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Canon and Zenza Bronica

10 and 13 researched events on one shared scale. Canon 1933–present, Zenza Bronica 1946–present.

The axis stretches where either maker has research and collapses where neither does, so a year sits opposite the same year on both. Event counts differ because research depth differs, not because one company did less.

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1930s

1933-1936

Goro Yoshida, Saburo Uchida, and Takeo Maeda established the Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory in Tokyo in November 1933 to develop a high-grade 35mm camera. The Kwanon was a prototype, not a regular commercial line. The Hansa Canon reached the market in February 1936 under a joint arrangement: Nippon Kogaku supplied the Nikkor lens, mount, viewfinder optics, and rangefinder mechanism, while Canon's predecessor made the body and shutter and assembled the camera.

The History of Canon, 1933-1961 · Canon Camera Museum: The Birth of Canon · Hansa Canon (Standard Model)

1937-1945

The business was incorporated as Precision Optical Industry Co., Ltd. on 10 August 1937. It developed the Serenar lens and began moving toward internal optical production. Wartime disruption damaged facilities and constrained materials, but the company received permission on 1 October 1945 to resume camera manufacture. Canon's current corporate founding date refers to the 1937 incorporation, not the laboratory's 1933 beginning.

The History of Canon, 1933-1961 · Canon Camera Museum: 1937-1945 · Canon Basic Information

1940s

1946-1958

Postwar cameras initially appeared with either Serenar or Nikkor standard lenses because materials and production were still unsettled. Canon expanded in-house Serenar manufacture, and Nippon Kogaku stopped supplying Nikkor lenses in 1948. Precision Optical Industry became Canon Camera Co., Inc. in 1947. Rangefinders supported export growth while Canon began to build capabilities in cine cameras, broadcast lenses, and business equipment.

The History of Canon, 1933-1961 · Canon Camera Museum: 1937-1945 · Canon Camera Museum: Overcoming Postwar Difficulties

1950s

Dream camera enters development

1952-1958

Yoshino began sustained camera development in 1952, hiring mechanically skilled staff and investing his own resources. A first prototype was completed in 1956, the year Bronica Camera Co., Ltd. was organized. The long development produced a modular 6x6 reflex whose film handling, mirror motion, removable back, and shutter were designed as an integrated system.

Zenza Bronica Exhibition - From the Zenza Bronica D to the Bronica RF645 · Museum Lecture: The Inside Story of Zenza Bronica Development · Mr. Zenza's Rolls-Royce

1959-1969

The Canonflex of 1959 introduced the R-mount SLR line. The FL mount followed in 1964 with stopped-down TTL metering and retained the breech-lock concept. Canon developed large synthetic fluorite crystals and released the FL-F300mm f/5.6 in May 1969. The company also diversified into calculators and copying technology and changed its legal name to Canon Inc. on 1 March 1969 to reflect a business no longer limited to cameras.

Canon Camera Museum: 1955-1969 · The Evolution of the Canon Lens Mount · Fluorite Lenses: Corrective Capabilities Beyond Ordinary Optical Glass

Bronica D establishes the system

1959-1960

The first production Zenza Bronica, later distinguished as the D, reached the market in December 1959. Its 6x6 body combined a 1/1250-second focal-plane shutter, interchangeable film back and finder, automatic film loading, and a descending quick-return mirror that preserved space behind the lens. Production cameras adopted Nikkor lenses after Olympus supplied prototype optics.

Zenza Bronica Exhibition - From the Zenza Bronica D to the Bronica RF645 · Bronica Camera List · Classic Camera Story: Zenza Bronica

1960s

S and C broaden the line

1961-1964

Bronica followed the elaborate D with the S in 1961, simplifying the original concept while retaining a modular 6x6 focal-plane-shutter system. The C arrived in 1964 as a still more economical branch with a noninterchangeable film back. Together they turned Yoshino's showcase design into a family of cameras at different levels of complexity and price.

