Nikkor production reach 50 Millions!!

FYI

http://nikon.com/about/news/2009/0909_Nikkor5km_01.htm

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Total Production of NIKKOR Lenses for Nikon SLR Cameras Reaches Fifty Million

September 9, 2009

Nikon Corporation (Michio Kariya, President) is pleased to announce that as of August 2009 total production of NIKKOR lenses, interchangeable lenses for Nikon SLR cameras, reached fifty million. Total production of NIKKOR lenses reached forty-five million in August 2008 with production of an additional five million over the past year.
NIKKOR 50mil lenslogo

Nikon (then Nippon Kogaku K.K.) released its first NIKKOR lens for Nikon SLR cameras, the NIKKOR-S Auto 5cm f/2, in 1959 along with its first SLR camera, the Nikon F. In the fifty years since then, NIKKOR lenses have been extremely well received by a great number of photo enthusiasts and professional photographers.

The current lineup of more than sixty NIKKOR lenses for Nikon SLR cameras offers a wide variety of lenses, including fisheye lenses, super wide-angle to super telephoto lenses and micro lenses.
The NIKKOR brand

As the brand name for Nikon lenses, NIKKOR has become synonymous with high-performance, high-quality SLR lenses. The NIKKOR name comes from adding “R”—a common practice in the naming of photographic lenses at that time—to “Nikko”, the Romanized abbreviation for Nippon Kogaku K.K. In 1933, the large-format lens for aerial photography was released with the name Aero-Nikkor, making last year the 75th anniversary of the NIKKOR brand.

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I currently own about 20 Nikkor or so. I wish I could have more....
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Vic Lau at Calgary

Put that next to Canon's lens production that reaches over 40 million from only the Canon EOS EF mount.... that really puts into perspective just how successful the Canon EOS line has been.

I have 5 Nikkor lenses for SLR.

Yes, that really puts into perspective what effect a complete change of lens mount has on the lens sales ;-) [scr]

Just me being sarcastic, the EF-line has been successful, indeed.

brightcolours said:

Put that next to Canon's lens production that reaches over 40 million from only the Canon EOS EF mount.... that really puts into perspective just how successful the Canon EOS line has been.

Click to expand...

That probably makes the Nikkor line about as successful as the EF line-up.

A little bit of digging around reveals that:

• in 1975 "over 5 million" Nikkors had been produced
• the 30 million mark was hit in 2001
• the 40 million mark was in July 2007
• the 45 million was reached in august 2009

And september 2009 gives us the 50th million.

This clearly shows the enormous ramp-up of sales in the last decade. The first 5 million took 16 years, whereas 5 million nowadays takes about a year or so.

I don't know what number was reached in 1987 when the EF mount was introduced, but based on the numbers above I'd estimate it around 15 million. Which would mean 35 million Nikkors were produced in the lifetime of the EF mount. Not bad taking into account people weren't forced to upgrade all their lenses to get access to an AF camera in the late 80's/early 90's.

JanR

jrosseel said:

brightcolours said:

Put that next to Canon's lens production that reaches over 40 million from only the Canon EOS EF mount.... that really puts into perspective just how successful the Canon EOS line has been.

Click to expand...

That probably makes the Nikkor line about as successful as the EF line-up.

A little bit of digging around reveals that:

• in 1975 "over 5 million" Nikkors had been produced
• the 30 million mark was hit in 2001
• the 40 million mark was in July 2007
• the 45 million was reached in august 2009

Click to expand...

(aug 2008 you mean?)

jrosseel219268 said:

And september 2009 gives us the 50th million.

This clearly shows the enormous ramp-up of sales in the last decade. The first 5 million took 16 years, whereas 5 million nowadays takes about a year or so.

Click to expand...

it's simply incredible how fast canon and nikon are pumping out lenses these days..

canon was
20M at Feb 2001
30M at Jan 2006
40M at Aug 2008

incredible achievements by both companies who simply dominate the DSLR arena.

--Yep that's a big stepping stone.Yet so many on this forum are posting that there is no lens that Nikon makes that they need or wonted. 50 Million lenses they can't found one they can use. I had own about 2-3 dozen's of Nikon lenses never had a problem with any even when some been made in 1983 ( Nikon AF200mm f3.5 ED-IF ).

Last mint like new AF-D 70-180mm Micro went on eBay for $2200 and that was not only one I had seen few getting over $2000 so I'm not one complaining to get a impossible new lens from Nikon just asking to bring this one back.
Mironv
http://mironv.smugmug.com/

jrosseel said:

A little bit of digging around reveals that:

• in 1975 "over 5 million" Nikkors had been produced
• the 30 million mark was hit in 2001
• the 40 million mark was in July 2007
• the 45 million was reached in august 2009

And september 2009 gives us the 50th million.

Click to expand...

And looking at the numbers on the Nikon Serial number web page, it looks as though Nikon has sold about 10 million consumer-grade DX zooms. Since the first consumer DX zoom was introduced in early 2004, that says that the majority of their lenses- I'd guess as many as 2/3- sold since then have been cheap DX zooms. But some people around here continue to whine about Nikon wasting its effort on those lenses instead of making exotic primes that will be lucky to sell 10,000 copies over their whole lifespan.
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As with all creative work, the craft must be adequate for the demands of expression. I am disturbed when I find craft relegated to inferior consideration; I believe that the euphoric involvement with subject or self is not sufficient to justify the making and display of photographic images. --Ansel Adams

Look, - if just 1 per 100 chinese citizens purchase Nikon camera with only 2 lenses there will be demand for extra 20 milion lenses in very near future.

Building new factory in china was not mistake. It does not look like too much recession for Nikon.

The AF-D 70-180mm Micro is only so so. Read the reviews. Nikon need to develop a new MVR (Macro Vibration Mode) for their next generation of macro lenses.