Canon Inc., also called Kyanon Kabushiki Gaisha in Japanese, is a Japanese multinational company that produces cameras as well as photocopiers and computer printers. Its headquarters is located in Tokyo while its North American headquarters is in Lake Success in New York State, USA.
The original company that is today known as Canon was founded in 1933 by Goro Yoshida and his brother-in-law Saburo Uchida. At that time, it was called Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory, with funds coming from a close friend of Uchida, Takeshi Mitarai. At that time, the company was founded to make 35mm rangefinder cameras.
The first camera that was made by Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory was given the name Kwanon, after the Goddess of Mercy (aka Kuan Yin in Chinese). This was in June 1934. However, it is believed that none of the original Kwanon cameras ever reached the market.
At that time, Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory had not produced a lens. After considering several alternatives, they decided to seek the help of Nippon Kogaku Kogyo, the company that is today known as Nikon. In February 1936, the Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory released the Hansa Canon, the first commercially available Kwanon camera. The standard model uses a Nikkor lens, the Nikkor 50mm f/3.5 lens. The founders of the company decided on the name "Canon" because it sounds similar to Kwanon, and because they like the meaning of "canon" which they want to relate to their company.
The next year, on 10 august 1937, Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory even changed its name to Canon. So that was the start of the Canon company.
Today the company is noted for its cameras and computer printers, but in actual fact, most of its revenue comes from its office products such as its analog and digital printers and its digital multifunctional devices. Nevertheless, we will only focus (no pun intended) on Canon, the camera maker.
Canon EOS
The Canon EOS is the SLR camera series produced by Canon today. EOS stands for Electro-Optical System. The acronym EOS was chosen to name the camera system after Eos, the goddess of dawn in Greek mythology. It was first introduced in 1987. Along with the EOS cameras came the EF lens-mount which replaces the earlier FD lens-mount. The EOS cameras are originally film cameras. Today, Canon's digital cameras also use the EOS system. All the cameras produced by Canon today are the Canon EOS autofocus system. Along with Nikon's dSLR, Canon EOS holds the lion share of the camera market in most countries.
Since 1987, Canon has released more than 40 EOS SLR camera models, with the first being the Canon EOS 650. Canon ushered in the digital SLR with the debut of the Canon EOS DCS 3 in 1995, a camera jointly produced with Kodak. Between 1995 and 1998, Canon produced four digital cameras in collaboration with Kodak. Canon's first wholely produced EOS SLR camera was the EOSD30, introduced in 2000.
Canon employs three different names for its EOS cameras, depending on whether they were sold in Japan, the Americas or elsewhere. The international editions of its cameras following a naming convention that accord a single digit model number to the professional range, such as EOS 1D Mark II, a two-digit model number for its prosumer range, such as the EOS 33V, and a three-digit model number for its consumer range, such as the EOS 350D, EOS 300X and so on. In the Americas, the professional range is named similarly as in the International market. Its prosumer range however, is called the Elan while the consumer range is called the Rebel. In Japan, the prosumer range is called the 7-series while the consumer range is called the Kiss. The last film SLR produced by Canon is the EOS 300X, released in September 2004.
Canon 1D Mark III, Canon's flagship dSLR launched in 2007 (photograph by Nikonmadness and available in the public domain)
Canon's EF Lens mount
Central to the Canon EOS camera system is the bayonet-style EF lens-mount. This is not compatible to the earlier FB mount, which was used for 16 years until the EF lens-mount was introduced in 1987 along with the Canon EOS system. With the EF lens-mount, the aperture and focus are controlled via electrical contacts. The motors are in the lens themselves. The design allows for smooth, quiet autofocusing.
Canon Digital IXUS
Canon's compact range of digital cameras is called the IXUS in Europe and Southeast Asia. In Japan it is called the IXY Digital while in the Americas it is known as the PowerShot Digital ELPH. The first Digital IXUS camera was released in June 2000
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