The news that Sigma, Panasonic and Leica have teamed up for a frontal assault on the mirrorless market has raised plenty of questions. We had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Andreas Kaufmann, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Leica Camera, Stephan Schulz, Global Director of the Professional Business Unit at Leica Camera, Junichiro Kitagawa, Executive Officer and Director of the Consumer Marketing Division at Panasonic and Kazuto Yamaki, CEO of Sigma to learn more about the vision and strategy behind the L Mount Alliance.

Here’s what we learned:

The Companies Won’t Collaborate on Product Development or Pricing
Each company will pursue their own product strategies and will continue to compete with each other in the market. The Alliance will define a technical standard and its members will meet regularly to ensure adherence to it, but won’t jointly develop products. According to Leica’s Kaufmann, the L Mount Alliance will work a bit like the Android operating system–companies will license the technology but have a free hand in developing products around it.

Panasonic and Sigma Saw a Chance to Win More Pro Users
Panasonic’s Kitagawa says the company feels it has a strong position with filmmakers and advanced amateurs but needed products to appeal to a more professional user base, which is what the full frame L mount affords.

For its part, Sigma had originally planned to develop its own full frame mirrorless camera independently but when they were presented with an opportunity to license the Leica mount, Yamaki opted for that route instead. On the technical side, it delivered everything they were looking for, he says.

Panasonic Won’t Make APS-C L Mount Cameras, Sigma Will Make APS-C L Mount Lenses
While the L mount does support APS-C models, Panasonic has no interest in that format and will instead focus L mount product development around full frame cameras. Sigma, on the other hand, will develop APS-C format lenses for the L mount–giving Leica CL and T-series camera owners an opportunity to use Sigma glass.

The Products Will Be Truly Interchangeable
The companies will also try to avoid the dynamics of the Micro Four Thirds standard, which has seen lenses optimized for specific brands (i.e. Panasonic’s dual stabilization is only supported when Panasonic lenses are paired with Panasonic camera bodies). Where Micro Four Thirds is a relationship, the L Mount Alliance will be closer to a marriage, albeit an open one, says Panasonic’s Kitagawa .

No One Else Has Come Forward to License the L Mount
Leica is willing to license its mount to other industry partners, but in the early (very early) days of the standard, no other company has yet to express interest. In our conversations with other lens and camera makers, we didn’t hear much interest expressed in jumping on the L mount bandwagon, though our contacts stressed it was very early and they needed time to see how the standard developed.

Open Questions
The Alliance is still hammering out issues such as which company will be responsible for servicing products. If a Panasonic body and Leica lens have an issue, which company is on the hook for the fix? The companies plan on hammering out those details through the remainder of 2018.