Zunow
Zunow (ズノー光学, Zunō Kōgaku), whose earlier name was Teikoku Kōgaku (帝國光学), was a Japanese optical company. It was founded in 1930 and made military material before and during the war. It began to make camera lenses in 1953. It made lenses in Leica screw mount and Contax rangefinder mount, among others. Its lenses were famous for their speed, and the unprecedently fast 50/1.1 was particularly celebrated.
Zunow also provided less expensive lenses for the fixed-lens cameras (such as the Neoca) of other Japanese manufacturers.
In 1958, Zunow also introduced a very ambitiously designed 35mm SLR, simply marked "Zunow" (today called the Zunow SLR), the first 35mm SLR camera with auto diaphragm, instant return mirror, and bayonet mount, interchangeable lenses. Production and capital problems resulted in low production and helped bring on the collapse of the company, which was acquired by Yashica in 1960.
