The Online Photographer

Clean and attractive

Should Fuji stop emblazoning the word "Fujifilm" on the front of all its digital cameras? Wouldn't "Fuji" do just as nicely?

Changes happen. Pentaxes used to be made by Asahi and were engraved "Asahi Pentax." Contax, as a marque name, was owned by Yashica which was eventually bought by Kyocera, but none of the cameras said "Yashica" or "Kyocera" on the front of the prism. Nikons used to be made by a company called Nippon Kōgaku (Kōgyō Kabushikigaisha, 日本光学工業株式会社, Japan Optical Industries Corporation. The company was renamed Nikon Corporation, after its cameras, in 1988*. —Wikipedia). But Nippon Kōgaku (not to mention "Japan Optical Industries"!) was too long for a top plate.

Mike
(Thanks to David Zivic)

*And the lenses couldn't be called Nikon because Zeiss objected that it was too close to Ikon, Zeiss's premier model name. Hence Nikkor.

Original contents copyright 2019 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

B&H Photo • Adorama

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Tim Bradshaw: "Almost certainly not: I suspect strongly that 'Fuji' is a word which the company can't assert suitable rights over, which means anyone can label their camera 'Fuji' and there would be nothing that could be done about it."

Franklin Berryman: "It doesn't matter what it says under the tape."

David Goldenberg: "I'm pretty sure that the name Nikkor came before Nikon and the dustup with Zeiss. See here, where it says that the first Nikkor camera lens was an 'Aero-Nikkor' made in 1933. The first Canon camera, the Hansa Canon, in 1936, also had a Nikkor lens. Nippon Kogaku didn't enter the camera business itself until after World War II. I have always presumed that the Nikkor name was meant to follow in the European tradition of giving lenses names, like Tessar, Sonnar, Elmar, etc. Except that Nippon Kogaku used the same name for all of their lenses, rather than using the names to distinguish among designs, or later, by Leitz, maximum aperture."

Grant Cunningham: "In the 1980s, Fuji's corporate name was Fuji Photo; their cameras were labeled Fujica. In the mid-'90s, as the digital revolution came on the horizon, they renamed the company Fujifilm and adorned their cameras with the new corporate logo. Now that we're in the digital era, their cameras are stuck with an incongruous label that would have been more appropriate 35 years ago—and the camera brand they used then would be perfectly at home now, had they only kept it!"

Niko X: "The examples you mention (Kyocera Yashica Contax, Asahi Pentax) are far longer and offer little more than historical/ownership information. 'Fujifilm' has more significance, being a reference to the company's film heritage, which is still relevant today. Isn't its praised color science based on the 'feel' of its emulsions? I say keep 'Fujifilm.'"

George Feucht: "Simple: while Acros exists, call yourself 'Fujifilm.' When you take Acros away from the world, you are not allowed to ever say the word 'film' any more."

Mike replies: There's lots of bitterness out there about that, isn't there?

Kalli: "This makes me think of how Panasonic brands their cameras as Lumix. As much as I like my Panasonic G80, which is a lot, I can't stand the Lumix moniker. I get that Panasonic is a long word and not a particularly sexy brand name, but Lumix just sounds like…like a pretentious brand name.

"That said, part of what annoys me may be how I think the Lumix logo on the not-pentaprism housing on Panasonic cameras doesn't look good. On the GX line of cameras the L is bigger, than on the DSLR-style cameras, which makes the logo look nicer and maybe even fitting for the boxy GX cameras (their DSLR-style cameras hardly distinguish themselves style-wise, but I tend to like the looks of the GX bodies—maybe that says something about which brandname/logo fits each?). Maybe if I'd buy a GX9 I'd start referring to my camera as a Lumix instead of a Panasonic as I do now?"

Mike replies: That reminds me of a good joke from when I was a magazine editor and had to deal with corporations all the time:

A behavioral experiment: ten monkeys are confined in a small room. In the middle of the ceiling is a hook and from the hook hangs a bunch of fresh bananas. Under the bananas in the middle of the room is a stepladder leading right up to the bananas.

No brainer, right? But every time a monkey tries to climb the stepladder to get the bananas, sprinklers in the ceiling douse all the monkeys in the room with ice water, which they hate.

So whenever a monkey tries to climb the stepladder, the rest of the monkeys set upon him, pull him off the ladder, and beat him up. Soon enough, none of them tries to climb the stepladder any more.

Then one day, one of the original ten monkeys is removed from the room and replaced with a new monkey. The new guy sizes up the situation, wonders why no one has done the obvious and gone to get the bananas, and begins to climb up the stepladder. At which point all the other monkeys set upon him, pull him off the ladder, and beat him up. After two or three tries, he, too, no longer attempts to climb the ladder.

Then another of the original monkeys is replaced by a second new guy, and the same thing happens to him. Only this time, the first new guy joins in with all the other monkeys and helps to beat the new guy up. Except he doesn't know why he does this. All he knows is that everyone else does it and it seems to be the accepted thing to do. So he goes along.

This process is repeated until all ten of the original monkeys have been replaced.

Now, none of the monkeys in the room has ever been doused with ice water. But whenever a new guy comes along and tries to climb the stepladder, everyone else beats him up. None of them know the reason for this behavior. It's just the way things are done, and the way it's always been.

And that explains corporate culture.

So I'd guess the reason why Panasonic doggedly sticks with "Lumix" is that whenever someone suggests doing something else, he's pulled off the stepladder and gets beaten up.

Richard Parkin (partial comment): "The brand story I’ve always liked is that giant Sharp electronics brand takes its name from the pencil they made 100 years ago."