Nikon ニコン

Nikon was founded in July 1917 as Nippon Kogaku K.K. (Japan Optical Industries), formed by merging the optical divisions of several Japanese firms to produce optical glass, binoculars, microscopes, and military rangefinders. For its first three decades the company had no plans to make cameras, focusing instead on optical instruments and, from 1932, lenses under the now-famous Nikkor brand.

Nikon entered the camera business with the Nikon Model I in 1948, and cemented its reputation among photographers with the Nikon F single-lens reflex camera in 1959, which introduced the F-mount lens system still used by Nikon cameras today. It became a favorite of photojournalists worldwide and remains one of the two dominant Japanese camera and lens makers alongside Canon.