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Asahi Optical
was a Japanese camera and optical equipment manufacturer. Currently, it exists as the Pentax Life Care Business Division of Hoya's medical endoscope business, as well as the digital camera brand of Ricoh Imaging, a subsidiary of Ricoh. Pentax, founded in 1919 as a town workshop specializing in polishing eyeglass lenses, developed Japan's first single-lens reflex camera, the Asahiflex, in 1952. By 2006, Pentax's domestic market share in digital cameras had declined to 4%. In 2007, Pentax was acquired by Hoya and subsequently merged with the company the following year. In 2011, Hoya spun off the Pentax brand's digital camera business, which was then acquired by Ricoh, leading to the establishment of Pentax Ricoh Imaging (current Ricoh Imaging). As a response to growing interest in film photography, Pentax launched the Pentax 17 on June 17, 2024. The Pentax 17 is a half-frame film camera. This launch marks the first Pentax film camera in over two decades. Corporate history Earl ...
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Kabushiki Gaisha
A or ''kabushiki kaisha'', commonly abbreviated K.K. or KK, is a type of defined under the Companies Act of Japan. The term is often translated as "stock company", "joint-stock company" or "stock corporation". The term ''kabushiki gaisha'' in Japan refers to any joint-stock company regardless of country of origin or incorporation; however, outside Japan the term refers specifically to joint-stock companies incorporated in Japan. Usage in language In Latin script, ''kabushiki kaisha'', with a , is often used, but the original Japanese pronunciation is ''kabushiki gaisha'', with a , owing to ''rendaku''. A ''kabushiki gaisha'' must include "" in its name (Article 6, paragraph 2 of the Companies Act). In a company name, "" can be used as a prefix (e.g. , ''Dentsu, kabushiki gaisha Dentsū'', a style called , ''mae-kabu'') or as a suffix (e.g. , ''Toyota, Toyota Jidōsha kabushiki gaisha'', a style called , ''ato-kabu''). Many Japanese companies translate the phrase "" in their ...
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Asahiflex
The Asahiflex was a 35 mm single-lens reflex camera built by the Asahi Optical Corporation (later to become Pentax). Asahi Optical introduced its first 35 mm camera in 1952. Unlike the majority of Japanese camera manufacturers of the time, Asahi made a conscious decision not to produce a mere German rangefinder copy, a relatively simple task. Instead, Asahi decided to copy the Praktiflex, a 1939 design, made in the German Democratic Republic. Asahi's designers (Nobuyuki Yoshida and Ryohei Suzuki) were convinced of the inherent superiority of the SLR and so proceeded along these lines. This effort resulted in the Asahiflex I, which was also the first Japanese 35 mm SLR. ''Note: According to company information from Asahi Optical Co., however, the Asahiflex I is based on Mr. Matsumoto’s Kochmann Reflex-Korelle, a pre-war 6x6 roll film camera.'' Asahiflex I The Asahiflex I had a non-interchangeable waist-level viewfinder, with a direct optical viewfinder for eye-level use. ...
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Contax
Contax (stylised as CONTAX in the Yashica/Kyocera era) began as a German camera model in the Zeiss Ikon line in 1932, and later became a brand name. The early cameras were among the finest in the world, typically featuring high quality Carl Zeiss AG, Zeiss interchangeable Photographic lens, lenses. The final products under the Contax name were a line of 135 film, 35 mm, medium format, and digital cameras engineered and manufactured by Japanese multinational Kyocera, and featuring modern Zeiss optics. In 2005, Kyocera announced that it would no longer produce Contax cameras. The rights to the brand are currently part of Carl Zeiss AG, but no Contax cameras are currently in production, and the brand is considered dormant. Historical overview While the firm of Ernst Leitz of Wetzlar established the 24 mm × 36 mm negative format on perforated 35 mm movie film as a viable photographic system, Zeiss Ikon of Dresden decided to produce a competitor designed to b ...
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Canon (company)
Canon Inc. (; Hepburn romanization, Hepburn: ) is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Ōta, Tokyo, specializing in optical, imaging, and industrial products, such as lenses, cameras, medical equipment, Image scanner, scanners, Printer (computing), printers, and Semiconductor device fabrication, semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Canon has a primary listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the TOPIX Core 30 and Nikkei 225 indexes. It used to have a secondary listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Name The company was originally named (). In 1934, it produced the ''Kwanon'', a prototype for Japan's first-ever 35mm camera with a focal-plane-based shutter. In 1947, the company name was changed to ''Canon Camera Co., Inc.'', shortened to ''Canon Inc.'' in 1969. The name Canon comes from Buddhist bodhisattva (), previously transliterated as Kuanyin, Kwannon, or Kwanon in English. History 1933–1970 The origins of Canon date ba ...
