Instantly recognizable by his eerily calm voice and red, all-seeing eye (not to mention his penchant for killing crew members when they became troublesome), HAL 9000 is listed as the 13th greatest film villain in AFI’s 100 Years…100 Heroes & Villains. But did you know that HAL 9000′s all-seeing eye was actually a Nikkor 8mm f/8 fisheye lens?Read more…
One of the big stories in the business world today was that Nikon’s stock took a historic fall of nearly 19%. The company is weighted so heavily in the Nikkei Stock Average that the news had a rippling effect across the market, causing most Asian shares to drop. Read more…
On January 28, Nikon announced the 80th anniversary of the launch of the Nikkor lens brand, and that the total number of lenses manufactured since the beginning has exceeded 75 million units. The lineup now includes more than 80 types of lenses.
To celebrate the occasion, Nikon released the above video, which offers a behind-the-scenes look into how its widely used lenses are made. The video starts from the production of the glass from sand and goes through final assembly, all in three-and-a-half minutes. Read more…
Nikon just overhauled its entire compact/superzoom lineup, so we thought we’d give it a go at a broad overview. New camera models are the Coolpix P520, L820, AW110, S9500, S9400, S5200, and S31; and all of them are trying to compete with your smartphone by offering a mix and match of great zoom, Wi-Fi connectivity and GPS. Read more…
Professional photographers have a choice to make: buy a car, put a down payment on a house, or buy Nikon’s new 800mm f/5.6 FL ED VR behemoth. Obviously the last one, right? Well, maybe not, but still, this thing is impressive.
It was announced as “in development” way back in July, we got to see one in action at the Olympics in August, and now it’s finally here — and it was kind enough to come attached to a $17,900 price tag. Read more…
Photographer Brendan Taylor is currently working on an ambitious frankencamera project. He’s trying to transfer the innards of a working Sony NEX 5N mirrorless camera into the body of a non-functional Nikon Nikkormat EL 35mm manual SLR. Read more…
Nikon’s free online image service my Picturetown never really caught on; given the stiff competition from big names like Flickr and 500px and, let’s face it, that unfortunate name, it’s not surprising. But Nikon is calling a do-over and starting fresh with a new look, new features and a new name. Staring January 28th, my Picturetown becomes ‘Nikon Image Space.’Read more…
A year ago, Nikon caused a big stir when the company stopped making repair parts available to independent repair shops. As a result, getting your Nikon fixed became more expensive and cumbersome, requiring you to send it out to an “authorized repair facility” or get your parts second-hand off eBay.
The good news is that now, in a half-hearted step back, Nikon has started selling select (read: extremely limited) repair parts direct to consumers online through the Nikon Parts Store. Read more…
Nikon recently put out this short 3-minute video that offers an interesting glimpse into one of the critical steps of lens making: the production of the optical glass. It steps through the various stages of manufacturing, from combining the raw elements through examining the chunks of glass before they’re polished and perfected. Read more…
