Digital Hunter


Who is ELCAN?
 

ELCAN Optical Technologies is a fully integrated firm specializing in the design and manufacture of complex, precision optical systems and subsystems for defense, security, commercial, entertainment, medical and telecommunications applications. ELCAN operates facilities in Richardson, Texas; Midland, Ontario, Canada; and Malaga, Spain.

Originating from the birthplace of optics - Germany - the roots of ELCAN trace back to a company named Leitz Works, founded in 1849, in Wetzler, Germany. The company manufactured high-end Leica cameras, noted by professional photographers as the best and most innovative cameras of their time, being the first camera to use 35mm film. In 1952, descendants of Ernst Leitz came to Canada to start a new Optics company still making optics for Leica cameras, but also manufacturing optical systems for other industries, most notably optics for IMAX, Panavision and defense companies. In the late 1970s ELCAN began designing and building the Specter™ line of riflescopes for defense customers of the free world. Hundreds of thousands of rugged ELCAN riflescopes are deployed in militaries around the globe.

Meanwhile, also in the 1950s in a different part of the world, Texas Instruments bought the W. I. Mann Optics Company of Monrovia, California, and moved it to Dallas, Texas, to design and build optics for TI's high performance defense products. This company has a rich legacy of optical innovation including co-developing the world's first Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) system, designing and building the optics system used in the world's first space intercept, spectrometers for the Mariner and Voyager space missions, components and optical systems for TI's Digital Light Projection™ systems, as well as tens of thousands of prototype and production optical systems for military systems from the 1960s through the present. Many of the precision optically guided missiles used by free world militaries employ optics designed and built by ELCAN.

In 1997, Raytheon blended the capabilities and capacities of these two companies and created the optical powerhouse ELCAN is today. Their 1100 employees worldwide bring innovative and precision optical products to the defense, law enforcement, security, entertainment, medical and industrial markets. In DigitalHunter™, ELCAN builds on the legacy of rugged riflescopes and optical systems to bring the benefits of modern technology to discerning hunters worldwide! ELCAN combines cutting edge design engineering with innovative advanced manufacturing processes and the lessons learned in more than 50 years of successfully competing in world markets to bring optical system solutions to the end user.

To learn more about ELCAN, please visit our website at www.elcan.com!

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