Nikon
Nikon Corporation ; is a Japanese optics and photographic equipment manufacturer. Nikon's products include cameras, camera lenses, binoculars, microscopes, ophthalmic lenses, measurement instruments, rifle scopes, spotting scopes, and equipment related to semiconductor fabrication, such as steppers used in the photolithography steps of such manufacturing. Nikon is the world's second largest manufacturer of such equipment.
Since July 2024, Nikon has been headquartered in Nishi-Ōi, Shinagawa, Tokyo where the plant has been located since 1918.
The company is the eighth-largest chip equipment maker as reported in 2017. Also, it has diversified into new areas like 3D printing and regenerative medicine to compensate for the shrinking digital camera market.
Among Nikon's many notable product lines are Nikkor imaging lenses, the Nikon F-series of 35 mm film SLR cameras, the Nikon D-series of digital SLR cameras, the Nikon Z-series of digital mirrorless cameras, the Coolpix series of compact digital cameras, and the Nikonos series of underwater film cameras.
Nikon's main competitors in camera and lens manufacturing include Canon, Sony, Fujifilm, Panasonic, Pentax, and Olympus.
Founded on July 25, 1917 as Nippon Kōgaku Kōgyō Kabushikigaisha, the company was renamed to Nikon Corporation, after its cameras, in 1988. At least since 2022 Nikon is a member of the Mitsubishi group of companies.
On March 7, 2024, Nikon announced its acquisition of Red Digital Cinema.
History
The Nikon Corporation was established on 25 July 1917 when three leading optical manufacturers merged to form a comprehensive, fully integrated optical company known as Nippon Kōgaku Tōkyō K.K. Over the next sixty years, this growing company became a manufacturer of optical lenses and equipment used in cameras, binoculars, microscopes and inspection equipment.During World War II, the company operated thirty factories with 2,000 employees, manufacturing binoculars, lenses, bomb sights, and periscopes for the Japanese military.
Reception outside Japan
After the war, Nippon Kōgaku reverted to producing its civilian product range in a single factory. In 1948, the first Nikon-branded camera was released, the Nikon I. Nikon lenses were popularised by the American photojournalist David Douglas Duncan.Duncan was working in Tokyo when the Korean War began. Duncan had met a young Japanese photographer, Jun Miki, who introduced Duncan to Nikon lenses. From July 1950 to January 1951, Duncan covered the Korean War. Fitting Nikon optics to his Leica rangefinder cameras allowed him to produce high contrast negatives with very sharp resolution at the centre field.
Names and brands
Founded in 1917 as Nippon Kōgaku Kōgyō Kabushikigaisha, the company was renamed Nikon Corporation, after its cameras, in 1988. The name Nikon, which dates from 1946, was originally intended only for its small-camera line, spelled as "Nikkon", with an addition of the "n" to the "Nikko" brand name. The similarity to the Carl Zeiss AG brand "ikon", would cause some early problems in Germany as Zeiss complained that Nikon violated its trademarked camera. From 1963 to 1968 the Nikon F in particular was therefore labeled 'Nikkor'.The Nikkor brand was introduced in 1932, a westernised rendering of an earlier version Nikkō, an abbreviation of the company's original full name. Nikkor is the Nikon brand name for its lenses.
Another early brand used on microscopes was Joico, an abbreviation of "Japan Optical Industries Co". Expeed is the brand Nikon uses for its image processors since 2007.
Rise of the Nikon F series
Nikon's rangefinder cameras, starting with the Nikon I in 1948, marked the entry of Nippon Kogaku K.K. into the photographic market, following its focus on optical instruments such as lenses and microscopes. These models, including the Nikon I, M, S, and subsequent series, utilized the S-Mount bayonet, inspired by the Contax RF system, and featured a compact design with a rangefinder viewfinder. They helped establish Nikon as a leading brand in professional photography until the shift to reflex cameras in the 1960s.The Nikon SP and other 1950s and 1960s rangefinder cameras competed directly with models from Leica and Zeiss. However, the company quickly ceased developing its rangefinder line to focus its efforts on the Nikon F single-lens reflex line of cameras, which was successful upon its introduction in 1959.
For nearly 30 years, Nikon's F-series SLRs were the most widely used small-format cameras among professional photographers, as well as by some U.S. space programs, the first in 1971 on Apollo 15 and later once in 1973 on the Skylab and later again on it in 1981.
Nikon popularized many features in professional SLR photography, such as the modular camera system with interchangeable lenses, viewfinders, motor drives, and data backs; integrated light metering and lens indexing; electronic strobe flashguns instead of expendable flashbulbs; electronic shutter control; evaluative multi-zone "matrix" metering; and built-in motorized film advance. However, as autofocus SLRs became available from Minolta and others in the mid-1980s, Nikon's line of manual-focus cameras began to seem out of date.
Despite introducing one of the first autofocus models, the slow and bulky F3AF, the company's determination to maintain lens compatibility with its F-mount prevented rapid advances in autofocus technology. Canon introduced a new type of lens-camera interface with its entirely electronic Canon EOS cameras and Canon EF lens mount in 1987.
