Canon (company)
Canon, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a Japanese company that specialises in imaging and optical products, including cameras, photocopiers and computer printers. Formerly known as Kwanon, the company anglicized its name when it became a major exporter.
The company was founded in 1933 with the name 精機光学研究所 (Seiki-kougaku laboratory or Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory) by the co-founder Yoshida Goro and his brother-in-law Uchida Saburo, aided by Takeshi Mitarai, a close friend of Uchida. Its original purpose was to research into the development of quality cameras. [1]
The official Japanese name of the company is キヤノン (not キャノン).
Canon's main competitors include Nikon, Minolta, Leica, Pentax, Olympus, Sony, Epson and Hewlett-Packard..