Nikon F

The Nikon F camera, introduced in April 1959, was Nikon's first SLR camera. It was one of the most advanced cameras of its day. Although many of the concepts had already been introduced elsewhere, it was revolutionary in that it was the first to combine them all in one camera. It was produced until October 1973 and was replaced by the quite similar Nikon F2. Aspects of its design remain in all of Nikon's subsequent SLR cameras, through the current Nikon F6 film and Nikon D4 digital models (which still share its Nikon F-mount for lenses). The "F" in Nikon F was selected by Nippon Kogaku from the letter F in 'Reflex' because the R was too difficult to pronounce for Japanese speakers. That tradition was carried all the way through their top line of Nikon cameras until the introduction of the Nikon D1 (digital) cameras decades later.

History

The Nikon F was enormously successful and showed the superiority of the SLR and of the Japanese camera manufacturers. It was the first SLR system to be adopted and used seriously by the general population of professional photographers, especially by those photographers covering the Vietnam War, and those news photographers using motor-driven Nikon Fs with 250-exposure backs to record the various launches of the space capsules in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space programs, all in the 1960s. After the introduction of the Nikon F the more expensive rangefinder cameras (those with focal plane shutters) became less attractive. It was originally priced at US$186 with 50mm f/2 lens; in November 1963 the US price was $233 for the body with a standard prism plus $90 for the 50mm f/2 lens or $155 for the 50 mm f/1.4.

Nikon F-801

The Nikon F-801 (sold as the N8008 in the US market) is a 35mm SLR of the late 1980s. Although its autofocus mechanism is slow in comparison to modern standards, it was an improvement on Nikon's first attempt at an autofocus SLR - the F-501 (N2020 in North America), and proved to be reliable and durable, typical of Nikon's cameras.

Features

Despite being designated in the number range usually reserved for amateur cameras (indicated by the F- or N prefix), the F-801 was built to a high standard and incorporated a number of professional features:

Nikon F-601

The Nikon F-601, otherwise known as the Nikon N6006, is a 35mm single-lens reflex (SLR) film camera that was produced by Nikon starting in 1991. The F601 featured an improved second-generation autofocus system, motor drive for automatic film advance, a built-in pop-up electronic flash, a top shutter speed of 1/2000 of a second, and a new "Matrix" evaluative multi-zone metering program.

The camera includes an integrated motor drive and is also available in a version with a date back, which could be set to print the date and time on the photo film as images were acquired. As a kit, the F601 shipped with a 35-to-70 mm autofocus Nikkor zoom lens. It is compatible with a wide range of Nikon F-mount lenses, including both autofocus and manual focus types.

During the 1990s, the F-601 sat between the Nikon F-401 and Nikon F-801s in the company's consumer SLR range.

References

External links

Media related to Nikon F-601 at Wikimedia Commons

Nikon

Nikon Corporation (株式会社ニコン, Kabushiki-gaisha Nikon) (UK /ˈnɪkɒn/ or US /ˈnaɪkɒn/;  listen [nikoɴ]), also known just as Nikon, is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, specializing in optics and imaging products.

Its products include cameras, camera lenses, binoculars, microscopes, ophthalmic lenses, measurement instruments, and the steppers used in the photolithography steps of semiconductor fabrication, of which it is the world's second largest manufacturer. The companies held by Nikon form the Nikon Group. Among its products are Nikkor imaging lenses (for F-mount cameras, large format photography, photographic enlargers, and other applications), the Nikon F-series of 35 mm film SLR cameras, the Nikon D-series of digital SLR 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, Lumix, Pentax, and Olympus.

Founded on July 25, 1917 as Nippon Kōgaku Kōgyō Kabushikigaisha (日本光学工業株式会社 "Japan Optical Industries Co., Ltd."), the company was renamed Nikon Corporation, after its cameras, in 1988. Nikon is one of the subsidiaries of Mitsubishi.

Nikon I, M and S

The Nikon was the first camera introduced by the optical manufacturer Nippon Kogaku KK. It is a 35mm rangefinder camera, in retrospect known as the Nikon I. The original design was approved by September 1946, and the camera was released in March 1948. At first, it was sold locally, and it did not come to the attention of the western media until 1950, when photographers from the Life magazine were shown photographs taken with these cameras. The lenses draw special attention, like the Nikkor-P.C 1:2 f=8.5cm. A demand to fit Nikkors to the reporters' Leicas were immediately met at the factory in Tokyo, and soon the word spread about these Japanese lenses which were just as good as, or possibly better than their German counterparts. The camera design was strongly inspired by the German Contax and Leica cameras. After careful studies of these, Nippon Kogaku had decided to base their camera on the Contax, but substitute the complicated shutter design for the cloth focal plane shutter of the Leica, these being considered the best features from either camera.

Nikon (Somalia)

Nikon (alternatively spelled Nicon; Νίκων in Ancient Greek) was an ancient coastal emporium in the Horn of Africa. It was described in the 1st century CE Greco-Roman travelogue the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea as being situated in the vicinity of Port Dunford (Bur Gao) in the southern Jubaland region of present-day Somalia.

See also

References