Sigma Mystery: Electronic Viewfinder Registered

Sigma already has an electronic viewfinder for its little FP camera: it’s the $500 LVF-11 pictured here. But there is a new device going through certification (via Nokishita) in South Korea that appears to be an EFV for potentially a new camera. The new “Sigma Electronic Viewfinder EVF-11” was registered this morning.

Sigma’s long-burning desires to be a camera body maker are currently tied up in two lines: the FP camera for video users and their own Foveon-sensor-based line of oddly-shaped bodies.

The FP is a little video box camera using a standard CMOS sensor produced out-of-house. The other effort – which the CEO has previously indicated had been delayed – largely, it appears, due to sensor fabrication and software engineering and integration issues. Software engineers now outnumber lens design engineers at the firm, in an age of supremely-high end-user expectations for features such as autofocus tracking and sensor-shift resolution goosing.

Originally slated for an early 2020 release, the new Foveon-oriented body wasn’t expected to be put to market anytime soon, although an errant EVF release could raise eyebrows for something sooner. The new EFV registration may also turn out to be a revision of the earlier FP EFV; or it could be one designed for an FP Mark II.