Jeff Chen (left), Kazuto Yamaki (right)
Interview with Sigma’s New CEO Kazuto Yamaki at 2012 CP+
Interview conducted by Jeff Chen, co-founder of xitek.com.
Jeff Chen: Yamaki San, I am sorry to hear the passing of your father, he has been instrumental not only to Sigma but also to the Japan photographic equipment industry. We wish you well in your new position to lead the company.
Mr. Yamaki: I will never be as good as him.
JC: I am sure you will. Let’s turn our attention to the CP+ event. Just yesterday I read that Sigma will cut the price of the SD1 dramatically with the new model SD1 Merrill. Could you tell us how you are able to achieve that?
KY: Well, the new price is actually what we were aiming at when we launched the SD1 but due to low yield of the sensor we knew we wouldn’t be able to meet our price target. In the past year engineers from Sigma and Foveon have been trying very hard to improve the yield of the sensor. Now we are confident that we will be able to meet our original price target, hence the price reduction.
JC: What about the customers who have bought the SD1 already?
KY: We consider these loyal customers very important to us. They are truly behind us and bought the camera regardless the price. We will have a program to compensate the price difference and the details of the compensation will be announced later this month.
JC: I also learn that there will be two DP series cameras using the same sensor from SD1. Could you tell us more that the two new cameras?
KY: Now that we are able to reduce the cost the sensor, we want to put that into the hands of more customers. The two new DP cameras not only will have the new 46mp sensor but also a dual CPU processor to handle the huge amount of data generated by the sensor. They will also have the 92k dot 3″ TFT LCD screen and new lenses will be also resigned.
JC: With the dual CPU processor will users be able to experience faster interface?
KY: The amount of data created by the 46mp sensor is huge and will tax the the processor heavily.
Read More »
