WCanon Inc. is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, specializing in optical, imaging, and industrial products, such as lenses, cameras, medical equipment, scanners, printers, and semiconductor manufacturing equipment.
WCosina Co., Ltd. is a manufacturer of high-end optical glass, optical precision equipment, cameras, video and electronic related equipment, based in Nakano, Nagano Prefecture, Japan.
WJohn Henry Dallmeyer, Anglo-German optician, was born at Loxten, Westphalia, the son of a landowner.
WFujifilm Holdings Corporation , trading as Fujifilm, or simply Fuji, is a Japanese multinational photography, medical equipment, biotechnology company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.
WC. P. Goerz was founded in 1886 by Carl Paul Goerz. Originally, it made geometrical drawing instruments for schools. From 1888 it made cameras and lenses. During the First World War, Goerz's main production was for the German and Austrian military. Goerz is known primarily for Anschütz strut-folding cameras, Dagor lenses and Tengor, Tenax cameras, and Minicord subminiature camera. C. P. Goerz also made a series of telescopic sights for sporting rifles that saw some use during the shortage of military sniping rifles experienced during the early stages of the trench warfare that was to characterise much of World War I.
WHirox (ハイロックス) is a lens company in Tokyo, Japan that created the first digital microscope in 1985. This company is now known as Hirox Co Ltd. Hirox's main industry is digital microscopes, but still makes the lenses for a variety of items including rangefinders.
WHoya Corporation is a Japanese company manufacturing optical products such as photomasks, photomask blanks and hard disk drive platters, contact lenses and eyeglass lenses for the health-care market, medical photonics, lasers, photographic filters, and software. Hoya Corporation is one of the Forbes Global 2000 Leading Companies and Industry Week 1000 Company.
WKenko Co., Ltd. is a Japanese manufacturer and trading company of photographic accessories, especially known for its teleconverters and filters. Located in Tokyo, it has been producing conversion lenses since the 1960s. It produces camera lenses under the Tokina brand name. It also manufactures a beginner's 35 mm SLR camera under the Kenko name.
WKonica Minolta, Inc. is a Japanese multinational technology company headquartered in Marunouchi, Chiyoda, Tokyo, with offices in 49 countries worldwide. The company manufactures business and industrial imaging products, including copiers, laser printers, multi-functional peripherals (MFPs) and digital print systems for the production printing market. Konica Minolta's Managed Print Service (MPS) is called Optimised Print Services. The company also makes optical devices, including lenses and LCD film; medical and graphic imaging products, such as X-ray image processing systems, colour proofing systems, and X-ray film; photometers, 3-D digitizers, and other sensing products; and textile printers. It once had camera and photo operations inherited from Konica and Minolta but they were sold in 2006 to Sony, with Sony's Alpha series being the successor SLR division brand.
WLeica Camera AG is a German company that manufactures cameras, lenses, binoculars, rifle scopes, microscopes and ophthalmic lenses. The company was founded by Ernst Leitz in 1869. The name Leica is derived from the first three letters of his surname (Leitz) and the first two of the word camera: lei-ca.
WLeidolf was a manufacturer of optical equipment situated in Wetzlar, Germany. It was founded by Rudolf Leidolf in 1921, initially producing lenses for microscopes. In 1948 camera production was started and in 1962 the factory ceased operations. Leidolf is in no way related to Leitz, even though Wetzlar has been the historical location for both companies.
WRodenstock GmbH is a German manufacturer of ophthalmic lenses and spectacle frames. The company, which was founded in 1877, is headquartered in Munich. It has a worldwide workforce of approximately 4,200 and is represented in more than 80 countries with sales subsidiaries and distribution partners. Rodenstock maintains production sites for ophthalmic lenses at a total of 14 locations in 12 countries.
WMinolta Co., Ltd. was a Japanese manufacturer of cameras, 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 Nichi-Doku Shashinki Shōten . 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 1933, the brand name first appeared on a camera, a copy of the Plaubel Makina simply called "Minolta".
