Are Foveon Sensor Cameras Making a Comeback? | Interview with Kazuto Yamaki
📅 Jan 13, 2026Merdoglan12 MIN814 VIEWS59 SEGMENTS · 2 SPEAKERS
In this special video, we're conducting an interview with Mr. Kazuto Yamaki, CEO of Sigma Global, at Sigma's new showroom. We're talking with him about the future of Sigma and the newly released Sigma BF digital camera. It contains interesting information for both photography and videography enthusiasts.
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1:11... the last years AI is really emerging and what do you think about the AI because you have great hardware to capture happiness and take photos but what do you think your hardware will be maybe some data collection tools for AI in the future?
3:18And if you can tell, when will they release the full-frame Foveon sensor?
4:48What do you see as the primary long-term advantage to keeping your manufacturing only in Japan?
6:43Actually I want to ask something about the earthquakes because as you said your job is very precise and because of the earthquakes and Japan's location it happens a lot. Is it affecting your business?
Thank you. I say that because your father said your business is about happiness because you take photos to capture happiness. So we are taking photos to capture happiness but for the last years AI is really emerging and what do you think about the AI because you have great hardware to capture happiness and take photos but what do you think your hardware will be maybe some data collection tools for AI in the future?
Well, the camera industry, I mean camera manufacturers including Sigma, has been using some kind of AI, let me call baby AI, like red light detection is one of the baby AI. So AI is just a tool. If we use it properly, it helps the creators do a better job.
But I mean because of the generative AI I can create replicas of your hardware. For example, I can type Sigma 50mm 1.2 like images in AI and they can produce it very easily when you don't have the hardware for it.
First of all, such AI generated images may have some negative impact. First of all, if people use it in a wrong way politically, it may create some conflict among the people, which concerns me a lot. Secondly, it could be a threat for the camera manufacturers and lens manufacturers that manufacture the tools. But still, I believe AI is just one of the tools for creators and photographers to use. And if we use that kind of tool properly, it helps art activity. So it's really us, human beings, how to use such a tool or technology.
Because I really like to use Foveon. It's a really good technology with the sensor layers and color reproduction. And if you can tell, when will they release the full-frame Foveon sensor?
We still don't know. We have some goals for the scheduling but unfortunately we have revised our schedule several times in the past. It's our first time for Sigma to develop the sensor by ourselves. In the beginning we worked with Foveon but the initial design was not good enough to productize it or to go for mass production. So we abandoned that original design and we brought the project to Japan and our team in Japan is working on the full-frame sensor. Every time we are now making sure the new pixel architecture works okay or not and we have learned several wafers so far and every time we learn a wafer we have found several technical issues. So we have to relearn the way several times but we have been narrowing down several issues to a quite decent level and I hope we can go to the next step very soon.
So thank you very much. So you said you brought the project to Japan and one of the things that impressed me is you are doing everything in Japan in Aizu.
Because of the increasing cost and maybe supply chain issues, maybe it will be hard for you to maintain that process in Japan. What do you see as the primary long-term advantage to keeping your manufacturing only in Japan?
First of all, I take it as our company's social responsibility, my social responsibility as the owner of the company. Sigma is still a private family owned company. So while we believe making profit is important, protecting the employees' jobs is also important. Our factory in Aizu is located in a very small town. The population of the town is only 3,000 people. In such a factory we have over 1,700 employees. So we have a huge responsibility in local society. We need to protect the workers' jobs in order to maintain the local community. But at the same time there is a benefit in order to produce high quality products, especially the camera lenses. We need very skilled workers in order to manufacture high quality lenses. It requires a technology so-called integral technology. Integral technology consists of many parts which are processed or made with very high precision and those many parts or units must be carefully assembled perfectly. Such integral technology requires highly skilled experienced workers. So having the factory in one location for long term helps to retain the good workers there. So there is a benefit for us to make high quality products.
Okay. Actually I want to ask something about the earthquakes because as you said your job is very precise and because of the earthquakes and Japan's location it happens a lot. Is it affecting your business?
29 more exchanges in this transcript
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Yamaki, K. (2026, January 13). Are Foveon Sensor Cameras Making a Comeback? | Interview with Kazuto Yamaki [Interview transcript]. Merdoglan. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1043688/
MLA
Kazuto Yamaki. "Are Foveon Sensor Cameras Making a Comeback? | Interview with Kazuto Yamaki." Merdoglan, 13 Jan. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1043688/.
BibTeX
@misc{yamaki2026_1043688,
author = {Kazuto Yamaki},
title = {Are Foveon Sensor Cameras Making a Comeback? | Interview with Kazuto Yamaki},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, Merdoglan. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {jan},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1043688/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
