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Nikon Corporation

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(Redirected from Nikon)

Nikon redirects here; there is also a leader of the Russian Orthodox Church named Patriarch Nikon.

Nikon Corporation (Nikon, Nikon Corp.) is a Japanese company specializing in optics and imaging. Its products include cameras, binoculars, microscopes, and measurement instruments. It was founded in 1917 as Nihon (Nippon) Kōgaku Kōgyō (日本光學工業株式會社); the company was renamed Nikon Corporation (株式会社ニコン), after its cameras, in 1988. As of 2002, it has about 14,000 employees. Nikon is one of the Mitsubishi companies.

The name Nikon, which dates from 1946, is a merging of Nippon Kōgaku ("Japan Optical") and in imitation of Zeiss Ikon.

Among its famous products are Nikkor camera lenses (notably those designed for the company's own F-mount SLR cameras), Nikonos underwater cameras, the Nikon F-series of professional 135 film SLR cameras, and the Nikon D-series digital SLRs. Nikon has helped lead the transition to digital photography with both the Coolpix line of consumer and prosumer cameras as well as system cameras like the Nikon D100, the more recent Nikon D70 and D70s, and professional DSLRs including the D1 and D2 series (see below).

Nikon's main competitors include Canon, Minolta, Leica, Pentax, and the Olympus company.

Nikon Corporation was established in 1917 when two leading optical manufacturers merged to form a comprehensive, fully integrated optical company known as Nippon Kogaku K.K. Over the next 60 years this growing company became a leading manufacturer of optical lenses and precision equipment used in cameras, binoculars, microscopes and inspection equipment. During World War II the company grew to 19 factories and 23,000 employees, supplying items such as binoculars, lenses, bomb sights and periscopes to the Japanese military. After the war it reverted to its civilian product range with a single factory and 1400 employees. By 1980, the first stepper, the NSR-1010G, was produced in Japan. Since then, Nikon has introduced over 50 models of stepper/scanners for the production of semiconductors and liquid crystal displays.

In 1982, Nikon Precision Inc. was established in the United States to sell and service Nikon stepper equipment. Fueled by a rapidly growing customer base, the company quickly expanded. In 1990, NPI opened its current Belmont, California headquarters. The facility now includes corporate offices, a fully equipped training center, and extensive applications, technology, service, sales and marketing departments.

Contents

1 Shareholders

2 Holdings

3 Partial list of Nikon products

3.1 Cameras

3.1.1 35mm SLR cameras
3.1.2 Discontinued 35 mm SLR cameras
3.1.3 35 mm rangefinder cameras
3.1.4 Digital cameras

3.2 Lenses

3.2.1 Lens Acronyms
3.2.2 Auto Focus Prime
3.2.3 Auto Focus Zoom
3.2.4 'Professional' AF Zoom Lenses
3.2.5 Lenses for rangefinder cameras
3.2.6 Lenses for medium-format cameras