WNikon Corporation , also known just as Nikon, is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, specializing in optics and imaging products. The companies held by Nikon form the Nikon Group.
WPentacon is the company name of a camera manufacturer in Dresden, Germany.
WPentax is a brand name used primarily by Japanese multinational imaging and electronics company Ricoh for DSLR cameras, lenses, sport optics, and CCTV optics. The Pentax brand is also used by Hoya Corporation for medical products & services, TI Asahi for surveying instruments, and Seiko Optical Products for certain optical lenses.
WRoss is the name of a succession of London-based lens designers and their company.
WThe Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the Samsung brand, and is the largest South Korean chaebol.
WSchneider-Kreuznach is the abbreviated name of the company Jos. Schneider Optische Werke GmbH, which is sometimes also simply referred to as Schneider. They are a manufacturer of industrial and photographic optics. The company was founded on 18 January 1913 by Joseph Schneider as Optische Anstalt Jos. Schneider & Co. at Bad Kreuznach in Germany. The company changed its name to Jos. Schneider & Co., Optische Werke, Kreuznach in 1922, and to the current Jos. Schneider Optische Werke GmbH in 1998.
WShanghai Seagull Camera Ltd is a Chinese camera maker located in Shanghai, China. Seagull is the oldest camera maker in China. The product line of Seagull includes TLR cameras, SLR cameras, folding cameras, CCD and SLR camera lenses, large-format cameras, film, night vision scopes, and angle viewfinders. Seagull's cameras usually use basic, time-tested mechanical designs that require no batteries. Seagull has made 21 million cameras since it was founded in 1958. Some Seagull cameras are distributed through the Lomography company.
WSeiko Holdings Corporation , commonly known as Seiko, is a Japanese holding company that has subsidiaries which manufacture and sell watches, clocks, electronic devices, semiconductors, jewelries, and optical products.
WSigma Corporation is a Japanese company, manufacturing cameras, lenses, flashes and other photographic accessories. All Sigma products are produced in the company's own Aizu factory in Bandai, Fukushima, Japan. Although Sigma produces several camera models, the company is best known for producing high-quality lenses and other accessories that are compatible with the cameras produced by other companies.
WSoligor was originally the trade mark for the American Allied Impex Corporation, used from 1956 for lenses and later cameras imported from Japan. It imported cameras from Japan and also took control of companies in Japan. Among the first products was Miranda T camera and Soligor lenses.
WSony Corporation is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Kōnan, Minato, Tokyo. The company operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional electronic products, the largest video game console company, the second largest video game publisher, the second largest record company, as well as one of the most comprehensive media companies, being the largest Japanese media conglomerate by size overtaking the privately held, family-owned Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, the largest Japanese media conglomerate by revenue.
WTamron Co., Ltd. is a Japanese company manufacturing photographic lenses, optical components and commercial/industrial-use optics. Tamron Headquarters is located in Saitama City in the Saitama Prefecture of Japan.
WTokina Co., Ltd. is a Japanese manufacturer of photographic lenses and CCTV security equipment.
WTopcon Corporation is a Japanese manufacturer of optical equipment for ophthalmology and surveying.
WVenus Optics is a Chinese manufacturer of photographic lenses, specialized in the design of innovative macro and wide angle lenses. Headquarters and production site are in Hefei, sales and marketing are located in Hongkong and the USA.
WVoigtländer was a significant long-established company within the optics and photographic industry, headquartered in Braunschweig, Germany, and today continues as a trademark for a range of photographic products.
WCarl Zeiss AG, branded as ZEISS, is a German manufacturer of optical systems and optoelectronics, founded in Jena, Germany in 1846 by optician Carl Zeiss. Together with Ernst Abbe and Otto Schott he laid the foundation for today's multi-national company. The current company emerged from a reunification of Carl Zeiss companies in East and West Germany with a consolidation phase in the 1990s. ZEISS is active in four business segments with approximately equal revenue, Industrial Quality and Research, Medical Technology, Consumer Markets and Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology in almost 50 countries, has 30 production sites and around 25 development sites worldwide.