Did Leica just throw shade at APS-C sensors and the Sigma BF?

In a curious interview, the head of Leica seemed to take a swipe at the Sigma BF camera – and seemingly taking a jab at APS-C sensor technology at the same time.

During a sitdown with the Phoblographer, Dr Andreas Kaufmann – chairman of Leica's supervisory board, and the man who rescued the company from the brink of bankruptcy 20 years ago – made what felt like some pretty pointed remarks about his L-Mount Alliance partner, and made clear that Leica is done with APS-C.

"At one point, he brought up the Sigma BF camera – which he agreed (in some very challenging statements) that it was basically the Leica T," wrote the outlet, alluding to the conceptual similarities between the BF and the highly conceptual TL series, last seen in 2017's Leica TL2.

I pointed out those similarities in my Sigma BF review (and I was by no means the only journalist to notice them!), but you don't need to read the whole thing to figure out what they are – just look at the image above and you can see pretty clearly.

While it isn't expanded on, the phrase "very challenging comments" suggests that Kaufmann feels a bit spiky about Sigma's camera. Still, there was one key difference to the TL: the BF is a full-frame camera, rather than Leica's APS-C body.

So the Phoblographer asked Kaufmann why Leica didn't make a full-frame version of the camera itself. "Andreas didn’t respond directly to the question, but said that Leica wanted to move away from APS-C."

This doesn't come as a huge surprise, given that the company's last APS-C body was the Leica CL in 2017 – which launched a few months after the TL2. Indeed, when it discontinued those cameras in 2022, it noted that:

"The overall photography market has seen a decline in sales of compact and system cameras with smaller sensors… Going forward, the company will primarily focus its attention on the production of full-frame cameras."

The curiosity, of course, is that one of Leica's most enduring products is the D-Lux line – a series of Micro Four Thirds cameras whose sensors are even smaller than APS-C.

While I'm assuming that Kauffman's latest comment was directed toward APS-C interchangeable lens cameras, you can certainly infer that the company has no interest in upgrading the Leica D-Lux 8 successor with an APS-C sensor.

I highly recommend reading the rest of the interview, which touches on everything from Leica's next medium format camera to the company's first implementation of camera AI in 2019.