Nikon Celebrates Centennial : Nikon Museum

Nikon opened a museum "Nikon Museum" in commemoration of its centennial, October 2015, a huge collection of Nikon cameras from the maiden model Nikon 1 in 1948 to Df - all 450 of single‐lens reflex cameras.

There already is a camera museum in Tokyo, "Japan Camera Museum" managed by Japan Camera Foundation, a general incorporated foundation, but Nikon Museum is the first of its kind opened by a single camera manufacturer.

In 1917, Nikon was founded with a view to establishing an optical industry in Japan technically independent of Europe.

The museum views Nikon's impressive history from six different perspectives: 1) Optics as Zero Point, 2) Pursuit of Precision, 3) Tradition of Live Skills, 4) Confidence and Quality, 5) Invariance and 6) Looking for the Best of Our Time.

The world's professional cameramen agree Nikon's single-lens reflex cameras are the best in functionality and reliability. Its flagships started with Nikon F in 1959 followed in the days of film cameras by F2 in 1971, F3 in 1980, F4 in 1988, F5 in 1996, and F6 in 2004. F6 is at the zenith of film cameras and still marketed.

The museum also introduces episodes in the process of development and technological breakthroughs in respective years. In short, Nikon Museum traces Japan's history of camera industry through the postwar years.

In the digital camera sector, Nikon offered its flagship D1 in 1999. The model evolved to D2 in 2003, D3 in 2007, D4 in 2012 and now D4 has its improved model D4S.

In 2013, Nikon offered the latest full-sized Df with pentaprism and operation dial, reminiscent of a good old film camera. A professional cameraman comments:

"This (Df) remind me of F3 and FE2 that I used to use. I miss them a lot. This gives you a feeling of controlling a camera".