people named nikon see nikon disambiguation . nikon corporation west building of nikon in nishi i tokyo type public traded as tyo 7731 industry consumer electronics founded july 25 1917 ; 99 years ago 1917 07 25 tokyo japan headquarters shinagawa tokyo japan area served worldwide key people makoto kimura chairman kazuo ushida president products still cameras slr cameras dslr cameras binoculars monoculars binocular telescope laser rangefinder field microscopy precision equipment microscopes ophthalmic lenses electric fan and instrumental products revenue 857.8 billion fy2015 1 operating income 43.4 billion fy2015 1 net income 18.4 billion fy2015 1 number of employees 25 415 march 31 2015 1 website www.nikon.com nikon corporation kabushiki gaisha nikon uk n k n or us na k n ; listen help info niko 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 . 2 the companies held by nikon form the nikon group . 3 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 panasonic pentax and olympus . founded on july 25 1917 as nippon k gaku k gy kabushikigaisha japan optical industries co. ltd. the company was renamed to nikon corporation after its cameras in 1988 . nikon is a member of the mitsubishi group of companies keiretsu . 4 contents 1 history 1.1 reception outside japan 1.2 names and brands 1.3 the rise of the nikon f series 1.4 digital photography 1.5 film camera production 1.6 movie camera production 1.7 thai operations 1.8 cultural activities 1.9 sponsorship 1.10 nikon essilor co. ltd. 2 cameras 2.1 film 35 mm slr cameras with manual focus 2.2 film aps slr cameras 2.3 film 35 mm slr cameras with autofocus 2.4 professional rangefinder cameras 2.5 compact cameras 2.6 movie cameras 2.7 professional underwater cameras 3 digital cameras 3.1 digital compact cameras 3.1.1 larger sensor compact cameras 3.1.1.1 light weight fast lens compact cameras 3.1.2 bridge cameras 3.2 mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras 3.3 digital single lens reflex cameras 4 photo optics 4.1 lenses for f mount cameras 4.2 other lenses for photography and imaging 5 electronic flash units 6 film scanners 7 sport optics 7.1 binoculars 7.2 spotting scopes 7.3 rifle scopes 8 nikon metrology 9 other products 10 cultural references 11 awards and recognition 12 see also 13 notes and references 14 external links history edit 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 k gaku t ky k.k. over the next sixty years this growing company became a manufacturer of optical lenses including those for the first canon cameras 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 edit after the war nippon k gaku reverted to producing its civilian product range in a single factory . in 1948 the first nikon branded camera was released the nikon i. 5 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 . 6 fitting nikon optics especially the nikkor p.c 1 2 f 8 5 cm 7 to his leica rangefinder cameras produced high contrast negatives with very sharp resolution at the centre field . 8 names and brands edit nikko parent company brand from which the nikkor brand evolved . founded in 1917 as nippon k gaku k gy kabushikigaisha japan optical industries corporation the company was renamed nikon corporation after its cameras in 1988 . the name nikon which dates from 1946 is a merging of nippon k gaku japan optical and zeiss s brand ikon . this 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 . 9 the nikkor brand was introduced in 1932 a westernised rendering of an earlier version nikk an abbreviation of the company s original full name 10 nikk coincidentally means sunlight and is the name of a japanese town . . nikkor is the nikon brand name for its lenses . another early brand used on microscopes was joico 11 an abbreviation of japan optical industries co citation needed . expeed is the brand nikon uses for its image processors since 2007 . the rise of the nikon f series edit nikon f ftn camera the 1961 35 mm f 3.5 pc nikkor lens on a nikon f the first perspective control lens for a 35 mm camera nikon f motor black camera nikon f black motor camera 50mm 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 citation needed 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 citation needed as well as by the u.s. space program . nikon popularised many features in professional slr photography citation needed 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 citation needed . 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 especially in sports and news to switch to the canon system through the 1990s . 12 digital photography edit nikon nasa f4 front view with da 20 action finder electronics box and lenses . launched september 1991 on board the space shuttle discovery mission sts 48 . nikon created some of the first digital slrs dslrs nikon nasa f4 for nasa used in the space shuttle since 1991 . 13 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 later called a dx sensor the d1 was among the first digital cameras to have sufficient image quality and a low enough price for some professionals particularly photojournalists and sports photographers 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 . 14 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 . 15 unreliable source the mid range nikon d90 introduced in 2008 was also the first slr camera to record video . 16 17 since then video mode has been introduced to many more of the nikon dslr cameras including the nikon d3s nikon d7000 nikon d5100 nikon d3100 nikon d3200 and nikon d5100 . 18 19 20 21 22 more recently nikon has released a photograph and video editing suite called viewnx to browse edit merge and share images and videos . 23 24 25 film camera production edit 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 . 26 nevertheless nikon is the only citation needed major camera manufacturer still making film slrs . the remaining model is the professional nikon f6 with the last amateur model fm10 having been discontinued . movie camera production edit although few models were introduced nikon made movie cameras as well . the r10 and r8 super zoom super 8 models introduced in 1973 were the top of the line and last attempt for the amateur movie field . the cameras had a special gate and claw system to improve image steadiness and overcome a major drawback of super 8 cartridge design . the r10 model has a high speed 10x macro zoom lens . interestingly and contrary to other brands nikon never attempted to offer projectors and accessories . thai operations edit nikon has shifted much of its manufacturing facilities to thailand with some production especially of coolpix cameras and some low end lenses in china and indonesia . the company constructed a factory in ayuthaya north of bangkok in thailand in 1991 . by the year 2000 it had 2 000 employees . steady growth over the next few years and an increase of floor space from the original 19 400 square meters 208 827 square feet to 46 200 square meters 497 300 square feet enabled the factory to produce a wider range of nikon products . by 2004 it had more than 8 000 workers . the range of the products produced at nikon thailand include plastic molding optical parts painting printing metal processing plating spherical lens process aspherical lens process prism process electrical and electronic mounting process silent wave motor and autofocus unit production . as of 2009 all of nikon s nikon dx format dslr cameras and the d600 a prosumer fx camera are produced in thailand while their professional and semi professional nikon fx format full frame cameras d700 d3 d3s d3x d4 d800 and the retro styled df are built in japan in the city of sendai . the thai facility also produces most of nikon s digital dx zoom lenses as well as numerous other lenses in the nikkor line . cultural activities edit inside the nikon salon in japan nikon runs the nikon salon