The much faster lens performance permitted by Canon's electronic focusing and aperture control prompted many professional photographers to switch to the Canon system through the 1990s.
Post-millennium film camera production
Once Nikon introduced affordable consumer-level DSLRs such as the Nikon D70 in the mid-2000s, sales of its consumer and professional film cameras fell rapidly, following the general trend in the industry. In January 2006, Nikon announced it would stop making most of its film camera models and all of its large format lenses, and focus on digital models.Nevertheless, Nikon remained the only major camera manufacturer still making film SLR cameras for a long time. The high-end Nikon F6 and the entry-level FM10 remained in production all the way up until October 2020.
Digital photography
Digital single-lens reflex and point and shoot cameras
Nikon created some of the first digital SLRs for NASA; the Nikon NASA F4 was used in the Space Shuttle since 1991. After a 1990s partnership with Kodak to produce digital SLR cameras based on existing Nikon film bodies, Nikon released the Nikon D1 SLR under its own name in 1999. Although it used an APS-C-size light sensor only 2/3 the size of a 35 mm film frame, the D1 was among the first digital cameras to have sufficient image quality and a low enough price for some professionals to use it as a replacement for a film SLR. The company also has a Coolpix line which grew as consumer digital photography became increasingly prevalent through the early 2000s. Nikon also never made any phones.Through the mid-2000s, Nikon's line of professional and enthusiast DSLRs and lenses, including their backwards compatible AF-S lens line, remained in second place behind Canon in SLR camera sales, and Canon had several years' lead in producing professional DSLRs with light sensors as large as traditional 35 mm film frames. All Nikon DSLRs from 1999 to 2007, by contrast, used the smaller DX size sensor.
Then, 2005 management changes at Nikon led to new camera designs such as the full-frame Nikon D3 in late 2007, the Nikon D700 a few months later, and mid-range SLRs. Nikon regained much of its reputation among professional and amateur enthusiast photographers as a leading innovator in the field, especially because of the speed, ergonomics, and low-light performance of its latest models. The mid-range Nikon D90, introduced in 2008, was also the first SLR camera to record video. Since the D90, video mode has been introduced to many more of the Nikon and non-Nikon DSLR cameras, including the Nikon D3S, Nikon D3100, Nikon D3200, Nikon D5100, and Nikon D7000.
In 2008, Nikon has released a photograph and video editing suite called ViewNX to browse, edit, merge and share images and videos. Despite the market growth of Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens Cameras, Nikon did not neglect their F-mount Single Lens Reflex cameras and have released some professional DSLRs like the D780 and the D6 in 2020.
Mirrorless interchangeable-lens cameras
In reaction to the growing market for mirrorless cameras, Nikon released their first Mirrorless Interchangeable Lens Cameras and also a new lens mount in 2011. The lens mount was called Nikon 1, and the first bodies in it were the Nikon 1 J1 and the V1. The system was built around a 1 inch format image sensor, with a 2.7x crop factor. This format was pretty small compared to their competitors. This resulted in a loss of image quality, dynamic range and fewer possibilities for restricting depth of field depth of field range. In 2018, Nikon officially discontinued the 1 series, after three years without a new camera body..Also in 2018, Nikon introduced a new mirrorless system in their lineup: the Nikon Z system. The first cameras in the series were the Z6 and the Z7, both with a Full Frame sensor format, In-Body Image Stabilization and a built-in electronic viewfinder. The Z-mount is not only for FX cameras though, as in 2019 Nikon introduced the Z50 with a DX format sensor, without IBIS but with the compatibility to every Z-mount lens. The handling, the ergonomics and the button layout are similar to the Nikon DSLR cameras, which is friendly for those who are switching from them. This shows that Nikon is putting their focus more on their MILC line.
In 2020, Nikon updated both the Z6 and the Z7. The updated models are called the Z6II and the Z7II. The improvements over the original models include the new EXPEED 6 processor, an added card slot, improved video and AF features, higher burst rates, battery grip support and USB-C power delivery.
In 2021, Nikon released 2 mirrorless cameras, the Zfc and the Z9. The Nikon Zfc is the second Z-series APS-C mirrorless camera in the line up, designed to evoke the company's famous FM2 SLR from the '80s. It offers manual controls, including dedicated dials for shutter speed, exposure compensation and ISO. The Z9 became Nikon's new flagship product succeeding the D6, marking the start of a new era of Nikon cameras. It includes a 45.7 megapixel Full Frame format stacked CMOS sensor which is stabilized and has a very fast readout speed, making the mechanical shutter not only unneeded, but also absent from the camera. Along with the sensor, the 3.7 million dot, 760 nit EVF, 20 fps continuous burst at full resolution in raw format and 30 fps continuous burst for full resolution jpegs, with a buffer of 1000+ compressed raw photos, 4K 120 fps ProRes internal recording, the 8K 30 fps internal recording and the 120 hz subject recognition AF system make it one of the most advanced cameras on the market with its main rivals being the Canon EOS R3 and the Sony α1.