This past December, I had the opportunity to visit Sigma's headquarters outside of Tokyo, their factory in Aizu, Japan, and sit down with their CEO, Kazuto Yamaki. What Sigma is doing in the photography world right now is just exciting—from the BF, the 35mm 1.2 Mark II, 135mm 1.4, 200mm F2, and so many other lenses. We chatted about all that, and I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did. Enjoy.
Well, this is a great honor to speak to you, Yamaki. Thank you so much, CEO of Sigma.
Thank you, M, for having me.
Thank you. We had the opportunity of having a tour yesterday at your factory here in Aizu. One of the things that stood out to me was, first off, you don't have an office. You just sit in the center of these engineers, if I'm not mistaken.
So, I mean, you travel all over the world—you're going to the US, you're going to China, you're going all over to spread the word of Sigma and your innovations in technology. But what's it like when you first come back to this factory? What's that feeling when you first walk through the doors after traveling around the world?
I feel like I'm coming back home. I'm very happy to see the faces of employees, and I feel happy.
You started off as a young man in this company with your father, right? And from what I understand, you worked with the employees, you were right there on the floor with them. Now, that's something not everybody does—that kind of step up. How has that shaped Sigma today from your experience back then?
My father started the company in 1961. The name Sigma means the summation of people's knowledge, experience, wisdom, and power. So from the beginning, my father wanted to maximize people's power and use it for the growth of the company. For us, the employees and also business partners are the most important asset.
Okay. And with that said, now that you've taken over the company after your father passed on—that journey as a young man being around all the employees, but to today—because you can see when people walk into the room, obviously there's respect but there's admiration as well. Do you think that's part of your philosophy when you're running this company that way?
Well, first of all, our parents' house was on the top of the office building. The previous office at headquarters had five floors, and the fifth floor was our home. So I went to school through the office. I knew all the employees at the time. Since I was born, I've been living with the company and with the people who worked for the company. My life was always with those people. So it was quite a natural decision for me to take over my father's business and dedicate myself to the company.
Now, with that said, obviously when you're a young man and you're seeing your father's innovations and his experience and everything he's achieved, you probably have your own dreams as well. Was there ever something you thought to yourself—I love what we're doing here, but if I ever become the CEO, I would like to take Sigma in this direction?
Well, first of all, when I was a kid, I did not want to take over the business.
Because, you know, living on the top of the office building, I could know all the situations happening in the company. And I knew that the business is very tough and it's not easy to survive in such a difficult situation. My father was quite charismatic, but I knew I was not such a person—I couldn't be such a person. So I was not confident at all in myself. I didn't believe I could succeed my father and I could not run the company properly. But when I became a junior high or high school student, I realized there was no choice for me but to take over his business, because that was my father's wish. So since then, I decided to do my best to become the right president and CEO of the company.
And what was one of your first decisions when you became the president and CEO—something where you thought, okay, I want to take Sigma in this direction?
First of all, my goal when I took over is to make sure everyone related to the company is doing okay. I need to protect the employees' jobs. I don't want to fire anyone or lay off anyone. And also I want to make sure all the business partners are doing okay. So this is the most important mission for me. But if I can achieve that, I really wanted to make innovative, high-quality products and provide the best services. I want to make a company that is respected by customers and business partners. I really wanted to make products that I can recommend to my friends, school friends, and family. So the size of the company didn't matter for me, but making the best products and providing the best service is the most important.
Speaking of which, what was the one product that put you on the map—something you felt, from when you took over, this is what I wanted to do and I got it done, and it kind of brought Sigma forward?
That is a very difficult question because all the products we make are like my babies. I love all products, but if I need to choose one, I would say the first Art lens, 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art. It was the first Art, and at that time, no company had such a lineup with a clear concept. There was a risk that we may fail and we may lose business. So it was quite a risky decision. I was really, really nervous, but I was very happy to know that the product was really well received by the market.
Indeed it was. To this day, people still review that lens as one of their favorite Sigma lenses of all time.
I quite often meet photographers or professional cinematographers who bought the 35mm f/1.4 as their first serious professional lens. I'm quite happy to hear such stories.
Now you brought up the three lines—Art, Contemporary, and Sports—and that sort of redefined Sigma. When you go into, say, the Sports line, because this is very competitive when you're dealing with the top three, what were things you wanted to bring to the Sports line that were unique to Sigma that the others weren't able to achieve?
