Cooper Hewitt says...
Canon’s predecessor, the Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory, was founded in Tokyo in 1933 to research the manufacturing of quality cameras. In 1934, the Kwanon, Japan’s first 35 mm focal-plane-shutter camera was produced as a prototype. In 1935 the company filed for the registration of the “Canon” trademark. The first Canon camera was released on the market in February of 1936. In 1947 the company became Canon Camera Co., Inc. and in 1955, Canon opened an office in New York City. In 1959, Canon developed the Canon Flex, Canon’s first SLR camera. In 1962 Canon branched out from camera and video equipment and began to enter the business machine market, developing the world’s first 10-key electronic calculator in 1964. For their 30th anniversary slogan in 1967 Canon chose: “Cameras in the Right Hand, Business Machines in the Left.” In 1968 Canon NP System, the original electro-photography technology was introduced and Canon entered the plain-paper copier market, producing their first copier model in 1970. In the 1970s Canon continued to develop camera lenses, a color copier, and in 1976 the first camera, the AE-1 SLR, with a built-in micro-computer. Canon expanded into the computer, electronic typewriter, and word processor sector. In 1985 Canon introduced the Canovision 8 VM-E1, an 8 mm video camcorder. In the 1980s and 1990s technologies advanced in terms of copy machines, inkjet and laserjet printers, and camera equipment, including the introduction of the PowerShot 600 and the ELPH in 1996. In 1997 Canon entered the digital video camcorder market and by that year camera production had reached 100 million units.
