church community) is holding in their hands today, after about 8 years of waiting and hoping, is, if I see it correctly, ultimately a *machine translation* of a speech hold in Japanese language available on YouTube about ... well, what about? The end of the 1:1:1 Foveon? Its delay? We don't know exactly.

Looking back over many years, it's no exaggeration to say that the threads here on dpreview about attempts to exegeting and discussing and speculating about Sigma's information output would also fill entire libraries. What remains are frustrations, disillusionment, turning away, comradely continuation, resignation.

At all times here on the forum I have expressed my utmost respect and solidarity with the owner of Sigma. The company boss is a person of the highest integrity towards the users, but what impresses me even more is obviously also towards his employees. I was impressed by the information he provided about their labor.

Now you could say that things didn't turn out the way we wanted. Cultural characteristics as well as cultural differences were repeatedly brought up, and the company owner was unable to express this to his more than loyal followers in the way they would have expected or perhaps even understood. Information that - in *their* culture - would be worth it after such a long wait. We, the buyers of Sigma products, were at a loss and unfortunately had to think about what was being said or meant to us in a verbose and speculative manner. *One* clear word, the facts of the day, "Hi guys, I have a confession to make...". Such "announcements", as every employee in the world gets to hear, allows informational security, solidarity, understanding, perseverance and patience. Instead, many, many years have been spent waiting mostly helplessly and enduring with patience - and now we don't even get a word in our language.

I deeply regret that we have now reached this point. I even don't know whether some people at Sigma are now taking a load off their minds, or whether they are trying even harder in a direction that the community knows nothing about. Unfortunately, it reminds me - once again - of the mysterious center of the Catholic Church. Although, according to the latest information from the company owner, we still don't know whether things will continue or whether it's an end in installments. I am so sorry about that. Very sorry. And I fear that the waiting group will now disperse to some extent without ever finding out why? I read with compassion and sadness in several posts in the forum in these days that those who have been waiting for years - like myself - may not get to see the good end of the story because they have grown old and shaky. What a tragedy!