2024-03-25 08:00:00
Text, photography, interview: Brian
Interviewed guest: Mr. Kazuto Yamaki, CEO of Sigma
Sigma has an increasing number of lens options, including some common styles, as well as many models that other brands do not have. The selection and price-performance ratio are very good. In this year’s CP+, we are honored to invite Mr. Kazuto Yamaki, CEO of Sigma, for an interview, hoping to learn more about Sigma’s trends in different series of lenses and bodies.
reporter:
I would like to ask here first, although the specifications of the two newly announced lenses (500mm and 15mm) you have are very strong, will the pricing be a bit aggressive?
Mr. Yamaki:
I think the pricing of the two lenses is appropriate. First of all, we hope that more photographers will own these lenses. If the price is too high, it may be difficult for some photographers to own them. We always hope to provide users with the best products at reasonable prices. This is our philosophy. In order to achieve the best quality at the most reasonable price, we keep our company’s organization small and free. The administrative, sales and marketing departments are small, but our development and production departments are large, which ensures that our products are of high quality and reasonably priced.
reporter:
I want to know more about the 500mm one. I believe that many friends who will use this lens will shoot sports and bird themes. Although this lens does have very good image quality, the E-mount version combined with Sony’s high-speed body is limited to the highest resolution. 15 continuous shots per second, what do you think about this?
Mr. Yamaki:
This is a shortcoming of this lens, I admit it. But if compared with film cameras, the continuous shooting speed of 15 frames per second is still very good. I think for most photographers this speed is pretty good. Maybe some photographers really need to capture very important moments, and I think this lens is not suitable in this case. But I think the speed of 15 frames per second should be acceptable to most photographers, and the lightness and sharpness of this lens are very good.
reporter:
Let’s turn to other lenses now. In the SLR era, you launched many Art series large-aperture fixed-focus lenses. In this mirrorless era, do you also have plans to launch so many large-aperture fixed-focus lenses with different focal lengths?
Mr. Yamaki:
Yes, we hope to eventually introduce a full range of prime lenses. First of all, I personally love prime lenses. I am a “fix person” rather than a “zoom person”, so I like to own many, many prime lenses. Moreover, we have many customers who supported our Art series prime lenses from the SLR era, and they are now switching to mirrorless cameras, so we need to launch all prime lenses to satisfy them.
reporter:
This is great, I hope to own a 105mm in the future!
Mr. Yamaki:
Yes, this lens is what I expected.
reporter:
In addition, you have launched 35mm f/1.4 and 35mm f/1.2 in a short period of time. Will this happen with other focal lengths? I believe many readers will hope like me that you will launch 50mm f/1.2 and 85mm f/1.2.
Mr. Yamaki:
I personally like very high-speed (note: extra large aperture) prime lenses, such as f/1.4 and f/1.2, etc. This is our passion, so we will launch more f/1.2 lenses ( Note: Mr. Yamaki uses the plural “Lenses” here). But if we pushed all lenses across the range to f/1.2, the lenses would probably be big and heavy. So we have to carefully choose which focal lengths are more suitable for launching an f/1.2 version.
reporter:
Yes, I think 50mm is one of the best options.
Mr. Yamaki:
50mm sounds great! I hope you readers can look forward to future announcements from Sigma.
reporter:
Another favorite is your I Serise lens. You have launched 9 I Serise lenses, but right now, it seems that your I Serise lenses have stopped here, and there are no more focal lengths to launch. Will we see more surprises on I Serise in the future?
Mr. Yamaki:
We are considering expanding I Serise. The previously launched I Serise was mainly launched for our fp cameras, so it was considered as a whole series from the beginning. But now this series is satisfied to a certain extent. So we will not turn our attention to other series. But this doesn’t mean the series is over.
reporter:
If we talk about love, I believe that the two constant f/2.8 ultra-compact DC lenses you have launched in the past two years are definitely the most eye-catching lenses in the industry. I think there are many friends like me who would like to know when will you launch the third f/2.8 DC lens?
Mr. Yamaki:
Do you mean long focal length? (reporter:Yes, of course I mean this one! ) This is a great question and we are exploring the possibility of launching this mirror. You also know that this series of constant f/2.8 lenses are very compact. The reason why we can produce very high image quality in such a lightweight lens is, first of all, because it is an APS-C specification, and second, because it is designed for mirrorless use. These two factors are very effective in wide-angle and standard zoom, but in telephoto lenses, only the APS-C specification has some slight benefits, but the short flange distance of the mirrorless lens does not help to reduce the size. So if you want to build a very lightweight constant f/2.8 telephoto lens, this is a very big challenge. So we need to study very carefully what we can do.
reporter:
So we won’t be able to see this mirror for the foreseeable future?
Mr. Yamaki:
Ar… It can be seen that it will not happen in the future, but we are considering it. However, because 10-18 and 18-50 are very popular, especially in the East Asian market, because most of our hands are relatively small, we really hope that they can be done in the future.
reporter:
I hope so too. If I had to give my opinion, I think it would be good to have an external zoom in order to be more lightweight. As long as it’s small when you put it in your camera bag, it’s good.
Mr. Yamaki:
OK, I understand what you’re thinking, fine.
reporter:
In addition to the lens, your camera body is also very attractive. I personally like fp and fpL very much, but even considering fpL, it has been a long time. I’m very interested to know if you will launch a new body in a short time?
Mr. Yamaki:
Will do. Because we have two groups in the development department, one group develops lenses, the other group develops bodies, and this group is purely responsible for developing cameras.
reporter:
So will we see a new phone soon?
Mr. Yamaki:
We probably won’t see it within this year (2024), and that’s because developing camera bodies really takes a lot of time.
reporter:
I believe many people want it to be the X3.
Mr. Yamaki:
Our engineers are also developing the X3 sensor, but this will take more time. This sensor may not be available in the short term, maybe several years later.
reporter:
If I were to give my opinion, I personally hope it is an ultra-high-performance fPL. A 60-megapixel sensor with high performance would be great. Of course, it also needs a very lightweight body.
Mr. Yamaki:
ok ok
reporter:
This year’s questions are almost the same. Thank you for letting us know more about your product philosophy and future product orientation this time. Looking forward to your new products in the future.
Summarize
The author has always paid attention to Mr. Yamaki’s interviews in other media and noticed that he is one of the few guests who is very willing to reveal the future direction of the company. Therefore, the questions prepared this time are more focused on the details of Sigma’s next product launch.
But there is one thing that the author is more concerned about in this interview. The first is that Mr. Nakayama seems to have revealed that a f/1.2 extra-large aperture lens will be announced soon (will it be announced on March 26?) and it seems that More f/1.2 prime lenses will be launched in the future. However, what I feel is a pity is the second point. It seems that the DC version of the constant f/2.8 telephoto lens is still being conceived, and everyone may have to wait for a longer time to collect the DC DN “big” light element.
It is indeed a pleasure to interview Mr. Yamaki. Not only is he willing to reveal the company’s future trends, but he is also not shy about talking to reporters about the advantages and disadvantages of his products, which I really appreciate. I look forward to having more opportunities to conduct more interviews with Mr. Yamamoto in the future.
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