Founded in 1917 as Nippon Kōgaku Kōgyō Kabushikigaisha (Japan Optical Industries Corporation), the company was renamed Nikon Corporation, after its cameras, in 1988. Nikon is one of the companies of the Mitsubishi Group.
Nikon Corporation, also known as Nikon or Nikon Corp., is a multinational corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. They specialize in optics and imaging, producing such products as the Nikkor imaging lenses (for F-mount cameras, large format photography, photographic enlargers), the Nikon F-series of 135 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. Other products include binoculars, microscopes, measurement instruments, and the steppers used in the photolithography steps of semiconductor fabrication, of which it is the world’s second largest manufacturer.
Nikon’s main competitors in camera and lens manufacturing include Canon, Casio, Kodak, Sony, Pentax, Panasonic, Fujifilm and Olympus. Minolta used to be a major competitor in 35mm cameras and the first few series of Digital SLR cameras, however it was purchesed by Konica, which was then purchased by Sony.
Nikon created one of the first digital SLRs (DSLRs) as research projects for NASA in 1991. After a partnership with Kodak to produce digital SLR cameras based on existing Nikon film bodies in the 1990s, Nikon released Nikon D1 SLR under its own name in 1999. The Nikon D1 SLR used an APS-C-size light sensor that was 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 as well as a low enough price for some professionals to use it as a replacement for a film SLR. The company also developed a Coolpix line which grew as consumer digital photography became increasingly prevalent through the early 2000s.
