Nikon is a manufacturer Japan boards of cameras and optics.

History

The company

Create in 1917, at the request of the concerned Japanese government of the superiority shown by the German army during the war, the company names initially Japanese Kōgaku Kōgyō (日本光學工業株式會社), i.e. “optical Japanese woman S.A.” . It is renamed Nikon Corporation (株式会社ニコン) in 1988. Its founder is Yataro Iwasaki, owner of the group Mitsubishi, on which it remains dependant today.

Nikon is devoted initially to the military manufacture of material, and takes its rise in 1930: the Treated of Washington having limited the size of the fleet of war of Japan, the Ministry for the navy decides an intensive scientific program to equip each naval unit with height in technology Optique, and to thus compensate for the advance taken by the Anglo-American ones in electronics.

Nikon also launches out in 1930 in photographic industry, but this activity remains marginal until 1945, date on which Nikon is forced to find outlets civil: first of all glasses of Glasses, in 1946, then the first camera of Nikon mark which leaves in 1948. By curiosity, one can note that in 1935 Seiki Kogaku (which will become Canon) request with Kogaku Japanese to deliver objectives for his apparatus to him to rangefinder. This will last until in 1947.
In fact the international reporters based in Tokyo during the Guerre of Korea build the legend of the Nikon mark, like, later, the collaboration of the mark to the lunar program Apollo.

At present, the Nikon products cover all the range of optical technologies, of the Microscope to the Télescope. The principal product of the group is the " IC stepper" , machine of very utmost precision used for the manufacture of the Microprocesseur S. Then come the photographic apparatuses and objectives, with the range of optics Nikkor, the silver Reflex of the range F, the digital reflexes of the range D and the compact ones of the range Coolpix. The third activity is the Ophtalmologie with glasses, mountings, and the apparatus of diagnosis (refracting " Remote Vision" , car-refractometer " Speedy-K" …).

January 2006 marks a date in the history of Nikon and photography: the Nikon company announces the stop of the marketing of its silver cameras, except for 2 models, to devote itself from now on quasi-exclusivement to the numerical one.

Remarkable models

• Nikon SP : Film camera to sight with multiple fields and Rangefinder with interchangeable objectives (28mm with 135mm). It is motorisable (3 i/s). It will be exceeded only one quarter century later by the Leica M6. It was produced of 1957 to 1964.

