Look at the logo on your Canon camera. That bold wordmark with the distinctive 'C' is one of the most recognizable brands in photography – and the current Canon logo celebrates its 70th birthday this year.
But here's something most people don't know: your camera is named after a Buddhist Bodhisattva. And the story of how the company ditched the deity tells you a lot about the company you're buying from today.
Back in 1934, a small Tokyo workshop called Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory made its first prototype camera. It was named Kwanon, after Kannon, typically referred to in the West as the Buddhist goddess of mercy (although Bodhisattva is a more correct term than 'goddess').
She's usually shown with a thousand arms, representing how she could help countless people at once. The original logo actually featured her multi-armed figure surrounded by flames.
It might sound odd now, but there was a genuine idealism to it. The founders really did see their cameras as tools that would serve people by capturing and preserving precious moments. Starting a camera company with a Bodhisattva of compassion? That's quite sweet, really.
Reality kicks in
Idealism, though, doesn't pay the bills. Within two years, the company realized that it had a problem: try selling "Kwanon" cameras to American or European dealers. Good luck with that.
So in 1935, it changed the name to Canon. The new name was close enough in sound to keep the connection, but now suggesting "standard" and "criterion" rather than religious imagery.
Business-wise, it was a smart move. Canon would go on to become a global standard in photography, just not through harnessing religion. Instead, it would achieve its goals through serious R&D spending, aggressive competition with Nikon and building cameras that people actually wanted to buy.
That same year, the name 'Canon' was registered with a custom typeface. Over the next two decades, the design was refined; the designers eventually gave the 'C' a sharp, inward point – intended to resemble an eagle's beak – to make it stand out.
By 1956, they landed on the version we see today and it hasn't changed since – so nearly 70 years of the exact same logo.
Over the years, Canon has come a very long way from that original logo. The multi-armed Bodhisattva? Gone. The flames of enlightenment? Deleted. What was left was clean, corporate and optimized for slapping on everything from budget cameras to professional cinema gear. And I'd argue that tracks perfectly with Canon as it stands today.
It's not trying to help everyone any more. It'll give you brilliant autofocus in the R6 but cripple the video specs to protect the C70. It'll make you buy expensive RF lenses while blocking out rivals through its closed-mount system. It didn't put in-body stabilization in the original EOS R, but made you wait years so you would buy the next model.
Yet here we are, still buying Canon. Why? Because, for all its corporate decision-making, it does deliver cameras that work well. The autofocus is excellent. The colors are reliable. The build quality is solid. When you're shooting a wedding or a family portrait, you know your Canon won't let you down.
The irony of it all
It's kind of ironic, really. Canon dropped the religious imagery to become a global corporation, but photographers still talk about their Canons with near-religious devotion. We form emotional attachments to these beloved devices. We trust them with moments that can never be recaptured.
The story of the Canon logo might be the story of idealism meeting capitalism. But just pick up your camera and shoot a burst. In that moment, you're doing exactly what those original 1930s founders wanted: using precision optics to capture something that matters. Ultimately, the logo left the deity behind, but the mission stuck around.
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Take a look at the best Canon cameras of the modern era – and if you want a taste of Canon's past, check out the best film cameras.
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