Canon ltm with symbol <CPO>

[paulo_bernardo_trindade]

Hello, i saw a canon ltm (m39) 135mmf4 with CPO in the body, anybody know the singification of this?

Thanks in advance.

[Sanford]

Certified Pre-Owned?

[gordon_yee]

<CPO> and <EP> markings generally indicate items purchased by military personnel from post exchanges:

Post Exchange - Camera-wiki.org - The free camera encyclopedia

[john_shriver]

There were very high domestic excise taxes on cameras in Japan in that era. So cameras to be sold through the post exchanges to American GI's were specially marked because they would not be taxed. A Japanese citizen with an <EP> or <CPO> marked camera would be presumed to be a tax dodger.

For similar reasons, the Nikkormat was known as the Nikomat in Japan -- to make it clear that was the domestic "taxed" model.

[gordon_yee]

My recollection is that Zeiss objected to Nikomat being too similar to their (trademarked?) "Ikomat." I've always assumed that a Nikomat was originally sold domestically while a Nikkormat was sold outside of Japan. I also recall that Nikon aggressively enforced their trademarks to the extent that equipment that was not imported officially by Nikon/EPOI ("gray market") had to have the Nikon trademarks defaced.

Edited Sunday at 01:20 PM by gordon_yee