Hey friends, welcome to the PetaPixel podcast. I'm mixing it up a little bit this week. You're my friend, but you know what else? I got two other friends here.
I got Chris Nichols. Hello.
Apparently, I need to be tolerated. Was that a conversation I'm unaware of?
We'll get to it. Don't you worry. Don't you worry. But I'm happy to be here.
Hello, Jordan. Hi. And this is also Jerren Schneider. Hello, my editor-in-chief.
And we've mixed things up a little bit because we're in LA right now. Technically Burbank. Burbank in the Sigma castle.
We're actually in the headquarters, the Los Angeles headquarters of Sigma, and their studio is a castle. It's pretty cool.
Yeah. Like it looks like Medieval Times on the outside. Apparently, this is a former car garage. It's a very cool space. We're happy to be here.
And why are we here? I mean, like why would we be in Sigma's headquarters? Well, because they just dropped a massive announcement, an entire series of new cinema lenses designed for video from the ground up. These are not rehoused photographic lenses.
So, we were lucky enough to talk to Kazuto Yamaki-san again. You guys want to stay tuned because the interview with Yamaki-san is always fantastic.
I mean, look, I love a lot of the Japanese CEOs. They're all wonderful, wonderful people and some of them are very cool and very neat in their own way, but I mean, but none of them answer questions.
Yamaki-san is just so cool and he's so great in interviews. So, you definitely want to check that out.
Yes, really good interview. He will be sitting here and the reason I'm not in that interview is because I forgot yet again on our travel thing of like what do you always forget? This time I forgot my microphone. So, that's why I'm on a lav mic. So, I will be stepping out and Kazuto-san will be stepping in with this mic on. So you will be having that for that interview.
But Jerren was furiously American Sign Languaging questions at us from behind the camera. So we still were able to convey all the things he wanted to know.
Exactly. And did you forget anything on this trip?
I did not forget a damn thing on this trip. I crushed it.
Here's what's funny, too, is I texted them late the night before we left. Don't forget your podcast mics, you vagrants. Immediately forgot my microphone. So that's what I get. I did that to me. Karma.
So, I always like to kick things off with a question. And this gang, we're in LA. Yes. What do y'all think of LA?
Oh, no. This is a bad question. So, the thing is I can say this and I will get support from at least one contingent of people. My thing is I'm a NorCal kid. I was born in NorCal and there is a fierce rivalry. Yeah. There's a thing with just death to the Dodgers.
We just don't like SoCal.
SoCal guys don't like us. SoCal is not my place. It's not my thing. I respect the people that live here. It's just not my favorite.
Like it's like Edmonton and Calgary. It's the same thing, right? Edmonton is dead to us and that's just the way it is even though we're all the same place, right? So I get it.
So I drove here once like a decade ago and based on that I was like I'm never coming back. So that was a terrifying experience for me. But we are back cuz we're going to get to see the Academy of Motion Picture Sciences.
Chris, see this is the thing. It's going to be great. I mean we—I'm going to be so annoying this trip.
You are. We both love cinema. We like different movies, but we both love cinema. I would say and so Los Angeles—it'd be—I mean see even seeing something silly like the Warner Brothers logo on the lot. It's like that's cool.
I don't have enough time here. This is my first time in Los Angeles. I don't have enough context to make any statements about this city. I've never been here before other than LAX. And so I'm sure it's wonderful and vibrant and all that kind of stuff. I can't say. But I will say, and I don't think anybody will disagree with this statement, driving in this city is ridiculous. The traffic is stupid and I think everybody can agree with that.
It was made to be a driver's city and it is the worst. But, you know, I'm eager to explore more some other time. And I apparently put a hot take out on Threads like two weeks ago where I said I didn't like LAX because they didn't think about how to get people to their terminal.
The best Delta Lounge. I love LA. You have to walk everywhere. They don't have anything set up for you. So that was my hot take. Apparently that was contentious.
Some people were like defending LAX. I don't know. I'm allowed to be. Frankly it seems petty.
I'm kind of more of a South Cal kind of guy because—South California kind of guy clearly because San Francisco, it's not my favorite. It's fine but San Diego is the best city in California.
San Diego is amazing. So as long as we can all agree San Diego's awesome. Okay. I think that's good. That's grounds to start the podcast.
So, the little bug on the bottom of the screen is going to say PetaPixel memberships, but we do have something else that we want to call out as a sponsor for this. Yes. Even though it's not really a sponsor, it's just a good place to put it.
