Nidec Copal Corporation

{{Short description|Japanese manufacturer}}

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File:Nidec logo.svg

File:NIDEC-Corp-hq-01.jpg]]{{Cleanup rewrite|date=February 2021}}

The {{nihongo|Nidec Copal Corporation|日本電産コパル株式会社|Nihon Densan Koparu Kabushiki-gaisha}}, or Copal, is a Japanese manufacturer of optical, electronic and mechanical equipment, primarily for the photographic 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;{{cite web |url=http://www.nidec-copal.com/index.html |title=Nidec Copal Corporation Official Site |author=Nidec Copal Corporation |access-date=2007-01-30}} 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, 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)[https://buhla.de/Foto/Konica/eT3Daten.html buhla.de, Konica Autoreflex T3 Technical Data and Features, Retrieved 7 November 2020].[https://buhla.de/Foto/Konica/eT3NDaten.html buhla.de, Konica Autoreflex T3N 1975-1978, Technical data and features. Retrieved 7 November 2020]. and the Nikkormat FT,[http://www.konicafiles.com/6-technical-questions/-konica-and-the-copal-shutter konicafiles.com, Metal shutters. Retrieved 7 November 2020] is very reliable. It works over a wide temperature range.[https://buhla.de/Foto/Konica/eT3Haupt.html buhla.de, Konica Autoreflex T3 1973-1975. Retrieved 7 November 2020]. The electronically controlled Copal Square E (1968) was used in the Yashica TL Electro X, the Canon EF, the Nikkormat EL. For Minolta XE 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[https://www.nidec.com/en/nidec-copal/corporate/about/outline/ nidec.com, Company Profile, retrieved 8 November 2020]. and manufactures devices, that are used in automobiles, optical products and Tablets beside shutters for digital cameras.[https://www.nidec.com/en/nidec-copal/corporate/about/business/ nidec.com, Business Summary, retrieved 8 November 2020].[https://www.nidec.com/en/nidec-copal/product/search/category/B107/M106/S105/NCPL-Shutter-for-digitalcamera/?apB=A_B105&apM=A_B105_A_M101 nidec.com, Shutter for digital camera, retrieved 13 November 2020] (englisch).