Chinon Industries
Encyclopedia
was a Japan
ese camera
manufacturer. Kodak took a majority stake in the company in 1997, and made it a fully owned subsidiary of Kodak Japan, , in 2004 . As a subsidiary, it continues to develop digital camera
models.
They manufactured many cameras, such as the CG-5, which was one of the first cameras ever to use an Auto Focus lens, which had to be bought separately. The lenses are now rare and difficult to come by. They were cumbersome and had two infra-red "eyes" on the top. They would connect by a bayonet fitting similar to the Pentax K fitting, except they also had electrical contacts which would power the motor at the press of the shutter release button.
Another popular camera was the CM-1, a basic, fully manual 35 mm SLR camera favored by student amateur photographers because it was cheaper than the rival Pentax K-1000, but could use the same lenses and accessories. The CM-1 featured a battery-powered through-the-lens light metering system that utilized a red-above, green-middle, and red-below to indicate whether the film speed/shutter speed/aperture setting was over/ok/under exposing the picture. It also used a split-image prism for determining when an image was properly focused. The CM-1 was sold through discount retailers such as K-Mart during the 1980s and proved to be very durable and reliable.
Most of Chinon's SLR cameras used the Pentax K mount
, which was promoted by Pentax as a universal mount and therefore Pentax allowed and even encouraged other manufacturers to utilize their mount. This helped to expand the range of lens offerings for both Chinon and Pentax cameras.
Chinon also was a manufacturer of CD-ROM drives, scanners, electronic pocket calculators, and floppy disk drives. They even dabbled in VR with Cybershades for the PC, launched in the US market in 1995 for $199.
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese camera
Camera
A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...
manufacturer. Kodak took a majority stake in the company in 1997, and made it a fully owned subsidiary of Kodak Japan, , in 2004 . As a subsidiary, it continues to develop digital camera
Digital camera
A digital camera is a camera that takes video or still photographs, or both, digitally by recording images via an electronic image sensor. It is the main device used in the field of digital photography...
models.
Another popular camera was the CM-1, a basic, fully manual 35 mm SLR camera favored by student amateur photographers because it was cheaper than the rival Pentax K-1000, but could use the same lenses and accessories. The CM-1 featured a battery-powered through-the-lens light metering system that utilized a red-above, green-middle, and red-below to indicate whether the film speed/shutter speed/aperture setting was over/ok/under exposing the picture. It also used a split-image prism for determining when an image was properly focused. The CM-1 was sold through discount retailers such as K-Mart during the 1980s and proved to be very durable and reliable.
Most of Chinon's SLR cameras used the Pentax K mount
Pentax K mount
The Pentax K mount, sometimes referred to as the "PK mount", is a lens mount standard for mounting interchangeable photographic lenses to 35 mm single-lens reflex cameras. It was created by Pentax in 1975, and has been used by all Pentax 35 mm and digital SLRs since...
, which was promoted by Pentax as a universal mount and therefore Pentax allowed and even encouraged other manufacturers to utilize their mount. This helped to expand the range of lens offerings for both Chinon and Pentax cameras.
Chinon also was a manufacturer of CD-ROM drives, scanners, electronic pocket calculators, and floppy disk drives. They even dabbled in VR with Cybershades for the PC, launched in the US market in 1995 for $199.