Nikon
October 18, 2009 – 9:20 am
Nippon Kogaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Nikon) was established on July 25, 1917. At the beginning, they were known by the name, Nippon Kogaku, K.K., or Japan Optical Co. It was commenced as an optical weapon shop, whose motive was to satiate the Imperial Japanese Navy’s goal. It helped Japanese navy to develop self-reliant in their optical instrument need and dwindle the foreign supplies in this field.
Nippon Kogaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Nikon) was fashioned by the coalition of three optical companies, one of which was an old company founded in 1881. Initially, their employee strength was just 200, accompanied by eight German technicians. These technicians were invited to join the company in July 1917, and they joined the company in January 1921. They were from an optical firm, and not from a camera manufacturer company.
In the initial stage, Nikon started producing a large variety of optical merchandises like the transits,, telescope, surveying instrument, microscopes and other optical measuring device for industry and science. Due to the manufacturing of these optical products, Nikon became very popular among industrial and scientific communities, but not among general masses.
In 1930s, Nikon started producing a series of the photographic camera lens, which has size varying from 50mm to 700mm. Nippon Kogaku, K.K., or Japan Optical Co., was known by the name “Nikkor”. This name was derived from the name “Nikko”, which the company initially uses for their manufactured microscope. By the end of 1937, the company was capable of producing 50mm f4.5, 3.5 and 2.0 Nikkors, which they used in the renowned Hansa Canon. By the mid of 1947, Nippon Kogaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha was capable of producing all types of canon’s lenses. Hence, the entire prewar and postwar canon was installed with Nikkor lenses.
As we have noticed, Nippon Kogaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha was able to produce a lens of the miniature camera, but the company is yet to manufacture a camera of its own. However, their time changes with the start of World War II. The Japanese government chooses the company to be the biggest dealer of the ocular cannon for the Japanese military machine. By this time, their employee strength had grown to 23,000 and the company own 19 factories. They produced a large variety of military optical products, such as periscopes, aerial lenses, bomb sights and binoculars. All military products manufactured by them were of extraordinary quality, and they corroborated to be of great use to Japanese military.
But at the end of World War II, they were just reduced to one factory, and only 1400 employees were working in the company. Now, they started producing the optical products, for which they were famous, prior to the World War. However, at this time, they were new to the facade world and market.
Now Nippon Kogaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Nikon) decided that they will launch their own camera. In late 1945 or early 1946 research began on the production of 6×6 TLR and a 35mm, couple range finder and an interchangeable lens camera. The company dropped the idea of TLR, and they continued their research on 35mm technology. On April 15, 1946, company issued an order of 20 test or experimental samples of the camera. These exploratory or test samples were run through many test. Then required changes were made, and the final model was ready on September of 1946. This model was named ‘NIKON’. But due to some internal reasons, and the research on the camera lens, the company was not able to start the mass production till early 1948. But after this delay, the company brings forward their new camera ‘NIKON.’
Many new names were suggested for this camera, like “BENTAX, PENTAX, PANNET, NICCA, NIKKA, NIKORET, NIKO and NIKKORETTE”, but the company decided to keep the name “NIKKORETTE”. But just before the final design was completed, the name was changed to ‘NIKON.’
Now days, NIKON is one of the leading producers of the cameras. The company is producing the most advanced and latest model of the camera. NIKON has released a new camera, named Nikon D3X, which has a 24.4 megapixel camera. This camera is powered with a full frame sensor. There are hardly any minus points of NIKON products. So, it will not be wrong to say that NIKON is the king of Camera production.