Sigma BF Sells Out in Japan Ahead of Launch

Although the stylish Sigma BF camera remains available to preorder at retailers in the United States, Sigma headquarters in Japan has warned photographers that it received excess orders for the camera, meaning some customers will be unable to receive their BF on launch day next week.

The Sigma BF is currently slated to release on April 24 in two colorways: black and silver. Each is milled from a single block of aluminum using a state-of-the-art five-axis CNC machine, which takes seven hours to complete. Once milled, the camera must then be assembled, and all the electronics, including the 24-megapixel full-frame image sensor, must be put into position.

As PetaPixel reported after visiting Sigma’s headquarters in Aizu, Japan, the company purchased six brand-new machines for milling the BF, and they work in tandems of two. Ultimately, Sigma can only make nine BF cameras per day, which is an extremely low level of production given that the company overall can make 1,000 cameras per month in Aizu (and 75,000 lenses, by the way). Sigma told PetaPixel it had been manufacturing BF cameras for five months ahead of the BF’s exciting global reveal on February 23. With about seven months of production under its belt by the time the camera releases on April 24, that’s still fewer than 2,000 Sigma BF cameras in total, which will be sold across a wide range of markets.

It is no surprise, then, that despite being a niche, specialized product, Sigma is running into some issues meeting demand for the Sigma BF.

Last Monday, April 7, Sigma shared a press release in Japan outlining preorder and release plans for numerous products, including the Sigma BF. Sigma opened up preorders for the BF in black and silver (the silver version is “made to order” in Japan) on April 10, warning customers ahead of time that the company has “limited production capacity” for the Sigma BF and that it “may take some time for some customers to receive the product.”

These initial fears have been realized, as Sigma said on April 10.

“As we told you on April 7th, we received orders that exceed our expectations and product cannot keep up with your request for the full-size mirrorless camera ‘Sigma BF (Black / Silver)’ scheduled to be released on April 24th (Thursday). Therefore, it may take some time for the product to arrive at your hand,” Sigma says in a machine-translated statement.

“We apologize for the inconvenience to customers and related parties who are waiting for our products, but we are currently working hard on production, so please wait for a while,” the company continues.

While it is not unusual for a camera company to release a statement like this in Japan when it releases new cameras and lenses — many products are not widely available at retailers on launch day — the Sigma BF is one of the rare cases when it’s possible to know the actual supply that cannot meet market demand. Rather than being forced to guess like usual, it is clear that more people want the Sigma BF than the less than 2,000 units the company has been able to manufacture in Aizu, Japan with its new machinery.

It may be a niche product in terms of its design language and manufacturing process, but the Sigma BF is not quite so niche that photographers aren’t itching to buy one.

As of now, photographers in the United States can still preorder the Sigma BF in black or silver ahead of its ship date. Adorama says the BF will begin shipping on April 15, and orders will be fulfilled on a first-come, first-serve basis. Meanwhile, B&H says the camera launches on April 25 and has no special notes about availability.