Zunow

Zunow was founded by Suzuki Sakuta (鈴木作太) as Teikoku Kōgaku Kenkyūjo (帝国光学研究所).[1] Most sources say that the company was founded in 1930, but at least one says 1940. It began as a lens grinding facility, working as a subcontractor for other companies, and also made military material before and during WWII. This included wide-aperture lenses designed by Hamano Michisaburō (浜野道三郎), a former lens designer of Nippon Kōgaku who entered the company in 1941. An ƒ/1.2 lens was experimented in 1945 for X-ray photography, and another wide-aperture lens was perhaps made for infrared photography. The factory was completely destroyed in the final months of the war, and no example of these lenses survived.

The company was revived under the same name in 1948, to make wide aperture camera lenses. The first prototypes were completed in 1950, and the company released the 50mm ƒ/1.1 Zunow in 1953. This was probably the fastest lens commercially available at the time. The brand Zunow (ズノー) possibly refers to the Japanese word zunō (頭脳), meaning "brain".

In 1951, during the development of the 50mm ƒ/1.1, the company made one or several prototypes of its first camera, called Teica. This was a Leica copy equipped with a Zunow 50/1.2, certainly an early version of the ƒ/1.1 lens.

In 1954 the company was incorporated as Teikoku Kōgaku Kōgyō K.K. (帝国光学工業㈱). In December 1956, it became Zunow Kōgaku Kōgyō K.K. (ズノー光学㈱, meaning Zunow Optical Industry Co., Ltd.), unifying the name of the company with the name of the lenses. It released other fast lenses for still and cine cameras, and also provided less expensive lenses for the fixed-lens cameras of other Japanese manufacturers (such as Neoca).

In 1958, Zunow also introduced a very ambitiously designed 35mm SLR, simply marked "Zunow", whose development had started in 1956. It was the first 35mm SLR camera with auto diaphragm, instant-return mirror, and bayonet mount interchangeable lenses. Production and capital problems resulted in low production.

In the meantime, the production of cine lenses had become the company's main source of income, making it increasingly dependent on the cine camera makers which were its main clients. The bankruptcy of Neoca in January 1960 and that of Arco at the end of the year precipitated the collapse of the company, which closed its doors on January 1st, 1961.