Canon Corporation is a world-known manufacturer of office equipment ranging from printers and fax machines to scanners and copying machines.

The amount of photographic equipment produced by Canon is rather moderate in comparison to their other products. But it is in demand around the world. Don’t forget that it is the photographic cameras that the company began its business with.

As early as in 1933 Goro Yoshida and his brother-in-law, Sabura Uchida, founded the Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory in Tokyo. Their goal was to create a Japanese camera and make it known throughout the world. To begin with, the young people bought up and examined most advanced German models of that day. The enterprise was sponsored by Takeshi Mitarai, best friend of Uchida, a prosperous doctor, who later became president of the company.

In the following year, 1934, Japan's first domestically-made 35mm focal-plane shutter camera “was born” and was named "Kwanon' - after the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy. The trademark Canon was registered a year later.

The first consumer model Hansa Canon appeared in 1937 and by 1990th Canon cameras won recognition of both amateur and professional photographers.

Apart from photo cameras, Canon also manufactured copying machines (from 1970th), even competing with American Xerox.

But if copying machines production was a deliberate decision the company began to manufacture printers accidentally. In 1977 an employee at Canon laboratory touched ink for copiers with a soldering iron, and due to high temperature there appeared an ink bubble that trickled on a paper sheet. This didn’t remain unnoticed and initiated the developing of well-known Buble-Jet technology that up to now is used in various ink-jet Canon printers.

Canon added much to the developing of laser printing technology. In 1977 they unveiled the prototype of a laser printer at Japanese Computer Conference. And when they managed to make the device portable the American Hewlett-Packard suggested collaboration: Canon provides the hardware, Hewlett-Packard – software, design and world-wide distribution under its own trademark. As a result, the two companies now control about 70% of laser printers market.

Nowadays Canon Corporation is the world’s number 1 manufacturer of photographic & office equipment with office equipment prevailing.