In two weeks, we will be at B&H Build in New York City. That is the B&H trade show, Exposition Hall sort of thing at the Javits Center. I'll put the full information to B&H Build in the description below.
But we are scheduled to be on stage at the photo stage at 2:00, I believe somewhere in that window. Correct me if I'm wrong in the comments. You're probably wrong, but that's okay. You'll find us. I think it's 2:00. No one's coming to see anybody else. You're only coming to Build to see us.
So that is on Wednesday of Build. So the second day of Build in the afternoon, you can come by and see us talk on stage answering your questions. If you have questions, I think this is a good opportunity to say email them in.
We would really be in attendance. If you'll be in attendance, please email us questions. We want to have your questions before so we can make sure that we get to them, but we want to stare you in the face when we respond to it.
The idea that I tossed out, I don't know if this is going to happen. We'll find out, was that they'd have a microphone that they'd move around the crowd. I don't know if that's going to happen.
That's the dream scenario. We want to interact. We want to interact with you and then we will actually be around to physically interact with you. You can take that however you want.
Yeah. After we're done with the podcast, Chris and Jordan are going to sit there for a meet and greet. You've always wanted to meet Chris and Jordan.
I will interact with you in a physical manner. He's very fun to be around.
So is Jordan. They'll be there. I'm going to have to jump right after the show so you don't have to see me. But these two will be there. That'll be great.
So that's half of this. The other half is you should get a PetaPixel membership. Tell them why, Chris.
Oh, it's really cool because it's like a fan club, but a fan club for PetaPixel in general. So, we send out like secret Dakota rings. You get free barbecue sauce. We send you our used underwear.
Oh, am I messing this up? So, one of the big perks for the membership is you might notice like the scale of our show just keeps on expanding. We're in cool locations and it's not always because we're invited on press events where they cover flight. This trip here is coming out of those sweet dollars that you're kicking in with the membership that enables us to do a better show in more compelling locations like this lovely space right here.
But you know it's not just so you can make our lives a little bit easier. You can make your own life a lot easier by not having to look at those damned ads. You go outside, there's a billboard over there. There's an ad. You can't escape that.
It doesn't have to be altruistic and scroll through PetaPixel.com and it's ads, ads, and you can't get away from it. If you're the selfish type, which we love cuz we all are, you can also get discounts on the merch store, discounts on other—like money to spend, like straight up dollars to spend at the merch store when you become a member.
So, you know, if you're generous and you're giving, we love that. But if you're also deviously selfish and you just want things for yourself, you'll also do yourself a favor here. And the thing is, it's not even expensive. It's less than coffee, which is especially LA coffee. But anyway, it's $3 a month or $30 a year to become a PetaPixel member. And that is so little to help us so much.
But I will trade my underwear for flights. I will. I'll do it. I don't care. And it's got holes in it and stuff. Like I can't—I should stop giving him the microphone to talk about memberships.
You threw to him. This was your—
I get my own microphone. Nobody gives me.
If you could consider a PetaPixel membership, we'd really appreciate it. And we will see you in two weeks at Build. Hopefully, we'll see you all there.
All right, let's move on to the news.
All right, we'll start with a bummer.
Great. George E. Smith, the co-inventor of the CCD sensor, has sadly passed away.
Yes. So, George Elwood Smith played a pivotal role in the development of digital photography. Passed away last week in his home in New Jersey at the lovely age of 95. So, he lived a nice long life.
So I mean I think the thing here is there was this stretch where it was all like the film technology—you'd hear about like oh the person who invented this older film technology. Now it's coming for digital. So all the people who made the massive change like photography is old. The charged coupling device was basically the start of digital photography. So good old charge-coupled devices which are super popular now, everybody wants them, you know, cuz they use more battery power and they have interesting color supposedly.
I'm saying there will be a procession of all of the very young photographers who are fixated on CCD sensors right now.
This is—I am truly sorry for your—break out your compact point and shoot in honor of this man. But yes, absolutely.
Well, I mean the LSST camera is entirely CCDs, too.
Yeah, it's festive. That's a thing that's real.
Do you think he heard that just like you know the ultimate CCD camera?
I hope so. I hope so. From two different manufacturers.
