DPReiew: Kazuto Yamaki Interview Covering Mirrorless, COVID-19, L-Mount, and More
DPReiew interviewed the CEO of Sigma Kazuto Yamaki about the future of Sigma and the photography market. Mr. Yamaki interviews are always enlightening so check out our bullet points below or read the full interview at DPR.
- COVID-19 hasn’t impacted their supply chain or sales in China much, but Sigma is concerned about the European and USA market
- Japan isn’t as bad as other parts of the world but sales have been down since March, but it will take time to understand by how much
- China is getting back to normal from what Sigma is hearing
- In places where isolation policies are being enforced Kazuto Yamaki thinks that it might take some time to recover
- Europe still sells a lot of camera equipment face to face so it is hard to tell if these customers will move online and in the US the prioritization of necessary goods and services might affect product sales.
- Sigma has close ties with their part suppliers so they haven’t had problems with its supply chain
- Demand for mirrorless lenses has been very high so Sigma is designing more compact and affordable glass for mirrorless systems going forward.
- The mirrorless market is stable and DSLR is declining quite significantly at an ever-increasing rate month over month
- The decline of DSLR has mirrored Sigma’s falling sales numbers so it is time for them to switch focus
- Sigma’s DN lenses are selling well especially their 24-70mm f/2.8, which they are still catching up on sales of
- Sony lenses are continuing to sell well and Sigma can’t really say at this time how L-Mount sales are doing comparatively
- Sigma fp sales started off strong, but have declined everywhere except in Japan
- Sigma had to cancel a bunch of touch and try events, due to COVID-19, that were helping Sigma sell their fp camera
- Events like CP+ are important to Sigma because it mainly attracts consumers
- Sigma is going to have two main lines going forward and ART lens line that pushes the limits of optical quality regardless of size and a series with slower apertures but more compact designs like Sigma’s 45mm f/2.8.
- The Sigma fp represents the future of cameras because a fast readout speed will make shutters irrelevant in the future
- The full-frame Foveon L-Mount camera that Sigma previous announced has been further delayed due to technical problems and probably won’t be seen until 2021 or later
- Sigma isn’t working on a Full Frame DP Merrill fixed-lens camera at this time because it would be hard to design a compact lens for the format
- Canon RF, Fujifilm XF, and Nikon Z-mount lenses are not coming anytime soon due to limited engineering resources and won’t be worked on until their markets make sense
- Sigma Classic Cine lenses have been well received by hollywood, but they are not easy to use due to the complexity of cine lighting
- DC DN lenses are Sigma’s top sellers even though Sigma thinks the APS-C/m34 market is shrinking
- Sigma thinking m43 is still viable for filmmakers that want a compact system and the 16mm is very popular with them.
Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube
SIGMA 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN Art: B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama
SIGMA 45mm F2.8 DG DN: B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama