Interesting Nikon Picture 1950's

[VTHokiEE]

I saw this picture of a factory worker making Nikon RF lenses in theatlantic.com's InFocus section and I thought people here would appreciate it:

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2014/03/japan-in-the-1950s/100697/#img12

I'm not certain if it appropriate to show only the picture, so I left the link.

Enjoy!

 

[Greyscale]

Picture #23 is also interesting for those who appreciate vintage cameras.

 

[Rodchenko]

Interesting. Both of those, and the others in the series.

 

[jonmanjiro]

> A lens is inspected at Tokyo's Nikon camera plant, on January 5, 1952.(AP Photo/Bob Schutz)

Interesting photo! Though as someone who has walked through the original Nikon factory building many times I know for a fact that its freezing in early January. The factory workers sure don't look like they're dressed for January office temperatures, so I'm a bit dubious of the date 🙂

I remember seeing a photo of Fuketa-San (designer of the Nikon SP and F) sitting at his design board in winter in the same building, and its so cold he is wearing a coat and gloves.

 

[Laviolette]

Interesting series! Thanks for sharing.

 

[lawrence]

Great photo. I reminds me of when I went round the Canon factory thirty years ago (I seem to remember it was in Kanagawa) and saw the F1 and some lenses being assembled. Fascinating stuff.

 

[furcafe]

Posted it in another thread last night:

http://rangefinderforum.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2316149&postcount=10

I think they're clearly LTM lenses, though, based on the size, shape, & infinity lock.

I saw this picture of a factory worker making Nikon RF lenses in theatlantic.com's InFocus section and I thought people here would appreciate it:

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2014/03/japan-in-the-1950s/100697/#img12

I'm not certain if it appropriate to show only the picture, so I left the link.

Enjoy!

 

[Frank Petronio]

Funny how Photo 24 shows all the press photographers pretty much all using Rochester, New York-made 4x5 Crown Graphics. I've never heard of or seen a Japanese-made equivalent press camera, at least until Toyo made their version of the Super Graphic in the 1970s.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Thanks for posting these photos. They're the window to another time... and another culture!

 

[Rangefinderfreak]

Photo 23.. Not a single Leica, Nikon or Canon The 35mm "revolution" with DDD & others using Nikkor lenses was just ahead.

 

[Monochrom]

WOW

what a site....absolutely love the pictures!!!!

 

[KevinVH]

Really nice pictures! It's amazing that pictures that are more then half a century old still look this nice!

 

[rwintle]

And thanks from me too - a very interesting series of photos and I learned a lot from the captions too.

 

[Greyscale]

I have a rigid Serenar 50/1.8 from around 1952. Perhaps he is inspecting my lens? 😉

 

[Rangefinderfreak]

I have a rigid Serenar 50/1.8 from around 1952. Perhaps he is inspecting my lens? 😉

Canon serenars made in Nikon factory...??

 

[bsdunek]

Thanks for sharing this site - I found all the photos very interesting. As an old man (75) I remember some of these things.

 

[Mark C]

Photo 23.. Not a single Leica, Nikon or Canon The 35mm "revolution" with DDD & others using Nikkor lenses was just ahead.

Yes, just a few rebels with TLR's. Maybe you would have seen a 35mm or two at a different sort of event.

It seemed odd to me that they mentioned exactly how many "cameramen" were in the cluttered photo, and that the number seemed a bit low. I counted as best I could and there are more than that. Maybe movie cameras didn't count, but odd they bothered to manufacture an unnecessary fact.

Very interesting pictures. Thanks to the OP for posting the link.

 

[VinceC]

RE: Photo 23 -- The press gaggle photo was taken in 1954, well into the classic RF era. It's a good reminder that most newspapers and mainstream press cameramen (no women) were a conservative lot who used the classic news camera of the era ... the negative was huge and, uncropped, fit straight into a news page layout. With flashbulbs as fill light indoors and out, exposure was straightforward and didn't need a light meter.
Rangefinder cameras were more attuned to immersive documentary photojournalism, which was not the same as daily news photography.

 

[Greyscale]

Canon serenars made in Nikon factory...??

Oops. Well, I have a 85mm Nikkor LTM lens from the same era, but those look too small to be 85s. 😱

 

[Out to Lunch]

The bigger picture: "The Reckoning" by David Halberstam (1994) -about the gradual decline of U.S. car manufacturing and the corresponding rise of Japanese industry.