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Revision as of 08:00, 10 November 2004 by Hoary (talk | contribs) (misc odds and ends)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Cosina (コシナ) is a designer and manufacturer of cameras and lenses, and a glassmaker, based in Nakano, Nagano Prefecture, Japan.
Cosina is the successor to Nikō (or "Nikoh"), a company set up as a manufacturer of lenses in 1959. In 1966, it started to manufacture of 35mm compact cameras and 8mm cine cameras, in 1968 it started a glassworks, and a year later started the manufacture of 35mm SLR cameras.
Nikō changed its name to Cosina in 1973. (Koshi was from where the founder came from: the Koshi area within Nakano, Nagano Prefecture. Na was from Nakano.) In 1982 it began to manufacture lenses in a variety of SLR mounts. In 1991 it started to produce glass molded aspherical lenses, and in 1996 plastic molded aspherical lenses. It began producing digital cameras in 1997.
At about this time, plans were started to produce wide and ultrawide lenses for the Leica screw mount, and also a basic camera -- similar to a rangefinder camera but without a rangefinder -- for mounting these. Having obtained the rights to the name Voigtländer, Cosina sold a 15mm f/4.5 and 25mm f/4 lens (neither of them rangefinder-coupled) and the Bessa L body in 1999.
The Voigtländer cameras and lenses have been of great personal interest to Kobayashi Hirofumi 小林博文 (b.1953), the President of Cosina since the death in 1988 of his father (小林文治郎), the founder.
The name Cosina has previously appeared on compact and SLR cameras for 135 film, and it is well known that the company manufactered cameras for Nikon and other companies. The name Cosina now appears (conspicuously) on lenses for various SLR mounts, and less conspicuously on a widening range of cameras and lenses with the Voigtländer brand. Cosina manufactures a Rollei-branded rangefinder camera, and is acknowledged to manufacture (and to have helped design) an Epson digital rangefinder camera as well. Its manufacture of a new Zeiss Ikon line of rangefinder camera and lenses has just been announced.
Cosina products are distributed in Japan by Kenko.
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