Before the Japanese photo industry nearly quashed Germany's in the mid-1960s, there had been only a handful of major independent European lens manufacturers: Angenieux, Enna, Meyer, Rodenstock, Schneider, Steinheil, and Zeiss. Each bore its name proudly and never masqueraded under others.
On the other side of the globe, the ever-expanding number of small Japanese lensmakers cared little what name the lenses bore as long as U.S. importers were willing to buy them. Who had ever heard of lenses named Acall, Kino, Komura, Sun, Taisei, or Zunow? Importers and even single photo stores renamed lenses they imported. And so we had, among others, Accura, Cambron, Caspeco, Kalimar, Rokunar, Sakar, Samigon, Soligor, and Vivitar.
