Photron

Photron is an international company that manufactures high-speed digital cameras based in Tokyo, Japan, with offices in San Diego, California and the United Kingdom.

The Photron FASTCAM cameras are used for capturing high speed images and playing these images in slow motion. Use of a High-speed camera can be found in a broad variety of industries. A few of the industries include: flow visualization, flame propagation, ballistics, firearm studies, material science, weapon development, biological science, biophysics, vehicle impact studies (crash safety), manufacturing, mining, automotive, and scientific research.

1968-1991
In July 1968, Osawa Laboratories, the predecessor of Photron, was founded by J. Osawa & Co. as a subsidiary. The founding date is named as July 10, 1968. Photron Limited, a subsidiary of J. Osawa & Co., was founded in June 1974. Photron's name combines photon and electron, the fundamental process of creating electronic digital images from light. Photron's early high-speed cameras were only available in Japan. Photron began manufacturing professional film, video and photo-instrumentation equipment in Japan. Photron expanded into photo optics and electronic technologies including the manufacture of high speed digital cameras. Osawa Laboratories and Photron Limited merged to form Photron Limited, still a J. Osato & Co subsidiary, in September 1983. In May 1984, J. Osawa & Co. sold the entirety of Photron Limited to the Japanese company Chisan Limited.

Photron closed its Komae Plant in June 1985, and also opening a plant in Ebina City, Kanagawa Prefecture, as well as a Nagoya branch office. In 1987,Photron signed a distributorship agreement to sell Cintel telecine equipment in Japan. Photron opened a San Jose, California office in 1988. Photron advanced their sensor technology in 1990 by working with Kinki University in Japan on a new design based on a block readout multichannel NMOS architecture. This new development produced a 256 pixel x 256 pixel x 4500 fps NMOS sensor which surpassed the fastest high-speed camera at that time, the Eastman Kodak SP2000 Motion analyzer (240 x 192 x 2000 fps). In March 1991, Photron opened the Yonezawa Plant in Yamagata Prefecture.

1992-2011
IMAGICA Corp. bought all of Photron Limited from Chisan Limited in July 1992. After 1991, Photron continued to manufacture and sell high-speed cameras into Asia. However, Photron wanted to make available their new sensor technology to serve other applications outside ASIA. Photron reached an agreement with Eastman Kodak MASD to manufacture for MASD two high-speed cameras, the HS 4540 and the Kodak Ektapro(Motioncorder) products. These two products were sold by Eastman Kodak MASD in Europe, North America and parts of Asia until 2000, after which Photron assume worldwide responsibility for the products, renaming the HS 4540 the Photron FASTCAM SE and the Motioncorder as the Photron FASTCAM Super 10K.

In 1994, Photron opened an office in Fukuoka City. The company went public and started offering stock over the counter in September 1997. In 1997, Photron started sales of the SLSM Super Slow Motion System made by EVS, a Belgian company. In January 2000, the company established the subsidiary Photron USA in San Jose, California. Photoron acquired I-Chips Technology Limited in June 2000, making it a subsidiary. In April 2001, Photron established Photron Europe Limited, a subsidiary, in the United Kingdom. Photron established Photron Vietnam Technical Center Limited in late 2001. Photron acquired a ISO9001:2000 certificate for product quality in 2002. In 2003, Photron moved its head office, Ebina Plant, to the present location at Fujimi, Chiyoda-Ku, Tokyo. In 2007, Photron established Photron Medical Imaging Inc. as a subsidiary. In 2010, Photron's ISO certificate status changed to ISO9001:2008.

2011-2024
In 2011, the company became a fully owned subsidiary of IMAGICA Robot Holdings, a Japanese company which traditionally has been involved in film processing businesses. Photron merged with IMAGICA DIGIX Inc. in 2012. In late 2013, Photron Inc. in San Diego came out with the FASTCAM Mini UX100 high speed camera for ballistics testing and other uses. In 2016, it introduced the FASTCAM Mini AX200. In 2020, the president of Photron was Takashi Takimizu, and the head office remained in Chiyoda-Ku, Tokyo, in the Jimbocho Mitsui Building. That year, Photron Group acquired Photonic Lattice, Inc. In 2021, Photron acquired TRASC, TASKEE, and ISLWARE. In 2022, it acquired Media Solutions, Inc. Photron is a currently business unit of Imagica Robot Holdings, with the two business entities sharing technology such as color science, broadcast expertise and image processing.

Cameras and applications
Over last 10 years, Photron has been recognized for their contributions to high speed imaging. Photron high-speed cameras can operate 20,000 fps at 1024 x 1024 pixel at 12-bit pixel resolution to ultra high-speed cameras operating over 2.1 million frames per second. Designers, manufacturers, and R&D/Test engineers use high-speed cameras to proof their designs with motion analysis, solving the issues that can only been viewed in non-real time slow motion. Cameras vary by size, resolution and Frames Per Second (fps. An example is the SA5-RV which is used in extreme environments where heat or vibration can't be managed.

The following list is an incomplete list of Photron-related camera models.
 * FASTCAM Super 10K
 * FASTCAM Ultima 40K
 * FASTCAM SE
 * FASTCAM Spectra
 * EktaPro Motioncorder
 * FASTCAM Ultima 512