So here's something that was written by Jeremy. Without the CCD sensor, it would be impossible to say with confidence that digital photography would be anywhere near the technological level it is now. While they've largely vanished from mainstream digital cameras, nearly all of which sport CMOS now, CCD sensors remain in use in deep space photography, medicine, and science, and other specialized applications. Smith and his co-inventor Boyle were remarkably vital to the birth and development of digital photography, in honor for which they won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2009.
What was your last CCD camera?
Do you have any idea? I know you've owned a few of them, Chris.
It's probably that FinePix point and shoot that I have because I—the next time I bought a camera, it was the Rebel XTI. I think that was CMOS. I have an Olympus Stylus sitting at home.
I did have a Nikon D70, which I believe was CCD.
And I did use a Fujifilm S5 way back in the day.
I remember super constantly borrowing a D80, which was like the 10-megapixel.
I think that was kind of the end. It's the D200 sensor.
Oh, was the 20D from Canon CCD?
Canon basically all of their cameras post the first Rebel were all CMOS which gave them a real advantage. They were really the pioneers in using CMOS. We're not talking about CMOS and its many benefits. We're talking—we're getting nostalgic for CCDs.
For me, for me, it was definitely the Fujifilm Pickics then.
Yeah, for me. Yes. But sometimes new is old in a new way. Because—
Are you seguing with a film advance lever?
So that's what's funny about this is everyone seeing this would be like, well, the X-Half just did that. The X just did that. People all in one boardroom together deciding to do again.
How many times anybody who's listened to us now and watched our show for years, I've constantly said I want digital cameras with thumb winders and now it's like the movie industry. Lo and behold, when one good idea comes out, everybody jumps on board. So, this will be the year, I predict, for thumb winders on digital cameras.
These were weeks apart. So, there's absolutely no way that this is piggybacking on another idea. Maybe just like one company opened up in China that produced thumb winders and everyone jumped on it immediately.
It's easy to do and it's going to be incorporated and we're actually going to play with this camera. It's kind of interesting.
This is—it's ridiculous. Piece of plastic there instead. Yeah, it's going to drive me crazy.
So, this is the Yashica FX-D, which is actually the same moniker for an original Yashica film SLR. And it has a black panel that looks a lot like an EVF or an optical viewfinder.
I'm going to stick my eye up to this piece of plastic constantly. It's going to drive me crazy. Plastic wasn't the word he wanted to use there.
Yes. I wanted to use a different word. Look. Are you kidding me?
Okay, so can you please put that overlaid on the pod at this point.
Sure. Yeah, I'll show you guys the picture I just showed Jordan.
Look, we played with the Yashica City and it is what it is. And Yashica, the name, whoever the company, they're trying to make these new compact digital cameras. Look, I'm all for anything which is different and exciting. So, I will give it a fair shake and see.
But you are reliant on a back panel, which of course you know how much I love that. I don't know. We'll see.
Here's the thing. I will say Yashica, I'm going to at least give you a little bit of a clap because you saw Chris's review of the City 100 and you said, let's give this guy another.
Yeah. How about one more? Also I did talk—I emailed Yashica obviously. We're talking back and forth about this camera and I said people are going to talk about that film advance lever that's not advancing any film—like how long you've been working on it. And they said that this camera's been in development for a little over two years. So, let's see.
Give it a fair shake. As Chris said, it's definitely not someone copying someone else. It's just really weird coincidences.
No, no. I'm telling you, everybody's going to start doing it this year. You'll see.
But, you know, like what is neat about it, like the styling does look like an SLR. Like, they are trying to keep it pretty.
It's got command dials and it's got—
We'll see. We'll see. There's two versions of it. We're only looking at one. So, the one we're not looking at is called the FX-D 100, and that's a 13-megapixel with a small 1/3.06 sensor, which is smaller than most smartphones.
Isn't that the same as the City 100?
Maybe. I don't know. You would know. That was a 13-megapixel. It comes with a zoom lens, a 25 to 76, while the one you're getting is the FX-D300, and that has a 50-megapixel type 1/1.56 with a fixed prime lens.
Fixed prime lens. So and that prime lens is a 24, I believe, 24mm f1.8 equivalent.
So there you go. It's a little better than the—
We'll see. We'll see. But we're excited to play with that.
I mean, look, let's see what the innovation—for anyone who's curious, it is on Kickstarter. We always have a big disclaimer about Kickstarters. So, take that information from what you will, but Yashica is planning on selling the FX-D300, the one Chris will review for $348.
That's discounted off the final MSRP, which will be $550. While the FX-D100 will be $239 on Kickstarter with the final MSRP being $360.
