- What is your stance in designing your future products?

[ Mr. Yamaki ]
Cameras have various purposes. So, there should be many kinds of them. And, I think it will be wonderful if each manufacturer further improve their strength. It's SIGMA's wish and dream to make products that surprise our customers. In terms of management, it's like "how we live." While we could also make products in an economically rational region or expand business to buy cheaper and sell more, we happened to decide to stay in Japan. And, I think the best way to work in Japan is to make the ultimate products with familiar friends. I express what I want to the factory. They say, "All right. Let's do it!" and they work with a high motivation and a high responsibility demonstrating their capacity. That's the kind of manufacturing I'd like to continue.

- With the evolution of EVF even on SLR cameras, some people say we don't need mirrors anymore. After the dp2 Quattro, what kind of cameras would you like to design?

[ Mr. Yamaki ]
Basically, I'd like to pursue image quality with the Foveon and surprise our customers. For example, you peak a 4x5 film with a loupe for the first time and you're astonished. Next, you look at an original 8x10 print and you'll feel even 4x5 or medium format aren't good enough. I'd like to provide something that produces shocking image outputs. And, it's not the big old 8x10, but a compact one that you cannot believe it generates such stunning images. Plus, it feels nice to use while looks aesthetically pleasing. I'd like to make something like that.

My starting point is my baseball glove I used when I was a junior high school student. When I bought it for the first time, I was so happy that I would touch it everyday taking care of it with the oil and put it next to my bed before I went to sleep. While things are just consumed in these days, cameras and lenses are rare cases in that they don't become commodities and people have attachment to them. It's not just about the beauty of the design, but also about the quality in every detail. I think it's the best thing to deliver such products to our customers.

- I beg your pardon, Mr. Yamaki, but you seem to do things freely in this suffocating time. (laughs)

[ Mr. Yamaki ]
I guess you mean the business scale. Moriyuki is impertinent enough (laughs) to lecture me saying, "SIGMA can do whatever they want to do because of this business size, don't you think? So, we should never expand it." Anyway, I'd like to value this footwork and decisiveness that are unique to small-to-medium-sized enterprises like us.

- Ha ha ha. Last question. What do you all think of Mr. Yamaki?

[ Mr. Kono ]
Thanks to him, I have always been able to do whatever I want. I think this is because he makes this organization to be free from external pressure. But, sometimes things change two days after and this hasn't changed since his father was the former president. It's like what we had decided on Friday gets changed on next Monday. (smiling grimly)

- Mr. Kono, it's the basic. (laughs) Management is a living thing, and I do hear similar excuses everywhere. (laughs)

[ Mr. Kono ]
That's also a good thing, but we're sometimes swayed by it. As engineers, we must find the grounds for whatever we are asked to and tie them together, which is difficult. But, I'm truly enjoying my work.

[ Mr. Moriyuki ]
I don't think I can make such an interesting product elsewhere. I'm so happy because I believe SIGMA is the best environment to do something interesting. But, I hope I don't always have to work on holidays. (laughs)

Thank you all very much. Because Mr. Yamaki had to leave, I could ask more. But, I think I should stop here. Please take a look at the shooting impression of the dp2 Quattro as I talked about the image quality as well as the usability. I think it's in the higher dimension than the former model because it facilitates working with the ultra high-quality Foveon images, while it was sometimes hard with the former model.