Shutter closing on Yashica brand? (UPDATED) By
Michael R. Tomkins, The Imaging Resource (Friday, December 5, 2003 - 14:57 EST)A historic name in the camera world may soon be departing, we hear today.
Our good friends at Steve's Digicams have reported that the Yashica brandname - that of a Japanese camera manufacturer which first appeared in late 1954 - will soon be appearing on its last camera. Yashica was acquired by Kyocera just shy of its 30th anniversary in 1983, and after 20 years as a Kyocera brand there are apparently no plans for future Yashica product lines to be created. Steve's article notes that current Yashica models will gradually be phased out, after which the brandname will cease to be used (no timeline for this to happen is given).
Kyocera also owns the Contax brandname, and apparently has decided to phase out the Yashica name to allow it to better concentrate on the Kyocera and Contax names. No source was quoted for the news by Steve's Digicams...
UPDATED 2003-12-05 16:35ET: Ack! Thanks to sharp-eyed reader Steve Kirkpatrick for catching a typo in this item, which has now been corrected...
