The Kipon IBELUX 40mm f/0.85 MKIII is coming. Kipon says:
wide-open shooting with the new IBELUX 40/0.85 MarkIII on Fujifilm X. Much better chromatic aberration, better resolution and better control under strong light
Just a fun fact: Kipon once said here, that their Ibelux 40mmF0.85 performs better on Fuji than on Sony cameras? Why? They don’t know. It’s the same lens. Who knows if X-Trans helps a bit to get better results ;).
In all these years, the Sigma CEO Kazuto Yamaki-san has explained that they wanted to make X mount lenses, but they can’t, as Fujifilm protected its mount by not disclosing the protocols.
Well, Fujifilm finally understood that it was a massive mistake, and in 2020 they opened their mount.
And now, after almost a year of teasers, the Sigma CEO finally made a statement that can make Fujifilm Shooters optimistic. In fact, in an interview with CineD, he said:
We are aware of the demand for Sigma lenses for Fujifilm cameras. We are now thinking about how we can satisfy Fujifilm customers
In my ears this sounds like surely lenses will come, but Sigma is thinking about which lenses Fujifilm shooters could really want and hence satisfy them. And if my sources are correct, the decision has already been done, as the first Sigma AF X mount lenses should be announced in 2021.
And here are some other key points of the interview:
Sigma was founded 60 years ago by the father of the current CEO
The current CEO does not want to make Sigma as big as possible. He is more hungry for quality. So his focus is on quality products
Sigma always tries to make lenses as small as possible, but so far they don’t offer pancake lenses
Sigma still can’t find a way to make pancake lenses with acceptable quality [Note: This is why i LOVE my Fujinon XF27mm f/2.8 R WR, as it is an incredibly good lens for being that small. Trust me guys, it’s optically amazing and ultra compact. It lives glued on my X-E3.]
Sigma does not stop exploring on how to achieve good quality pancake lenses
Do you remember when back in 2018 our sources told us that Sigma is waiting for Fujifilm camera sales to increase by 20% before they making any lenses for the Fujifilm system? Well, it looks like Fujifilm was able to achieve that goal. And now Sigma is even more motivated to make money with us. ;)