Bronica Camera List · Classic Camera Story: Zenza Bronica · Mr. Zenza's Rolls-Royce

S2 becomes the mechanical mainstay

1965-1971

The C2 and S2 appeared in 1965, and the S2 became the durable center of Bronica's mechanical 6x6 line. Period sales sheets and manuals document a broad professional system of backs, finders, and lenses. Nikkor optics were central, but other makers and later Zenzanon-branded lenses also entered the ecosystem, so the camera badge alone never settles lens manufacture.

Bronica Camera List · Classic Camera Story: Zenza Bronica · Bronica Reference Library

1970s

1970-1975

Canon introduced the FD system and professional F-1 in 1971. FD retained the earlier breech-lock physical concept but added full-aperture metering and information exchange intended for automatic exposure. Fourteen FD lenses appeared together at launch, and the wider F-1 system was supported by more than 180 accessories. Canon simultaneously expanded plain-paper copying, laser printing research, overseas production, and semiconductor lithography.

Canon Camera Museum: 1970-1975 · The Evolution of the Canon Lens Mount · Canon F-1

EC brings electronic shutter control

1972-1975

The EC of 1972 replaced the older mechanical architecture with an electronically controlled focal-plane shutter and a divided mirror arrangement intended to reduce vibration while clearing the lens path. The EC-TL followed in 1975 with through-the-lens aperture-priority exposure control. Bronica's patents show that this period involved original body, finder, mirror, and lens-interface engineering.

Zenza Bronica Exhibition - From the Zenza Bronica D to the Bronica RF645 · Bronica Camera List · View Finder for a Single Lens Reflex Camera, US3975750A

1976-1986

The AE-1 of 1976 integrated a CPU into a mass-market 35mm SLR and was followed by the multi-mode A-1. New FD lenses appeared in 1979 with a faster fit-and-lock action while retaining interchangeability with earlier FD bodies. The T80 of 1985 provided a limited autofocus transition through dedicated AC lenses, but Canon concluded that a more extensive electronic system would require a new mount. Canon also began supplying laser-printer engines to Hewlett-Packard during this period.

Canon Camera Museum: 1976-1986 · The Evolution of the Canon Lens Mount · The History of Canon, 1976-1987

ETR resets Bronica around leaf shutters

1976-1979

The 6x4.5 ETR introduced a new modular system built around electronically controlled leaf shutters in its interchangeable lenses. Flash could synchronize throughout the shutter-speed range, and the smaller format made the camera faster to handle. ETR-C, ETRS, and ETRC variants followed, while the EC-TL II closed the older focal-plane lineage in 1978.

Bronica Camera List · Zenza Bronica ETR Instructions · Means for Mounting an Interchangeable Lens on a Single Lens Reflex Camera, US4063264

1980s

SQ restores the six-square format

1980-1982

Bronica returned to 6x6 with the SQ in 1980, but not to the old focal-plane mount. The SQ used its own electronically governed leaf-shutter lenses and modular backs, finders, screens, grips, and drives. SQ-A and motorized SQ-Am revisions followed in 1982. The shared Zenzanon name did not make ETR and SQ lenses interchangeable.

Bronica Camera List · Classic Camera Story: Zenza Bronica · Bronica Reference Library

GS-1 expands to six-by-seven

1983-1987

The GS-1 expanded Bronica's leaf-shutter reflex idea to 6x7 in 1983. It offered interchangeable backs and finders in a larger negative format and developed into a system distinct from both ETR and SQ. By the middle of the decade Bronica could address three common professional roll-film formats without asking one mount or one lens family to cross incompatible image circles and interfaces.

Zenza Bronica Exhibition - From the Zenza Bronica D to the Bronica RF645 · Bronica Camera List · Bronica Reference Library

1987-1999

Canon launched the EOS 650 and EF lenses in March 1987. EF replaced mechanical lens-body couplings with electronic communication, located the autofocus motor in each lens, and was not natively compatible with FD. The EOS-1 of 1989 extended the system into professional use. EF manufacturing expanded through Japan, Taiwan, and Malaysia, while Canon developed digital cameras and early professional digital SLR products around the EOS architecture.

