Canon (company)

Canon Inc. is a Japanese multinational corporation that specialises in the manufacture of imaging and optical products, including cameras, photocopiers, steppers and computer printers. Its headquarters are located in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan

The name Canon began in 1947 after the company Kwanon changed its name. In 1934 Kwanon began with a prototype for Japan’s first-ever 35 mm camera with a focal plane shutter. It was named 'Kwanon'^[7] by Goro Yoshida after the Buddhist bodhisattva Guan Yin, known in Japanese as Kannon.

Products

Canon is a manufacturer of business and consumer imaging products which includes printers, scanners, binoculars, compact digital cameras, film and digital SLR cameras, lenses and video camcorders.

The Business Solutions division offers print and document solutions for small and medium businesses, large corporations and governments. These include multi-functional printers, black and white and color office printers, large format printers, scanners, black and white and color production printers, as well as software to support these products.

Lesser known Canon products include medical, optical and broadcast products, including ophthalmic and x-ray devices, broadcast lenses, semiconductors, digital microfilm scanners, and Handy Terminal Solutions.

Laser printers

This section requires expansion.

For many years, Canon were the principal makers of the print-engines found in industry-standard laser printers. The first models of Apple LaserWriter, and the equivalent products made by HP, used the Canon LBP-CX engine. The next models (LaserWriter II series, LaserJet II series) used the Canon LBP-SX engine. Later models used the Canon LBP-LX, LBP-EX, LBP-PX engines and many other Canon print engines.

Between printer models based on the same Canon print engine, many parts (such as toner cartridges, fuser units, roller assemblies) are interchangeable.

Canon laser printers use cartridges.

Digital Copiers

Canon's largest division in terms of revenue is its multifunction copier division. Many of the sweeping changes during the "Digital Revolution" in the industry were invented by Canon. This has enabled Canon to hold the highest market share in the industry for 26 of the last 27 years. Canon distributes its consumer and home office imageCLASS line though retail outlets and professional grade imageRUNNER series through subsidiary Canon Business Solutions and independent distributors. The professional grade series ranges from small table tops to large digital presses.

Canon has been manufacturing and distributing digital cameras since 1984, starting with the RC-701. The RC series was followed by the PowerShot and Digital IXUS series of digital cameras. Canon also developed the EOS series of digital single-lens reflex cameras (DSLR) which includes high-end professional models.

See main articles:

Canon PowerShot

Canon PowerShot G series

Canon Digital IXUS

Canon EOS

Canon EF lens mount (includes list of EF lenses)

Canon have recently implicated Thermal Transition Copying as a part of the manufacturing process for all new cameras being produced by canon. This manufacturing process allows a camera's polymer casing to very slightly change temperature through an exothermic reaction triggered by electronic sensors, to assist in the prevention of condensation inside the camera; a common problem experienced when using an SLRcamera in certain conditions.

Canon Speedlite

Canon has also produced speed lights for their DSLR cameras. They have a wide variety of flash guns available including the 270ex, Canon 430 Speedlight and its bigger brother the Canon 580EX flash gun. Canon’s speed lights are known for their excellent workmanship and durability.

Scanners

This section requires expansion.

Canon has manufactured high-quality scanners for use with home computers for many years; they also make flatbed scanners, film scanners, and document scanners. The Canon Canoscan 8800F is, as of 2009, one of the most popular devices for scanning photographs and transparencies.^{[citation needed]}

Computers

Canon introduced two MSX home computer models in 1983, the V-10 and the V-20. Both offered just the minimum range of the MSX standards without any additional features. The V-20 was able to receive photos from the T90 Canon camera with the Data Memory Back T90 expansion.

See main article: Canon V-20

Company structure

Canon has regional headquarters in the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Japan, Asia and Oceania (including Australia & New Zealand) . Canon in Europe is split into Canon Europa NV (based in the Netherlands) and Canon Europe Ltd (based in London). Both make up the European headquarters for Canon

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VAIO

VAIO (pronounced /ˈvaɪ.oʊ/) is a sub-brand for many of Sony's computer products. It was originally an acronym for Video Audio Integrated Operation, but since 2008 amended toVisual Audio Intelligence Organizer to celebrate the brand's 10th year anniversary. The branding was created by Timothy Hanley to distinguish items that encompassed the use of consumer audio and video, as well as being conventional computing products. One example of this was the Sony VAIO W Series personal computer, which functioned as a regular computer and a miniature entertainment center. Although Sony made computers in the 1980s for the Japanese market only, Sony withdrew from the computer business around the turn of the decade. Sony's re-entry to the computer market, this time globally, under the new VAIO brand, started in 1996 with the PCV series of desktops. The VAIO logo also represents the integration of analog and digital technology. The 'VA' represents an analog wave and the 'IO' represents digital binary code.

Sony is expanding the use of the VAIO label. It can now be found on notebooks, subnotebooks,desktop and media centres. Network media solutions by Sony will also carry the VAIO brand.

VAIO notebooks are currently shipped with Microsoft Windows 7 Professional^{[citation needed]}(Business line) or Windows 7 Home Premium, while high-end models sometimes come withWindows 7 Ultimate.