These are dirt cheap cameras.
Are they though? Because there's another option which is even more dirtier and cheaper and that is the next camera.
No, the next camera. So, Lenovo of all companies who normally make PC laptops have for a long time. I really thought it was coffee makers.
Sorry. No. Oh, no. No, no, no. That's Lavazza. I don't—Lenovo.
Lenovo is going to make a $69 point-and-shoot camera. It seems like everybody is jumping on this like seeing this huge demand. They're walking by used camera stores and seeing the piles of old point-and-shoot cameras.
And everybody—Jerren's going to want to make me do it.
Oh, man. I'm sorry. This is—
This one is even too—I mean maybe this will be end of year when I send you your end of year you've been naughty gift. It'll be this.
You want something nice? I'll send you film cameras and that'll make your lives even harder.
I'll take an original Yashica FX-D. But yeah, $69—like it's going to be a toy. It kind of looks like a toy. I don't know if this is Lenovo actually doing it or if someone's licensing the name. Like that's really weird.
Can we shoot it out against the Bluey camera? Please don't make me.
The Bluey—well, this is a 64-megapixel type one.
No, it's not. No, I mean the thing that they do with these is they're much lower resolution sensors and then they just up—
16-megapixel quad-Bayer. It's just ridiculous.
Yeah. Anyway, this looks terrible. Who knows? It's only being sold in China, so I may have a difficult time getting it.
I mean, it's probably on AliExpress, actually.
Thank goodness. Don't do it. Please don't do it.
Um, this next one I feel like I need to add a little bit of context. So, earlier this year, some of you may remember that a documentary debuted at Sundance called The Stringer, and it essentially alleged that Nick Ut did not take the picture called Terror of War, which is the most famous picture from the Vietnam War and one of the most famous war photos ever taken, if not the most famous war photo ever taken.
Well it alleged that Nick didn't take that picture that a stringer named—I can't remember his name now—somebody else did in fact take this picture.
AP knew this was coming out. So this guy's an AP—Nick was an AP photographer—knew this was coming out and tried to get as much information from the filmmakers as they could before it came out so that they could try and vet the claims.
Well, they—the director of the film and the producers of the film didn't really work with AP at all. They didn't seemingly want them to.
So AP did their own investigation. We published on that a few weeks ago and they essentially found that there were some inconsistencies. However, there wasn't enough information for them to overturn their previous byline. So like essentially if you watch baseball, there is a challenge called and the refs are essentially saying there's not enough to overturn. So the call stands is called.
Well, we thought that would be the end and it was not.
A few weeks ago, the World Press Photo essentially were saying like, well, we think there's enough to take his name off the credit.
Now, 400 photographers have signed a letter demanding that World Press Photo restore Nick Ut's credit on Napalm Girl or Terror of War photo.
And so this story keeps going and we still have not seen this documentary because the producers and the directors won't send us a screening and it's not showing up anywhere except in some—there's—it's coming to another film festival in England I think in a couple weeks.
We might send Matt Granger to go watch it because it's like we've been reporting on it and we can't—we haven't seen their allegations. It's been very frustrating to report on this when they won't give us the information we need.
Well, and I think that is when you talk about the 400 photographers who are signing a petition against this decision. It's that effectively we're looking at hearsay cuz no one has seen this doc yet. That's the big—I think if all the information was out there, then you know there could actually be a debate about the validity of it.
Right now we're basically taking the AP's word against a film that happens to exist that some people did see and report about when it was first screened at Sundance. But yeah, and Sundance is a small festival and it's not a bunch of people obsessed with photographic history really looking to pour through and vet the claims in the documentary.
So when that comes out then I think there can be a larger debate. But to already start removing credit for one of the most famous photos ever taken before it comes out does seem like premature and crazy to me.
What they're saying is World Press Photo's decision to strip Ut's credit reflects a quote dangerous and flawed position.
And this is another quote. If we base our actions on quote doubts rather than evidence, I seriously doubt anyone would want to have their name associated with an organization that doesn't follow accepted journalistic practices and ethics. Speaking of the World Press Photo.
So, yeah, I thought the story was going to kind of be done and it just keeps going.
So, we'll continue to track it. We need more information, right, before we can even weigh.
I'd really like to watch this movie.
For sure. Yeah, absolutely.