First of all, the reason I created the three lines with different concepts was to communicate better to the customers. Sometimes interchangeable lenses are hard to understand in terms of concept, quality, performance, and price. So by having three lines with clear concepts, I believed we could communicate what each product is about. Before I became CEO, I had been working with engineers quite a long time. I was a manager of the optical design division, the product design division, the intellectual property division, and the software development division. Through this career, I realized that having a very clear concept for each product helps engineers do the best job. If we ask engineers to implement high quality, high performance, cheapest cost, and lightest weight all at once, they get confused. But if we have a clear concept for each product, they do an excellent job. That's what I learned from them. Having a clear concept, I believe we can do a really good job.
Yeah, and rightfully so—you've done that. Speaking of which, because you were a manager of all these departments, how does it work in the company? Do people come to you with ideas, or are you giving them ideas? Is it a cohesive environment, or more of a top-down structure?
I try to be an approachable manager. As you said, I don't have my own office, so I've been working with engineers and other employees all the time. I try to listen to their opinions as much as possible. Of course, as a manager, my responsibility is to make a decision. So eventually I make a decision, but before that, I try to listen to opinions as much as possible.
Now, let's talk cameras, because Sigma makes beautiful cameras that are so unique and so different. I want to ask you about your philosophy behind photography or cameras in a way that's so different from the industry. Where does that come from?
Basically, I like to create something innovative and something new rather than making similar products. That's my motivation. I like to create different, unique products. But also, strategically, it's important for Sigma to create something different because Sigma is a very small brand as a camera manufacturer with a very small market share. If we make me-too products like the big companies, I'm afraid people may not choose our products. At this stage, it makes more sense for us to make unique products. But at the same time, this industry is being supported by the core users who love photography and cameras. But I see another opportunity for all manufacturers. There are so many people interested in cameras and photography outside the core community—artists such as musicians, designers, or architects. They may not go to the camera store often or check all the product reviews, but they are quite interested in photography. I think there's a great opportunity for manufacturers to provide cameras to such people.
That kind of brings us to your dp line and all that—it was so unique. One thing I noticed about a lot of your cameras is you don't use a viewfinder as much. There are a lot of screens, you'll put an attachment like a modular system on some of them, and some you do have them, but it seems to be more display-oriented, more like using it as an extension of a smartphone in a lot of ways. Where does that come from?
Well, first of all, that's your wrong impression—I do like viewfinders. But a viewfinder makes the camera body bigger and bulkier because the viewfinder unit is quite big. Also, having a viewfinder on top of the body, especially in the center, makes all camera bodies look quite similar to each other. So for the recent models like the Sigma fp and BF, we removed the EVF from the camera and offer it as a user option. But as you said, I think these days, especially the younger generation, started taking pictures without viewfinders, especially with smartphones. So I think it makes perfect sense for them to use cameras without viewfinders.
With smartphone technology coming in and the innovation in that space, it has affected photography, how people take photos, how people buy cameras or don't buy cameras. What is your approach to bringing that group in? Is it similar to what you're doing with the BF and the fp, or what are your thoughts?
Well, it's not up to us—it's up to them to choose which camera and lenses to buy. But I'll be very happy if they choose our cameras and lenses and agree with the concept of our products.
I want to talk about the fp for a second, because when you launched it, it really was ahead of its time. It was this modular system, so simple, with top-end cinema features and great photography features. But there were some things left out that affected some photography enthusiasts—like a mechanical shutter. Was that a technology limitation, or a choice to go electronic shutter only?
There are two things. First, it was our choice. We really wanted to make the smallest camera on the market at the time. So the first idea was to implement a mechanical shutter, but it made the camera bigger than our target and we understood we couldn't achieve that size. So we decided to remove the mechanical shutter. We knew the drawbacks, but we believed the future would be that most cameras will not have mechanical shutters once the readout performance of sensors improves. We knew there were limitations, but we also believed there was benefit in making the camera body quite small and compact.
Very modular in its design—you can rig it out to be a cinema camera or keep it small. A lot of people even adapted manual focus lenses, which was interesting. Did you think about that when making it—that this would be a trend people went to?
Not at all. Not at all. I quite enjoy checking camera styles—the fp with vintage lenses—on the internet. I always enjoy watching such unique styles.
What was your biggest surprise that you learned from users after the fp launched?
