After the demise of the Globally-famous Bell & Howell Corporation in the mid-1980s, the brand name was deemed to be of value to other manufacturers who could continue using it for high quality photographic-related products .... like camera lenses.   So J Osawa Optical took the opportunity to use the brand for an excellent range of their lenses.

J Osawa Optical still rate as one of the hallowed names of vintage photographic equipment, primarily because they were the parent company of the mighty Mamiya marque, whose medium format film cameras were trusted by professional photographers the World over.

But Mamiya never managed to successfully compete in the 35mm film SLR market, despite launching many ground-breaking designs and innovations, none more significant than their Z-Series SLRs of the 1980s.

However, as the bayonet mount on these excellent cameras was unique, and likely to only be of limited demand, the leading brands of independent lenses all avoided producing their lenses with the Mamiya Z-mount. 

So J Osawa took their hallowed brandname and launched their own range of independent lenses for pretty much every make of SLR camera available at the time, but their range also naturally included the Mamiya Z mount.  And they also launched their lenses under the hallowed, more recognisable Bell & Howell brand ...

This is one of J Osawa's Bell & Howell branded 70-210mm Macro Zoom lenses with the now-rare Mamiya Z-series lens bayonet mount