SIGMA’s New Headquarters and Lenses – Interview With CEO Yamaki-san

by Johnnie BehiriAugust 8^th, 2022

SIGMA was kind enough to host and show us their new Headquarters building. In this interview, I discuss with SIGMA’s CEO Kazuto Yamaki-san his reasons for building a new facility, and of course, I didn’t miss asking him to elaborate on the newly announced 20mm and 24mm Art lenses. Last but not least, no interview is complete without the traditional “What’s new with developing the Foveon sensor?” question. It’s all there for you guys to watch and enjoy…

Summer 2022 is a super hot one here in Japan, but no sweat will prevent me from making the over an hour-long trip from the center of Tokyo to SIGMA’s new headquarters. The new place is built to give the people working in it maximum comfort with supportive “open spaces” next to “green nature spots”.

SIGMA’s new headquarters

Next to working in comfort, Yamaki-san and his designers wanted to allow direct communication between the different working teams, such as product planners, marketing, and their ever-growing team of engineers, and they achieved that by constructing “communication spots” Food wise, as we all know, the “army is marching on its stomach”, and in this regard, the new shiny kitchen is there to serve the people with a different, healthy meal every day!

New 20mm and 40mm F1.4 DG DN ART Lenses

In our talk, Yamaki-san took the time to expose and explain to me what’s new with the new 20mm and 24mm F1.4 DG DN ART lenses. A full article covering the launch of the lenses can be read here.

Foveon sensor

This was the last point in our conversation. In a nutshell, progress with development has been done but it is slower than expected due to the current situation.

Table of Content – Video Interview

• SIGMA’s new headquarters
• SIGMA’s Library
• SIGMA’s Cellar Showroom
• New SIGMA 20mm F1.4 DG DN ART
• New SIGMA 24mm F1.4 DG DN ART
• Are SIGMA’s new ART lenses designed to work with Sony cameras?
• Foveon sensor
• Yamaki-san’s personal words to the CineD audience

I would like to thank Yamaki-san and his team for hosting CineD and giving me the time to ask question