Hong Kong venture capital firm revives the Yashica brand
Yashica is a long established camera brand, famous primarily for Rolleiflex-style twin lens reflex cameras a few decades back, plus film compacts and a film SLR system that was compatible with its Contax stablemate. However, when Yashica’s last owner, Kyocera Corp., pulled its Contax, Yashica and Kyocera Samurai brands out of the camera market three years ago, most of us thought that was the end of Yashica.
We have recently learned that the Yashica brand has been revived by a Hong Kong-based venture capital company, MFJebsen. Rather like the Polaroid brand, which has been used by Hong Kong based company to label inexpensive digital camera, The Yashica brand is now adorned on a range of budget priced digital cameras manufactured in China.
It’s not clear to us whether this is a simple licensing deal or whether MFJebsen has acquired the Yashica brand outright – Kyocera still lists a number of companies, including one in Hong Kong, as subsidiaries that incorporate the Yashica name.
Kyocera Corp. is a diversified high tech materials and components manufacturer, best known for ceramic components for the electronics industry (the name is the combination of Kyoto Ceramics). Ceramics is a close cousin of glass manufacturing and the company, which used to manufacture Zeiss T* branded optics in Japan, continues to make lens components for other optics companies.
www.yashica.com
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Yashica camera brand resurfaces
DPNow Yashica camera brand resurfaces
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Although still ... (more)
Unregistered Re: Yashica camera brand resurfaces
I still have a G1 & G2 Contax system. It is a tewrrifc camera, I keep hoping that Kyocera brings it ... (more)
carman Re: Yashica camera brand resurfaces
Yashica FR-1 with all lenses motordrive stolen from me in 1975. ***********... (more)