• Nikon F: The first professional reflex camera, created on the basis of SP, it offers interchangeable sights (with or without cell, TTL or not) ensuring a cover of 100% of the recorded image and the motorization. It is him which will asseoira the " Nikon" myth; in the spirit of the public with the assistance of the film Blow up . It will be produced of 1959 with 1974. To tell the truth all the series F is remarkable: the Nikon F2 (1971 with 1980) is a chief of work of mechanics, the Nikon F3 (1980 with 2005) introducing the automatism of exposure at the professionals, whose alternative will propose in 1983 a autofocus (F3-AF), the Nikon F4 (1988 with 1997) introducing the development automatic at these same professionals, Nikon F5 (1996 with 2005) with the system of revolutionary cell (he “sees” color) and the born last, the Nikon F6 do not seem to fail in the tradition even if it seems that he is probably the last of this line.
• Nikon F: kid of a family with success (Nikon FE, Nikon FM, Nikon FE2, Nikon FM2 and Nikon FM3a always in production) it invents in 1983 (stopped in 1988), the measurement of light multizone and a priority mode at the speed conceived, but unfortunately not proposed very well on the following apparatuses. The measurement of the light is carried out in 5 independent zones and the “intelligence” of the apparatus compares what it read with the 25.000 cases that it has in memory. This system astonishes by its results and is largely copied in the years which follow. It will not cease being refined with time. It should be noted that with this apparatus the objectives BOARD, compatible leave with the speed mode, and who are distinguished from objectives AI by a pin which indicates the maximum opening. The Obturateur is that of the FE2, in Titane, which proposes for the first time a speed of synchro of 1/250 and the 1/4000e.
• Nikon F801 and Nikon F801s: apparatuses for enlightened amateur. He offered a sight of the level of what Nikon had carried out of better (F3HP) with a powerful autofocus, a matric measurement resulting from the Nikon F but improved to manage the offset subjects, an automatic system of control of the flash in full day (rope) and elaborate automatic modes. Produced 1988 with 1994, at the dawn of 2007, the last Nikon productions are always measured with the ell of this model him also become mythical.
• Nikon F100 left in 1999, it is a semi case professional derived from the Nikon F5
• Nikon D1, Nikon D1h and Nikon D1x: it is, in 1999, the first Digital reflex professional industrialist. Previously, the digital reflexes were imperfect assemblies of cases (Nikon often) and electronics (Kodak for example). D1 offers a resolution of 2,7 then 5,3 million pixels, a sensitivity up to 800 ISO and the shutter speeds until the 1/16 000e of second. It integrates all that Nikon made of better at the time (cell of F5 for example).
• Nikon D2x : it is equipped with a sensor of 12,4 million pixels. This apparatus has a mode called “crop” using a less extended part of the sensor (6,8 million pixels) allowing a rate of catch of sight higher 8 images a second and offering a multiplying factor of focal distance of 2 (instead of 1,5).
• Nikon D70, D70s and D50: this series of appliances marked the popularization of the digital reflexes and the sharp decline of the silver reflex camera 24x36. Six million pixels and characteristics reserved before for the expert apparatuses, less than 1000 euros (2005-2006).
• Nikon D200 : top-of-the-range expert apparatus to 10 million pixels, cast solid metal frame, tropicalization and compatibility with the old objectives without CPU (AI and BOARD).
• Nikon D80 : left at the end of 2006, it is intended to replace D70, with a sensor CCC Sony of 10,2 million pixels.
• Nikon D40 : left at the end of 2006, is equipped with a sensor of image DTC high-definition of format DX Nikon of 6,1 million effective pixels. For the first time, it is impossible to assemble the objectives other than AF-S. An improved version, the D40x, having the sensor Sony CCC of 10,2 million pixels (the same one as D80 and D200) left in April 2007.
• Nikon D3 : presented the 8/23/2007 in Europe for an exit envisaged in November 2007. Sensor CCC to 12 million pixels, 51 collimators including 15 in cross. It is the first Nikon digital device to have a sensor 24x36 mm (FX, 1x).
• Nikon D300 : idem that D3 (sensor with format DX (23.6 X 15.8 mm, 1,5x). It is intended to replace the D200.

Remarkable objectives

Here some of the objectives which marked their time:

• zoom 4-4,5/85-250mm : it is the first marketed photo zoom (1959) which will be used a long time as standard with competition.

• 3,5/55mm Micro nikkor : a macro objective which exceeds in quality all that exists then and which will remain very a long time a reference (1961).
• Medical 200 mm : an objective with built-in annular flash. Medical-nikkor
• 7,5 mm Fish Eye : Nikon leaves in 1963 the first Objectif fisheye.

And a plethora of exceptional teleobjectives, such Have it 600mm f/4 IF-ED (1977) then the Boards 300mm f/2 IF-ED (1983), Ai-S 400mm f/2.8 IF-ED (1985), Ai-S 800mm f/5.6 IF-ED (1986). Most extreme are on the one hand the covering fish-eye 6mm f/2.8 220° (23,6cm of diameter, 5,2kg), other most powerful TV: 2000 mm f/11 (59,8cm, 17,5 kg), this one being of the Reflex camera type (= with mirror, like the telescopes), or the zoom Have-p 1200-1700mm f/5.6-8 IF-ED (1988) (88,0cm, 16,0kg).

Since the launching of the mark, the mounting of the objectives did not change physically. Evolutions took place: most important was the passage to the version “AI” (1977) which transmits directly to the cell the value of the maximum opening of the objective. The old objectives could be modified. Nikon F4 (1988-1997) is last reflex camera Nikon which allows to exploit completely and automatically old objectives, causing frustration and reproaches on behalf of customers… until 2005, where Nikon left D200, which ensured this compatibility again, at the price nevertheless some handling.

See too

Internal bonds

• to also see the chapter devoted to Nikon in the wikilivre of photography.