N-Photo: The Nikon Annual

With the photographic industry continuing to advance and become more accessible to all, now is as good of a time as any to take your Nikon photography to the next level. For this annual we’ve selected our best content from the last year of N-Photo magazine. Learn about the origins of the brand, from Nippon Kogaku K.K. to the modern Nikon we are familiar with today, and discover a brief history of true Nikon innovation.Take a road trip with us through the highlands of Scotland and find out how to capture the spectaular vistas on offer. Learn how to master night and astro photography as well as the best way to incorporate imaging into your next vacation. We also have nine projects that will guide you through essential techniques that…

Since beginning as Nippon Kogaku K.K. on 25 July, 1917, Nikon has been influential in shaping how people have viewed the world, whether that’s through a pair of binoculars, a microscope or a Nikkor lens. From awe-inspiring images of our planet taken from space, to breathtaking pictures returned from the its deepest oceans, Nikon cameras have been the choice of pioneers who have pushed the boundaries of photography. Nikon has been equally pioneering in its evolution of camera and lens technology, and over the following 14 pages we celebrate the innovation and events that have kept Nikon at the cutting edge for the past ten decades.…

Nikon has been at the forefront of camera tech for the past century, and by sticking with its interchangeable lens F-mount for nearly 60 years, it has ensured compatibility across its range of cameras and lenses – past, present and future. But there are numerous other ways, both revolutionary and evolutionary, in which Nikon has led the way. Take ED or Extra-low Dispersion glass: it might now be a familiar feature used in the optical design of lenses from every manufacturer to reduce chromatic aberration and produce clearer, sharper images, but it was Nikon that invented the stuff. Here’s a selection of the well known and less well known things Nikon has given to the world… 1957 The Nikon SP is the world’s first rangefinder to incorporate a universal finder…

Nikon hasn’t always been Nikon. In fact, Nikon Corporation as we know it is has only been around for about the past 30 years. When two of Japan’s leading optical manufacturers – the Optical Instruments Department of Tokyo Keiki Seisakusho and Reflecting Mirror Department of Iwaki Glass Manufacturing – merged on 25 July, 1917, with investment support from the President of Mitsubishi, Koyata Iwasaki, the company was known as Nippon Kogaku, K.K. (or ‘Japanese Optical Co.’). WHAT’S IN A NAME? The Nikon brand name was established in 1946 – not as the name for the company, but for a camera. Nippon Kogaku K.K. execs were looking for a title for a new compact 35mm camera that they were planning to develop. It is said that, in a bid to capture…

Nikon has been producing lenses for almost 90 years. Here’s a small selection of the pioneering ways it’s used glass since the Swinging ’60s 2007 Nikon expands its lens range with the world’s first 14mm f/2.8 wide-angle zoom, the AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED 2006 Shake free: VR II Vibration Reduction is introduced in the AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED 1975 With its minimum focal length of 28mm, the Zoom-Nikkor 28-45mm f/4.5 is said to be the world’s first bona fide wide-angle zoom 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 1976 Showing its flair for lens design (well, it is the ’70s), Nikon delivers the Nikkor 13mm f/5.6 – a lens that offers the world’s widest angle of view among wide-angle lenses (as of 1976) 1968 The OP Fisheye- Nikkor 10mm…

The F-mount celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2009, making it the longest-running lens mount for 35mm SLR interchangeable lens cameras in the world. The F-mount was introduced on the Nikon F in 1959 and it’s been a constant throughout Nikon’s history, providing a substantial amount of backwards and forwards compatibility between lenses and cameras over the past five decades. Nikon decided that it needed to provide a degree of future-proofing and enable the use of larger aperture lenses. The result? The F-mount diameter of 44mm. But the F-mount hasn’t stayed frozen in time, and there have been some notable evolutions. For instance, 1977 saw the introduction of auto aperture indexing (Ai). Ai-type lenses enable the automatic setting of maximum aperture. In 1983, the F-mount had to accommodate both autofocus and…