Sigma Rumored FE 150-600mm Fleshes Out Strategy

Sigma has been fleshing out its mirrorless lens collection by developing short-flange-distance designs fitted to the most limiting major mount system, the Sony FE mount. The rumored 150-600 continues the trend of Sigma pushing for mirrorless redesigns of older catalog lenses originally designed for DSLRs, with their quite long flange distances.

They could have instead opted to merely continue to offer mirrorless-mount-adapted older designs and still offered a better price-to-value ratio than that offered by most major camera manufacturers. They also could have continued to develop newer lens designs in more obscure focal lengths and for more narrow applications – a trademark of Sigma’s lens design choices in the DSLR days.

Instead, Sigma is building a library of the most popular focal lengths and apertures with new, improved mirrorless designs, even though at the time these lenses cannot be adapted to major mount systems such as the Canon RF mount or the Nikon Z mount. They are effectively sacrificing short-term demand and market share for a more long-term strategy of having a more complete, modern catalog. The cost of doing this is perhaps less drastic during a time when they have more demand than they can meet, and when the pandemic supply chain disruptions haven’t yet been worked through.

This also suggests that their CEO’s ruminations about providing RF mounts may be more than just idle daydreams.

Sigma appears to be making a couple decisions. Firstly, that DSLRs are a dead market. Had they continued pursuing the use of the Canon EF mount and relied on the constellation of adapters out there, all of Canon’s market could purchase new Sigma lenses. Secondly, they are consolidating the all-important lens designs on Sony E mount, the physical limitations of which are easily compensated with mount hardware to fit the wider openings of all the other major lens mounts.