Canon

The company was founded in 1933 with the name Seiki Kōgaku Kenkyūjo (精機光学研究所, or Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory) by the co-founder Yoshida Gorō (吉田五郎)[1] from Hiroshima and his brother-in-law Uchida Saburō (内田三郎)[1], funded by Mitarai Takeshi (御手洗毅)[1], a close friend of Uchida. Its original purpose was to research into the development of quality cameras. Therefore Yoshida Gorō disassembled an original Leica II and studied it mindfully. In June 1934 they released their first camera, the Kwanon (pronounced kannon), named after the Buddhist bodhisattva of mercy of the same name (観音, カンオン; in Chinese Guān Yīn). Later it became the “Hansa Canon”, the company’s first commercial camera. The following year the camera’s name was changed to the less overtly religious Canon (キャノン, pronounced kyanon). The company changed its name to Canon Camera in 1947, and to Canon in 1969.

The company’s earliest cameras were derived much from the design of the Leica threadmount rangefinder cameras; concerns about patents, as well as ignorance of the precise specification of the Leica thread mount, kept these earliest Canon cameras distinctive. Copies only came after the war, but Seiki Kōgaku swiftly equipped postwar Canon bodies with a combined viewfinder / rangefinder with three-way switchable magnification (50mm, 100mm, and rangefinder only). Other innovations followed

More info at

• https://global.canon/en/corporate/history/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_Inc.
• https://independent-photo.com/news/a-brief-history-of-canon/
• https://global.canon/en/c-museum/
• https://aboutphotography.blog/blog/history-of-canon
• http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Canon