Canon Camera Museum: Leap Forward with the EOS, 1987-1991 · The Evolution of the Canon Lens Mount · Canon Taiwan to Boost Lens Production Capability · Canon EOS 650 / EOS 650 QD

Late reflex systems gain integration

1988-1994

Founder Zenzaburo Yoshino died in November 1988, the same year the ETRSi modernized the 6x4.5 line. The SQ-Ai followed in 1990 with later-generation electronic integration. These cameras refined established professional systems rather than replacing them with a single universal platform, preserving Bronica's three-format structure into the digital transition.

Zenza Bronica Exhibition - From the Zenza Bronica D to the Bronica RF645 · Bronica Camera List · Zenza Bronica ETR Instructions

1990s

Tamron absorbs the Bronica company

1995-1998

Tamron entered the medium-format camera business by acquiring shares in Bronica Co., Ltd. in July 1995. In July 1998 Bronica Co. was merged into Tamron Co., Ltd. Bronica therefore ceased to be a separate legal company even though its cameras and brand continued, a distinction that matters when attributing the late systems and their optical manufacture.

Zenza Bronica Exhibition - From the Zenza Bronica D to the Bronica RF645 · History of TAMRON · Mr. Zenza's Rolls-Royce

2000s

2000-2011

The EOS D30, marketed in October 2000, paired the EF system with a Canon-developed 3.25-megapixel CMOS sensor and Canon signal processing. The EOS-1D and full-frame EOS-1Ds brought the digital system to professional work, while the lower-priced EOS 300D widened access. EF-S added APS-C-specific lenses within the EOS SLR family. Canon continued selling the EOS-1V film body until 2018, although an official sales-end notice does not establish its final production month.

Canon Camera Museum: 1997-2000 · Canon Camera Museum: A Vibrant Evolution in Digital Imaging, 2001-2004 · Canon EOS D30 · Notice of End of Sales and Extended Repair Support for the EOS-1V

RF645 closes the camera business

2000-2005

Bronica introduced the RF645 in November 2000, shifting from the modular reflex to a compact 6x4.5 interchangeable-lens rangefinder with leaf shutters and program exposure. It was the final new Bronica camera. Tamron's surviving product page states that production ended in October 2005, when the Bronica camera business itself was brought to a close.

Zenza Bronica Exhibition - From the Zenza Bronica D to the Bronica RF645 · Bronica Camera List · History of TAMRON · Bronica RF645

Bronica survives as a historical brand

2005–present

After camera production ended, Bronica ceased to operate as an independent maker or active Tamron camera line. Tamron nevertheless retains an official Bronica model chronology and RF645 specifications on its current website, preserving a manufacturer-level record of the completed system. Surviving cameras remain serviceable artifacts, but they are not evidence of continued Bronica manufacture.

Bronica Camera List · History of TAMRON · Bronica RF645

2010s

2012-2017

The EOS M of 2012 introduced the separate EF-M mirrorless mount for APS-C cameras and dedicated EF-M lenses. Canon also developed Cinema EOS and continued to expand digital SLR and professional video systems. The corporate group broadened further into network cameras and medical systems. No clear Canon announcement found in this search assigns one formal end date to the entire EOS M system.

Canon Integrated Report 2026 · Canon Camera Museum: 2011-2015

2018–present

Canon launched the full-frame EOS R system in 2018. The RF mount retains a 54mm internal diameter but shortens the flange distance to 20mm and uses a 12-contact electronic interface. Canon adapters support EF and EF-S lenses on RF bodies, but RF and EF-M remain separate native systems. Canon Inc. continues to operate across printing, imaging, medical, and industrial businesses, with lens and lithography production centered in a global manufacturing network.

Canon Launches the EOS R System · EOS R System White Paper · Canon Basic Information · Canon Manufacturing Facilities · Canon Integrated Report 2026 · Canon Reaches 110 Million EOS Cameras and 160 Million RF/EF Lenses

Read either maker on its own: Canon · Zenza Bronica