Sigma CEO Talks Art Lenses, Sony and Baseball

On this video Mike from Sigma Canada has a chance to interview Mr. Kazuto Yamaki – Sigma’s CEO (and the son of the company’s late founder) and discuss several interesting topics.

We had a chance to interview Mr. Kazuto Yamaki about a year ago in Photokina 2016 (check out the full interview here) and this interview brings the spotlight to several things that were announced since than such as the new 24-70mm ART lens (which was in development for the past 2 years  according to Mr. Yamaki many different prototypes – non of them f/2 by the way – this was “too difficult”).

Regarding the new 14mm f/1.8 Mr. Yamaki explained that he had a talk with the engineers (apparently he has no office but he actually sits in the floor with the engineers), and they needed new equipment (that was also needed for the 12-24mm) – this allowed them to create large diameter aspherical elements (which are very difficult to make). They will be able to use this technology for future wide angle lenses as well according to Mr. Yamaki.

Mr. Yamaki also talks about more distant future lens technologies and materials (glass is still the go to materials but maybe things will change in the future). He also talks about the reasons for getting into the Cine area (the company currently has 10 lenses and Sigma want to add more in the future).

Mr. Yamaki admitted to being Sony shooter himself (when he is not using Sigma cameras) and he reiterated his promise (which he also gave in our interview with him) to make more E-mount lenses (he didn’t mention FE lenses specifically in this interview but he did that about them when we asked him last year and promised that they are on the way).

Mr. Yamaki also admitted something interesting in the end of the review – apparently he loves checking out the rumour sites for news which is kind of funny as he obviously knows more than most of them about what is really going on in the industry (we dare guess that not just in his own company), but maybe he just finds that entertaining.

Finally Mr. Yamaki also shared a personal titbit – he is a baseball fan and even played baseball as a child.

You can check out many more fascinating photography and videography related interviews here on LensVid.

Iddo Genuth
Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.

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