Sigma CEO, Kazuto Yamaki, has teased the camera world by revealing that the company is working on a brand new lens. Yamaki described it as a “telephoto lens that has never existed before.”
Interview
Sigma UK recently posted a video on the company’s YouTube channel. The video shows Tim Berry from Sigma UK interviewing Yamaki. Yamaki is the son of the man who originally founded Sigma back in 1961. It was a wide-ranging interview, covering topics from Yamaki’s taste in music to his favorite photographers. Yamaki also explained why he insists SIGMA remains a ‘made in Japan’ brand. However, the big news came right towards the end of the interview.
Teaser
As the interview was winding up, Berry said to Yamaki, “I can’t go away without asking you. Could you give us a teaser for something that’s coming? I know you can’t probably say too much but could you give us just something that we can look forward to in the next few weeks?”
Yamaki responded by saying, “Okay, that’s the most difficult question you asked today. Actually, we are learning many projects right now and I’m very excited about all of the new products we are now working on. So basically, (I’m) like all of our customers looking forward to the new announcement from Sigma.”
Never existed before
However, Yamaki then went on to say, “But one of the products that excite me a lot is the telephoto lens that have never existed before”. Berry responded with “Really?”
Yamaki then went on to say, “Yes, so sports photographers and wildlife photographers might be very excited about the lens.”
Berry also asked, “That sounds amazing, and that’s coming quite soon?”. Unfortunately, Yamaki didn’t give a timeline for the new lens.
He simply answered, “I can’t tell when, but we are working very hard on that product.”
What we think
A new lens announcement is always interesting. However, Yamaki’s claim that Sigma’s new lens is a telephoto lens that has never existed before is very exciting. Unfortunately, there’s nothing more to go on when it comes to guessing what the new lens might be. Yamaki’s comment about sports and wildlife photographers suggests that it’s also a longer focal length lens. Sigma’s Sports series of lenses already covers focal lengths ranging from 70-200 mm up to 60-600 mm. One downside is that these lenses mostly have maximum apertures limited to between F4.5 and F6.3, so they aren’t the best for low light. Maybe Sigma is planning a super telephoto lens with an aperture as wide as its F1.8 Art lenses? As soon as we know more we will let you know.