It is interesting. One of the fascinating things about photography is the ethical aspect of it and the controversies it can form and what's true and what's not true. And so, yeah, I mean, it's an interesting art form in that regard. But, yeah, another story that we have to find out the answer to later on.
All right, last story of the week. David Lynch. His personal camera collection is up for auction. You guys want to buy some David Lynch?
I just want to buy a Lunar. Was it the Lunar or the Stellar? He had one of the Hasselblad hideous monstrosity cameras from that brief window where they flirted with being a luxury brand. And I want that.
And I believe it was the Lunar.
Yeah, it's the one that was based off of an NEX7.
I think that was the Stellar.
Yeah, even if it was David Lynch's personal camera, I still don't want it. I hate that camera.
The Lunar. One of them was also based off of the RX, the Sony 100 RX. It was either the Stellar or the Lunar. And that one is sexy AF. The little compact.
I'm looking right now. You can only get the Lunar.
The Lunar if you buy it in a collection with the Pentax 645 and the Sony NEX5.
Yeah, the Lunar is a loser, but the Stellar is actually stellar. It had a really sexy wood grip on it. Beautiful tight. Anyways, David Lynch didn't have one of those as far as I know.
So, yeah. This is currently $3,000. You get his Pentax 645, his Lunar and the NEX5. You get all three of those for—
Why are these not like up into the $10,000?
Because I think it's—we've got a little bit of time left. These sort of things.
Like he had a 5D Mark III and I think it's going for $2,200 currently.
So I just like to envision him just like I would like the Sony camera, but if we could encrust some gems into it and it would make it even fancier and more memorable. It would follow a sort of dream logic.
That's—wow. That's exactly how it played out.
David Lynch's Mazzer Mini electronic commercial espresso grinder.
There you go. Okay. I like to grind my coffee early in the morning with a very large unit.
Do you want some taxidermy deer heads?
I'm good. I like deer heads. They remind me of the Red Lodge in my series Twin Peaks, which was a phenomenon in multiple decades.
You're going to—you're carrying this out. Hey, you're going to—you're dedicated to this.
If you want me to podcast as David Lynch moving forward, I'm happy to do so.
I wish you wouldn't, dude.
You see, the A7R and A7S are expensive.
Anyways, like the A7R captures a very detailed image with expansive dynamic range, which is very good for capturing nightmare scenarios. Apparently, he was a wonderful man.
So anyways, check it out. Like, help out the estate. You know, there's some interesting stuff here, but yeah.
Yeah. I believe it closes on June 18th, so they're taking online bids now.
So, boy, these are likely to go much higher if we've got that much time.
But the Lunar is hideous. Don't do it. Like, I like the gems.
Fancy gem. It was several types of garnet.
Well, on that next topic, and I'm the one who has to be tolerated. So what we're going to do now is we're going to transition to the interview with Kazuto Yamaki-san where I will get up, a great man, him here and then when you see me again that'll be the conclusion. So here hopefully you will enjoy, it's about 25 minutes long.
All right, so we're very fortunate to be able to have some time with Yamaki Kazuto, CEO of Sigma. Thank you again for making time for us.
And we're in a wonderful place because this is the Los Angeles headquarters of Sigma. You've been here just about what, six or seven years now, something like that.
Yeah. We entered the cine business 2017 and since then we thought we need some place to show our products to the local cinematographers, right? So obviously somewhere close to the movie action.
Yes. Right here in the heart of Hollywood. Okay. So we're here to talk about that. Tell us what exciting new stuff we have in the cinema division.
Yep. We're going to announce the new line of the cine lenses today. We call it I series. It's the line of new lenses that have the name of the place where our factory is located.
Right. And these are special because they're made for cinema but also incredibly fast lenses.
Right. That's the world's first T1.3 prime line. This is the world's first one designed for the large format cinema cameras, right?
Yeah, we have lots of questions about that. I guess the first question I'd like to ask, of course, you're famous for making photographic lenses. You have now for many, many, many decades. What are the differences when it comes to designing cinema lenses and photographic lenses? Is there much crossover? Do you have to have separate optical teams for each division?
Well, we do not have a separate team. We share the same project between the still lenses and the cine lenses together. And basically the optical design, the mechanical design requirements is very similar to each other.
But the customer's preferences are slightly different.
So at the beginning it was a bit confusing to us but we learned a lot from customers, from the cine industry.
Which is probably why you wanted to be here so close to those actual customers and users.
It's very important to listen to customers' voice.
