1960 ~ 1970
First Korean Camera
In the late 1960s, thanks to President Park Chung-hee, who decided that Korea needed the fostering of the optical industry, the optical science of the Guro Industrial Complex was made by Lee Jung-lim (李庭林: Chairman of the Deahan Yanghae), who was chairman of the FKI in 1967.
Reference website: chosun.com
Daehan Optical built our first camera
KOBICA 35 BC
In 1969, Daehan Optical entered into a technical alliance with Japanese company, Mamiya, to begin production of Korea's first camera. In 1976, the first camera model released by Daehan Optics was KOBICA 35 BC, which assembled the camera by combining technologies from Japan, Germany, Canada, and Korea, and imported and installed inexpensive Tessa lenses from Japan. Later, Korean optics produced range finder cameras such as BC-1, BC-5, BC-7, and BC-7A equipped with KORINAR lenses. However, in 1983, Korea's optics went bankrupt after failing to focus on the overflowing of high-performance Japanese-made cameras.
