Maybe Sigma is not going this way because they are losing tons of money on the price of the cameras. $799 for a sd Quattro seems to me like a low price for what I have. They don't want to sell a lot of cameras.
I think this statement could be misunderstood easily. I think what you're saying is that Sigma doesn't want to just sell a lot of cameras. I think they would LOVE to sell a lot of SA mount cameras, so people buy a lot of SA mount lenses.
The Sigma m4/3 cameras might sell quite well (assuming they make a low-end model and a more expensive model with a tilt screen, better viewfinder, bigger shooting buffer, and faster operation). They might even out-sell the SD Quattro. I think that would be a good start.
Here is what I meant.
Sigma has told us they lose money on every SA-mount interchangeable lens camera they sell. I wonder how much money they lose on each camera. Of course we will never learn the answer to this question so there is plenty of room to speculate:
Therefore, if they sell a huge number of cameras they lose a huge amount of money.
So, they want to sell some cameras but not a huge number, just enough to establish themselves as a manufacturer of cameras.
If we assume every buyer of a SA-mount interchangeable lens camera will buy a couple of lenses (only Sigma makes these lenses), this might even out their losses. My own opinion is this does not quite balance out their losses and really they should have three lens purchases per camera sold.
If they make a short flange mirrorless they might not get two lens sales (per camera sale) in the long run because users are able to adapt their existing lenses. Therefore they have to reformulate their loss math and probably raise the price of the cameras.
Personally I would like to see Sigma make a short flange mirrorless. But, because of the above, I don't expect them to. This is a mistake but I think they are making this mistake.
