Want to see how Sigma’s highly acclaimed Art lenses are made? Johnnie Behiri of cinema5D recently had the honor of being the first journalist allowed to independently film inside Sigma’s Art and cinema zoom lens factory. He documented his experience in the 7-minute video above.

Sigma is a family-owned company, and Behiri sat down to chat with CEO Kazuto Yamaki, the son of Sigma’s late founder and former CEO Michihiro Yamaki, who passed away in 2012 at the age of 78.

Behiri reports that Sigma currently employs about 1,600 people, with 1,400 of those employees working at the Sigma factory that Behiri toured.

“As Yamaki-san stated, SIGMA’s biggest asset is its hard-working people,” Behiri writes. “Their level of dedication and care for details was clearly visible throughout my two-day visit.”

Here’s something interesting revealed in the video: Michihiro Yamaki started a tradition of having the industrial equipment in the factory painted a bright blue so that his employees would have a cheerful environment to work in. Here are some still frames from Behiri’s video showing the inner factory spaces:

We recently also shared Behiri’s tour of the Fujifilm factory.