What photography company used or uses this logo?
April 1, 2024 7:52 PM   Subscribe

I have some vintage film photo gear, including a lens cap with this logo. Can anyone identify the company? To me it looks like an "E" or a bridge, depending on the orientation. The lens cap also has "NI" or "IN" in tiny letters and "MADE IN JAPAN."
posted by trevor_case to Media & Arts (4 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: The symbol is a stylized sigma and it's an old logo for Sigma Photo in Japan. You can see the logo in this video about the history of Sigma Photo @ 1:23.
posted by zippy at 7:59 PM on April 1, 2024 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Or the featured photo in this Sigma magazine article.
posted by zamboni at 8:32 PM on April 1, 2024


The lens cap also has "NI" or "IN" in tiny letters

If that's the rear lens cap it likely means the lens is meant for Nikon.

Sigma is one of the manufacturers that build their lenses to fit different mounts. Usually all of the (back then) big 5: Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Olympus and Minolta, often M42, and a varying number of the lesser brands. All of those are mechanically different, and not all of them are easily distinguishable so they often have a marking on the mount and sometimes on the rear cap as well.
posted by Stoneshop at 2:27 PM on April 2, 2024


Pondering the logo, I can’t find this documented anywhere, but I think it’s intended to resemble a camera lens in cross-section, with the curved lens element on the inside enclosed by the body.
posted by zamboni at 4:18 PM on April 2, 2024


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