Mar 31, 2011

NIKON

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, is a merging of Nippon Kōgakuand an imitation of Zeiss's brand Ikon. This would cause some early problems in Germany though as Zeiss complained that Nikon violated its trademarked camera, the "Ikon" and so from 1963 to 1968 Nikon F's in particular were labeled as 'Nikkor'.
The Nikkor brand was introduced in 1932, a Westernized rendering of an earlier version Nikkō, an abbreviation of the company's original full name. 
Digital photography
Nikon D1 1999
Nikon created some of the first digital SLRs (DSLRs) as research projects for NASA in 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.
Through the mid-2000s, Nikon's line of professional and enthusiast DSLRs and lenses including their back 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. 
Nikon F 1959
Film camera
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 is the only major photo camera manufacturer still making film SLRs. The remaining model is the professional Nikon F6 with the last amateur model, FM10, having been discontinued. 
Compact cameras 
Nikon Nuvis
Between 1983 and the early 2000s a broad range of compact photo cameras were made by Nikon. Nikon first started by naming the photo cameras with a series name (like the L35/L135-series, the RF/RD-series, the W35-series, the EF or the AW-series. In later production cycles, the photo cameras were double branded with a series-name on the one and a sales name on the other hand. Sales names were for example Zoom-Touch for cameras with a wide zoom range, Lite-Touch for ultra compact models, Fun-Touch for easy to use photo cameras and Sport-Touch for splash water resistance. After the late 1990s, Nikon dropped the series names and continued only with the sales name. Nikon's APS-cameras were all named Nuvis.
The photo cameras came in all price ranges from entry-level fixed-lens-cameras to the top model Nikon 35Ti with titanium body and 3D-Matrix-Metering.

 information from wikipedia.org


1 comment:

  1. Interesting information about Nikon... I didn' t know that they produce lences dor first CANON photo cameras.

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