Navitar, established in 1972 and based in Rochester, New York, is a recognized
leading manufacturer of superior quality optical lenses and complete customized
optical solutions for the LCD & DLP projection and Machine Vision markets.
Navitar, Inc. and its subsidiaries form a network of companies across the
globe with offices in the United States, Europe, Middle East, and Asia. The
Navitar network of companies produce leading edge optical and video technologies
for the fastest-growing segments of the world’s economy.
Navitar’s Presentation Products division is a market leader in the design,
development, manufacture, and distribution of advanced visual communications
and videoconferencing products for the Presentation, Home Theater, Movie Theater,
Education and Church Markets.
The Navitar network of companies has grown significantly through the development
of new products as well as by the strategic acquisition of new companies. This
growth reflects our high quality products, as well as the special attention
we put towards responding to our customers’ challenging needs.
In 1996 Navitar acquired a Pittsburgh based optics company, Buhl Optical,
and began offering Buhl LCD projection lenses to our customers. Navitar reworked
and redesigned the entire line of lenses, dramatically improving the overall
quality and performance to the point where the Buhl product line was replaced
with the superior quality Navitar NuView line of projection lenses.
In addition to the NuView line of digital projection lenses, Navitar
offers wide-angle, long-throw and mini ScreenStar conversion lenses for video
projectors. Slide lenses and BrightLight lamp modules are also available from
Navitar, as well as Hi-Lite videoconference lighting, our 10K high-intensity
slide projectors, and the Security Box PSD-1 projector security device.
Navitar is continuously improving and adding to our product offering based
on our customers’ needs. At the forefront of the internet revolution, we enjoy
helping our customers grow, welcome new customers, and promise to continually
introduce new technically advanced products to help people with new ways to
communicate more, better, faster, and easier than they ever thought possible.
The Origins of Navitar
The predecessor company to Navitar, Inc. was Elgeet Optical, which was formed
in 1946 in Rochester, NY by David Goldstein and two partners.
The first Navitar brand lenses were designed for the U.S. Navy for naval tracking.
At the time, names ending in "tar" were popular such as Kodak Ektar,
Vivitar, etc. In the 1950’s, Navitar became the brand name of a successful line
of 8mm movie camera lenses that were sold on an OEM basis to the major 8mm camera
manufacturers of the day and were also sold through camera stores as accessory
lenses.
In 1958 Elgeet entered the microscope business when David Goldstein signed
an agreement to become the exclusive U.S. distributor for Olympus Optical Corp.’s
microscopes and scientific instruments from Japan. Mr. Goldstein was the first
American to import Japanese microscopes into the U.S. market place.
In the early 1960’s, Elgeet was doing subcontractor work for NASA and produced
the optical system for the first U.S. weather satellites. The Tiros I weather
satellite is currently displayed in the satellite section of the Smithsonian
Institute Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.. There is a big Navitar lens
protruding from the satellite that clearly shows the Navitar brand.
In 1961, Mr. Goldstein developed his first product for the Audio-Visual industry.
It was the Vicaudio Mark I, a self-contained 8mm projection system for the desktop
sales presentation market.
David Goldstein loved to design and produce custom OEM optical systems. Elgeet
was one of the leading suppliers of optics for many large U.S. companies including:
Xerox for their early copy machines, as well as supplying X-Ray Navitar optics
to companies like General Electric for use in their x-ray machines.
The tag line for Elgeets optical products was "Makers of the World’s Finest
Lenses". This desire to produce only the highest quality optical products
carried over into David Goldstein’s later company, Navitar, Inc. which continued
on with the Navitar tradition of quality.
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