The , or Copal, is a Japanese manufacturer of optical, electronic and mechanical equipment, primarily for the

photographic Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

industry. It has been a subsidiary of Nidec Corporation since 1998, and was formerly known as the Copal Corporation. The company began operation in 1946, with small-scale production of photographic shutters; these are still one of the company's best-known products. In the 1960s the company began producing the well-known Copal Square vertically travelling metal blade

focal plane shutter In camera design, a focal-plane shutter (FPS) is a type of photographic shutter that is positioned immediately in front of the focal plane of the camera, that is, right in front of the photographic film or image sensor. Two-curtain shutters ...

, which was very successful and was used in cameras by many prominent manufacturers. The ''Copal Square-S'', for example used in the Konica T3s (1973-1978) and the Nikkormat FT,konicafiles.com, Metal shutters. Retrieved 7 November 2020
/ref> is very reliable. It works over a wide temperature range. The electronically controlled Copal ''Square E'' (1968) was used in the Yashica TL Electro X, the Canon EF, the Nikkormat EL. For

Minolta XE The Minolta XE, known as the XE-1 in Europe and the XE-7 in North America, is a manual focus, 35 mm single-lens reflex camera produced by Minolta of Japan between 1974 and 1977. It was developed in collaboration with Leica Camera and has many si ...

and the Leica R3 the Copal-Leitz Shutter ''CLS'' was developed in 1972. For the professional Nikon F4 built 1988 until 1996 the Copal ''Square'' was developed and reached 1/8000 s and 1/250 s with flash. In 2020 Nidec Copal has round about 6,450 employees and manufactures devices, that are used in automobiles, optical products and

Tablet Tablet may refer to: Medicine * Tablet (pharmacy), a mixture of pharmacological substances pressed into a small cake or bar, colloquially called a "pill" Computing * Tablet computer, a mobile computer that is primarily operated by touching the ...

s beside shutters for digital cameras.nidec.com, ''Business Summary'', retrieved 8 November 2020
nidec.com, Shutter for digital camera, retrieved 13 November 2020
(englisch).

References

External links

* {{Japanese Electronics Industry Manufacturing companies of Japan Photography companies of Japan