Nikon Rangefinder Prototypes

[eckmanmj]

In the 4th of my series of posts with Nikon historian Robert Rotoloni, we discuss Nikon rangefinder prototypes.

In the years after World War II, Nippon Kogaku was an established optics company for the Japanese military, but they had never made a consumer camera. Creating an all new product understandably takes a few tries, and many of those old prototypes still exist in Nikon's basement.

From the very first "Mother One" produced to some really wild prototypes created after the release of the Nikon SP, this article is chock full of "what ifs" that I'm sure you'll enjoy!

https://www.mikeeckman.com/2020/04/the-rotoloni-report-4-nikon-rangefinder-prototypes/

 

[James24]

That was really good, thanks Mike. I was totally absorbed for ages.

And I haven't got to parts 1, 2 or 3 yet!

 

[keytarjunkie]

Wow, what a treat it is to see high resolution images and some new information regarding all these prototypes. Thank you for doing this!

 

[BillBingham2]

I’ve got my weekend reading set!

Thank you VERY much!

B2 (;->

 

[Highway 61]

Interesting to see that the low-profile, all-metal and "streamline" winding lever of the SP2 and SPX prototypes, rather being a Canon design than a Nikon one, ended on the Nikkormat FT and FT-N cameras only (and never reappeared on any Nikon film camera body since).

 

[Range-rover]

That's funny some of those prototypes look a lot like a few Leica Digital cameras.

 

[leicapixie]

A real treat showing those prototypes.
The last one's years ahead of Leica's designs esp Digital.
My Nikons made me money.