Over 50 years and 60 Million Nikon Lenses later – we’re still going

We’ve reached a milestone….we’ve just made our 60 millionth lens! To put it into perspective, that’s enough lenses to give to everyone in Canada and Australia, with a few million to spare.

We’ve come a long way since releasing our first Nikon F SLR camera and interchangeable lens back in 1959 – “arguably the most significant SLR in 35mm history”, according to Cameraquest.com. In fact, it was so popular we kept making the camera until 1974 and sold over a million of them worldwide. We also introduced our first lens around then – our Nikkor S Auto 5cm f/2. It was innovative for its time, so much so that aspects of its basic design are still used in many of our lenses today.

We’ve developed a whole variety of others since then. Take for example our fisheye lens – it’s great if you love having fun with photography, creating and distorting your pictures to get that perfect shot. We’re proud to have created the world’s first fisheye lens for SLR in 1968 and the world’s first underwater fisheye lens more recently in 1994. If you’re interested in fisheye lenses, check out the first one we developed exclusively for our Nikon DX format. We’d also love to see any photos you have taken with a fisheye lens. If so, please put them on our Flickr page!

Image shot with a 10.5mm DX Fisheye lens – copyright www.fotonatura.com

Image shot with a 10.5mm DX Fisheye lens – copyright www.fotonatura.com

Over the years we’ve always strived for quality. Just as our lenses were popular in 1959, our recent lenses are also on the cutting edge for their time. In fact, when it comes to producing lenses, this last year has been one of our busiest. Known by many as the Nikkor Prime Trinity, there are three in particular we want to highlight due to their wide range of shooting options. The 24mm f/1.4, which is a great wide angle, multiple purpose lens, the 35mm f/1.4 – ideal for journalism and the 85mm f/1.4 which is perfect for portrait and fashion shots. These 3 lenses are also part of the super limited edition kit that was released in March – there’s only 100 of them available across Europe.

How many lenses do you have? What’s your dream lens? Perhaps you remember your first ever lens? Let us know.