In mid-2005, all models stopped shipping with a Recovery CD, which was replaced by a hidden partition on the hard drive, accessible at boot via the BIOS or also within Windows via a utility. Pressing [F10] (at the VAIO logo) during boot-up will cause the notebook to boot from the recovery partition; where the user has the choice of either running hardware diagnostics (without affecting the installed system), or restoring (re-imaging) the hard drive to factory condition (of course, this option will destroy all user installed applications and all data). On first running the system out of the box, VAIO users are prompted to create a set of recovery DVDs, which will be required in case of hard disk failure and replacement with a new drive (normally these would not be required if the system is restored from the hidden partition).

Also included as part of the out-of-box experience, are prompts to register at Club VAIO, an online community for VAIO owners and enthusiasts, which also provides automatic driver updates and technical support via email, along with exclusive desktop wallpapers andpromotional offers. On recent models, you are also prompted to register your trial versions of Microsoft Office and the installed antivirus software (Norton Anti-Virus on older models, and McAfee Antivirus on newer ones) upon initial boot.

VAIO computers come with components from companies such as Intel processors, Seagate Technology, Hitachi, Fujitsu or Toshiba hard drives, Infineon RAM, Atheros and Intel wireless chipsets, Sony (usually made by Hitachi) or Matsushita optical drives, Intel, NVIDIA or ATI graphics processors and Sony speakers. Recent laptops are being shipped with Qimonda RAM, HP speakers with Realtek High Definition Audio Systems, and optional Dolby Sound Room technology. It has been confirmed that a touch-screen VAIO is planned to be launched as well as support for PlayStation Network.

Some Sony VAIO models come with Sony's proprietary XBRITE (also known as ClearBright in Japan and Asia-Pacific region) displays. The first model to introduce this feature is the VAIO TR series. It is also the first consumer product to utilize such technology. It is a combination of smooth screen, anti-reflection (AR) coating and high-efficiency lens sheet. Sony claims that the smooth finish provides a sharper screen display, the AR coating prevents external light from scattering when it hits the screen, and the high-efficiency lens sheet provides 1.5 times the brightness improvement over traditional LCD designs, while also extending battery life due to less usage of the LCD backlight. The technology was pioneered by Sony engineer Masaaki Nakagawa, who is in charge of the VAIO TR development.^[1]

The TX series introduced in September 2005 was the first notebook to implement an LED back-lit screen, which provides lower power consumption and greater color reproduction. This technology has been widely adopted by many other notebook manufacturers now. It was also the first to use a 16:9 aspect ratio screen with 1366x768 resolution.

The SZ series was the first to use switchable graphics – the motherboard containing an Intel GMCH (Graphics Memory Controller Hub) featuring its own in-built graphics controller (complete memory hub controller and graphics accelerator on the one die) and a separate NVIDIA graphics accelerator chipset directly interfaced with the GMCH. The GMCH could be used for less power consumption and greater battery life whereas the NVIDIA chipset would be used when greater graphics processing power was needed. A switch is used to toggle between the graphics but required the user to preselect the option before the motherboard could initialize. The Z series has recently replaced the SZ series but does not require a restart of the system to change graphic modes on Windows Vista, it can be done on the fly. This feature has subsequently been used by other manufacturers, including Apple, Asus and Alienware.

The high-end AR Series VAIOs were the first to incorporate a Blu-ray Disc burner. This series was designed to be the epitome of high-definition products including a 1080p capable WUXGA (1920 × 1200 pixels) screen, HDMI output and the aforementioned Blu-ray burner. The AR series also includes an illuminated logo below the screen. Blu-ray/HDMI capable models have been the subject of intense promotion since mid-2007, selling with a variety of bundled Blu-ray Discs. The AR series was replaced by the AW series. The AW series incorporates all of these features in a 18.4" 16/9 display.

Another recent addition to the VAIO series is the TZ model. This new design features a 64GB Solid State Drive (SSD) for rapid boot-ups, quicker application launches and greater durability. If selected, a 250GB Hard Drive may also be included in place of the built-in CD/DVD drive to provide room for additional storage. For security this model includes biometric fingerprint sensor and Trusted Platform Module. The TZ offers a Built-in highly miniaturized MOTION EYE camera built into the LCD panel for video conferencing. Additional features include the XBRITE LCD, integrated Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN) technology and Bluetooth technology.

A selection of media centres were added to the VAIO range in 2006. These monitorless units (identified by a product code prefixed by VGX rather than VGN) are designed to be part of a home entertainment system, which typically take input from a TV tuner card, and output video via HDMI or composite video connection to an ideally high-definition television. This range so far includes the XL and TP lines. The VGX-TP line is rather visually unique, featuring a circular, 'biscuit-tin' style design with most features obscured behind panels, rather than the traditional set-top box design.

The VAIO line also features a series of desktop computers, which incorporate motherboard and widescreen LCD monitor into a single unit (in a manner similar to the more recent models of Apple's iMac series). These are identified by VGC in the product code.