In 1756, Johann Christoph Voigtlander founded and gave his name to the Voigtlander optical firm. Voigtlander is each the oldest name in cameras, and the most enduring. Amongst 1929 and 1956, Voigtlander developed a variety of medium format folding cameras all named "Bessa", a different extended-lived name.
In 1898 the Voigtlander corporation issued stock, and in 1925 Schering (a German pharmaceutical enterprise) became the majority shareholder. In 1956, Schering sold its shares to the Carl Zeiss Foundation, and Voigtlander and Zeiss included. In 1972 Zeiss/Voigtlander stopped making cameras, and the Voigtlander brand was sold to Rollei. In 1982 Rollei collapsed and Plusfoto took more than the name till promoting it to Ringfoto in 1997.
Now, the German organization Ringfoto is nevertheless generating Voigtlander branded cameras and lenses. Their 35mm rangefinder, and medium format models all use variants of the name Bessa (e.g. Bessa III W).
In 1999 Cosina leased the rights to the Voigtlander name from Ringfoto, and began to manufacture and market place the Cosina Voigtlander brand. These days the unrelated Japanese organization Cosina are as well nevertheless making Voigtlander branded cameras and lenses, and their models as well use variants of the name Bessa (e.g. Bessa R2M).
Cosina's production of the Voigtlander, is not extraordinary: Cosina have extended been a manufacturer of other's brands. These have integrated the Canon T60, Konica TC-X, Nikon FM-ten and FE-ten, Olympus OM-ten and OM-2000, Pentax P 30T, plus the Yashica, FX-3 and FX-3 Super, to name but a couple of. In all, there are over one hundred cameras that have borne a different manufacturer's name, but had been developed by Cosina.
But let's go back to Zeiss Ikon, a German organization formed in 1926 by the merger of 4 camera makers, and a single time owner of Voigtlander. Its other brands have been Ikon and Contax; names other people have sought to emulate.
Nippon Kogaku Kogyo Kabushikigaisha (Japan Optical Industries Organization), or Nippon for brief, was the enterprise that found good results with the Nikon SLR camera brand, but which began-out producing copies of Contax rangefinder cameras. The name Nikon was claimed to be a merging of Nippon and Ikon, and it really is extensively reported that Zeiss filed a lawsuit alleging trademark violations of the brand name Ikon. I can't find proof to assistance this rumour, but In between 1963 and the early 1970s, all Nikon items sold in Germany had been below the brand name "Nikkor".
Bizarrely, in 1989, a year soon after Nippon had adopted the Enterprise name Nikon, it sued the Ikon Photographic Firm, a US manufacturer of economical cameras, for trademark infringement, due to the fact Ikon was too equivalent to Nikon. Zeiss did not get in on the act due to the fact their US trademark had expired.
There is a equivalent rumour relating to Pentax. The organization accountable for the Pentax brand was founded in 1919, and adopted the name Asahi Optical Enterprise (Ltd) in 1938. There is substantially speculation about the etymology of the Pentax brand name, and some sources state Pentax was derived from a mixture penta-prism and reflex. Other people say it was a mixture of penta-prism and "Contax", a brand name of Zeiss.
Some commentators as well claim the name Pentax was initially a registered trademark of Zeiss Ikon, and was licensed to Asahi Optical. On the other hand, other sources declare that all Germans patents have been annulled soon after the country's defeat in WWII, and Asahi Optical have been able to adopt the name devoid of contest? What ever the truth, the name Pentax does bear over a passing resemblance to Contax.
Ziess (Carl Zeiss AG) eventually leased the Contax name to the Japanese maker Yashica, and collaborated with them on the improvement a prestigious brand of 35mm cameras and interchangeable Yashica/Contax lenses. You try to remember Yashica; Cosina developed their later cameras.
On the topic of Yashica, it really is noticeable how many camera brands had names ending in "ca". Fuji's brand name was Fujica, and there was too Bronica, Konica, Nicca and Praktica. "Ca" is supposedly a reference to camera, but all these names are remarkably related to Leica (nicely about as equivalent as Nikon is to Ikon, and Pentax to Contax).
Having back to Zeiss, the corporation had a bit of bother with its own name. At the end of WWII the organisation was spit Among Jena in West Germany, and Dresden in the East. As element of the Globe War II reparations, the Soviet army took most of Zeiss's tooling and stock back to the Soviet Union, leaving only the brand names behind. The western corporation became named Carl Zeiss, although the eastern goods became Zeiss Jena.
In conclusion, so far as camera names are concerned, Voigtlander began it, Zeiss claimed to own it, and eventually Cosina developed it.
My film camera collection
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