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Nikon
(, ; ) is a Japanese optics and photographic equipment manufacturer. Nikon's products include cameras, camera lenses, binoculars, microscopes, ophthalmic lenses, measurement instruments, rifle scopes, spotting scopes, and equipment related to Semiconductor device fabrication, semiconductor fabrication, such as Stepper, steppers used in the photolithography steps of such manufacturing. Nikon is the world's second largest manufacturer of such equipment. Since July 2024, Nikon has been headquartered in Nishi-Ōi, Shinagawa, Shinagawa, Tokyo where the plant has been located since 1918. The company is the eighth-largest chip equipment maker as reported in 2017. Also, it has diversified into new areas like 3D printers, 3D printing and regenerative medicine to compensate for the shrinking digital camera market. Among Nikon's many notable product lines are Nikkor imaging lenses (for Nikon F-mount, F-mount cameras, large format photography, photographic enlargers, and other applicatio ...
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Far East
The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In modern times, the term ''Far East'' has widely fallen out of use and been substituted by Asia–Pacific, while the terms Middle East and Near East, although now pertaining to different territories, are still commonly used today. The term first came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 15th century, particularly the British people, British, denoting the Far East as the "farthest" of the three "Easts", beyond the Near East and the Middle East. Likewise, during the Qing dynasty of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the term "Far West (Taixi), Tàixī ()" – i.e., anything further west than the Arab world – was used to refer to the Western countries. Since the mid-20th century, the term has mostly gone out of use for the region ...
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Korean War
The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was supported by China and the Soviet Union, while South Korea was supported by the United Nations Command (UNC) led by the United States. The conflict was one of the first major proxy wars of the Cold War. Fighting ended in 1953 with an armistice but no peace treaty, leading to the ongoing Korean conflict. After the end of World War II in 1945, Korea, which had been a Korea under Japanese rule, Japanese colony for 35 years, was Division of Korea, divided by the Soviet Union and the United States into two occupation zones at the 38th parallel north, 38th parallel, with plans for a future independent state. Due to political disagreements and influence from their backers, the zones formed their governments in 1948. North Korea was led by Kim Il S ...
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The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of the longest-running newspapers in the United States, the ''Times'' serves as one of the country's Newspaper of record, newspapers of record. , ''The New York Times'' had 9.13 million total and 8.83 million online subscribers, both by significant margins the List of newspapers in the United States, highest numbers for any newspaper in the United States; the total also included 296,330 print subscribers, making the ''Times'' the second-largest newspaper by print circulation in the United States, following ''The Wall Street Journal'', also based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' is published by the New York Times Company; since 1896, the company has been chaired by the Ochs-Sulzberger family, whose current chairman and the paper's publ ...
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Minolta
was a Japanese manufacturer of cameras, lenses, camera accessories, photocopiers, fax machines, and laser printers. Minolta Co., Ltd., which is also known simply as Minolta, was founded in Osaka, Japan, in 1928 as . It made the first integrated autofocus 35 mm SLR camera system. In 1931, the company adopted its final name, an acronym for "Mechanism, Instruments, Optics, and Lenses by Tashima". In 2003, Minolta merged with Konica to form Konica Minolta. On 19 January 2006, Konica Minolta announced that it was leaving the camera and photo business, and that it would sell a portion of its Single-lens reflex camera, SLR camera business to Sony as part of its move to pull completely out of the business of selling cameras and photographic film. History Milestones *1928: establishes Nichi-Doku Shashinki Shōten ("Japanese-German photo company," the precursor of Minolta Co., Ltd.). *1929: Marketed the company's first camera, the "Nifcarette" (ニフカレッテ). *1937: The Mi ...
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Konica
was a Japanese manufacturer of, among other products, film, film cameras, camera accessories, photographic and photo-processing equipment, photocopiers, fax machines and laser printers, founded in 1873. The company merged with Japanese peer Minolta in 2003, forming Konica Minolta. History The company traces its history back to 1873 when pharmacist Rokusaburo Sugiura began selling photographic materials at his shop in Konishiya Rokubē, the biggest pharmacy trader in Tokyo at that time. In 1878, Rokusaburō succeeded to his family and renamed Rokuemon VI (Rokudaime Rokuemon). He gave the original shop to his younger brother and launched a new shop, Konishi Honten (Konishi Main Shop) in the Nihonbashi district of Tokyo. In 1882, Konishi launched a project to produce photography related materials in Japan which were imported at that time. In 1902, Konishi began to sell the "Cherry Portable Camera" (チェリー手提用暗函), the first Japanese produced end-user oriented camer ...
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