Panasonic, Leica and Sigma will all use the same objectives

As the battle of the mirrorless cameras reaches a turning point, three participants unite to help their cameras stand out. Leica, Panasonic and Sigma announced today that they would all use the same lens mount format for full-frame cameras and APS-C cameras, allowing lenses purchased for a company's cameras to work on their respective cameras.

This is a huge benefit for two reasons: this makes their cameras more attractive to photographers who will not find themselves locked into the single lens ecosystem of a company and this will help expand selections lenses available for their cameras rather than every company trying to build their own exclusive lens range. Junichiro Kitagawa, director of international marketing for Panasonic, called it "victory, victory and victory".

The agreement is reminiscent of what happened with the Micro Four Thirds cameras, where Panasonic and Olympus have created a lens mount standard that allows any company to create a camera that supports the same format. d & # 39; goal. This helped the norm to flourish, even as larger sensors gained popularity.

Panasonic and Sigma will adopt Leica's existing L-mount as part of the deal. This is probably because Leica is the only one to have launched full-format mirror-less cameras so far, and targets already exist for this format. Panasonic has announced its first full frame frameless cameras, the Lumix S1 and S1R, earlier in the day. Sigma has not yet announced a complete model, but says it plans to develop it.

Although the announcement shows that all three companies focus on full-frame cameras, the L mount is also designed to work with smaller APS-C sensors. Leica differentiated the two types of lenses with the names SL (for full-frame) and TL (for APS-C).

Photo of Vlad Savov / The Verge

The partnership, which companies call the L-Mount Alliance, makes a lot of sense. On the one hand, these companies are not always in direct competition. Leica is at the forefront of the market and focuses on photographers. In recent years, Panasonic has come a long way with video games. And Sigma … does his own thing.

Then, the simple fact that, without this agreement, these companies were facing a difficult battle. Sony has already become such a name in full-frame mirrorless cameras, forcing Canon and Nikon to compete. And now that Canon and Nikon are joining the fray, it will be much harder to get the attention of other companies.

Leica, Panasonic and Sigma would probably have fought alone. But together, they may be able to take on a bigger challenge for Canon and Nikon, especially since the two major camera manufacturers are still moving into the mirrorless realm.

Panasonic has already announced that it will work on three L-mount lenses, and that it will have ten in a year after the launch of the Lumix S1, which is currently scheduled for spring 2019. Sigma has announced that it will start make lenses next year. And Leica, which launched the mount in 2014, already has six goals, with five more planned for the next two years.