Nikon RF prototypes

richardHaw said:
was thinking of using a macro lens but the Noct-Nikkor performed admirably in this setting
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so did your iphone 7 ;)

Would be a bonus if the photos enlarged when clicked, to make it easier to see the details and read the accompanying text, but overall a nice writeup, Ric. Thanks for posting. I'll have to drop by the Nikon museum sometime soon and take a look in person :)

With Nikon’s rangefinder cameras selling very well due their reputation of reliability and toughness, Nikon had not a lot of incentives to shift gear into another camera format but somebody in the company saw it wise to test the waters in the SLR side of things and this decision led to the mating of the tried and tested Nikon SP chassis with a newly-designed mirrorbox. This combination gave us the venerable Nikon F camera.
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Just a comment on this... for the longest time it was thought that the Nikon F was designed sometime after the SP based on the Nikon SP chassis, but documents discovered in recent years show that the Nikon SP and Nikon F were actually on the drawing board at the same time, and the designers were told by the company accountants to design the respective cameras to share as many parts as possible to keep costs down. Some of Fuketa-san's hand written design notes were on display at the Nikon West Buliding in Nishi-Ohi when I dropped by about a month ago. Really interesting stuff.
With more than 1,000,000 units made, this camera can claim to be one of the best-selling cameras in history.
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Minor detail but Nikon states that the total sales volume of the Nikon F was actually around 862,600 units (number quoted from this webpage).
 
Peter Jennings said:
Thanks, Richard. Looking at the later rangefinder prototypes, one can only "what if".
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Peter,
It's never too late.
It would only require that Nikon take that all important first step and pull their corporate head out of its ass, where sadly it has been stuck for far too long.
 
rbsinto said:
Peter,
It's never too late.
It would only require that Nikon take that all important first step and pull their corporate head out of its ass, where sadly it has been stuck for far too long.
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A "reissue" of a prototype rangefinder film camera? Who do you think would buy such a camera if Nikon did release it, Robert?

Nikon released the Nikon SP Limited Edition in January 2005 (only 2,500 sets in total) and many unsold sets were still sitting on camera store shelves 5-6 years later. In 2010, Fujiya Camera (a major Tokyo camera store) collected up a lot of the unsold sets and began flogging them off at less than half the original retail price just to get rid of them. I counted the sets in stock and noted serial numbers each time I visited. There were always at least 8 sets under the counter. Fujiya must have sold hundreds of sets at this hugely discounted price. Even at the hugely discounted price it took Fujiya Camera almost two years to offload all their sets.

The sad fact is that Nikon lost money on every reissue rangefinder they made, and the shops who bought them lost money trying to sell them. I don't see how Nikon trying to sell a "reissue" prototype rangefinder film camera would yield a different result from that.
 
jonmanjiro said:
....Just a comment on this... for the longest time it was thought that the Nikon F was designed sometime after the SP based on the Nikon SP chassis, but documents discovered in recent years show that the Nikon SP and Nikon F were actually on the drawing board at the same time, and the designers were told by the company accountants to design the respective cameras to share as many parts as possible to keep costs down. Some of Fuketa-san's hand written design notes were on display at the Nikon West Buliding in Nishi-Ohi when I dropped by about a month ago. Really interesting stuff.....
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OK, so it had to happen. This is the first time I've ever heard of accountants providing this sort of guidance and things working out VERY WELL.

I wish Nikon would scan those notes as part of the 100th. It would be so cool to see them.

Thanks for that info Jon!

B2 :)->
 
From my understanding, the F and SP were co-developed partially because Nippon Kogaku were not fully confident that the F would be a success and wanted their bases covered in case it failed. Once it's success was proven, future development of Nikon rangefinders was abandoned. It didn't make financial sense to keep them in production back then, and it makes even less sense for Nikon to revive them now.
 
jonmanjiro said:
A "reissue" of a prototype rangefinder film camera? Who do you think would buy such a camera if Nikon did release it, Robert?

Nikon released the Nikon SP Limited Edition in January 2005 (only 2,500 sets in total) and many unsold sets were still sitting on camera store shelves 5-6 years later. In 2010, Fujiya Camera (a major Tokyo camera store) collected up a lot of the unsold sets and began flogging them off at less than half the original retail price just to get rid of them. I counted the sets in stock and noted serial numbers each time I visited. There were always at least 8 sets under the counter. Fujiya must have sold hundreds of sets at this hugely discounted price. Even at the hugely discounted price it took Fujiya Camera almost two years to offload all their sets.

The sad fact is that Nikon lost money on every reissue rangefinder they made, and the shops who bought them lost money trying to sell them. I don't see how Nikon trying to sell a "reissue" prototype rangefinder film camera would yield a different result from that.
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Jon,
As to the SPX, I'd buy one.
However, I didn't stipulate that it had to be a film camera, although that would be nice. However something akin to the Fuji X-Pro 2, that is to say a serious, well thought out Digital body either utilizing the F-mount or alternately some other mount with a comprehensive system of lenses.
While I'm no fan of Digital, I have more than once played with the Fuji camera and wished that it had been released by Nikon.
Robert
 
going to update it later this week after mr Goto takes us around the exhibit, I can finally ask more insights into the other camera's development. I am interested in the older RF prototypes unfortunately the people who were involved in those are most probably "retired" by now :eek: :eek: :eek:
 
richardHaw said:
going to update it later this week after mr Goto takes us around the exhibit
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Interesting! Will you meet Goto-san in person? Or do you mean this? >

「ニコンF開発試作機（1957年）」と「ニコンF3開発試作機（1975年）」については、映像事業部の後藤研究室長で、フェローでもある後藤哲朗が解析した説明パネルを設置する予定です

http://www.nikon.co.jp/corporate/museum/events/

Just noticed that the Nikon Kenkyukai has a great page on the current exhibit too. Its in Japanese but there's lots of photos.

http://redbook-jp.com/kenkyukai/2017/201704.html
 
rbsinto said:
However, I didn't stipulate that it had to be a film camera, although that would be nice. However something akin to the Fuji X-Pro 2, that is to say a serious, well thought out Digital body either utilizing the F-mount or alternately some other mount with a comprehensive system of lenses.
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What thousands of faithful Nikonians were expecting some years ago was a small and refined full metal DSLR, with very simple ergonomics, few buttons, streamlines design, sporting the large and truly HP Nikon F6 viewfinder to accomodate genuine Nikon interchangeable screens so that it could work perfect with both the AF and MF legacy Nikkor lenses.

Instead we got the Df, a huge and ugly plastic camera with tons of buttons and useless dials, the same crappy small tunnel-like viewfinder as any other DSLR of the darn "prosumer" marketing segment, and, cherry on the cake, non interchangeable focusing screens, making using legacy f/1.4 or f/1.8 lenses a nightmare for accurate focusing especially in portrait. The money invested in the teasing marketing campaign designed to make people believe that the camera was sincerely aimed at MF Nikkor owners while it was absolutely not was a total waste and the camera sold so badly that there is no successor on the working bench so far.

So, dreaming about what Nikon could make now has become more than useless. Sad, but obvious.
 
Highway 61 said:
So, dreaming about what Nikon could make now has become more than useless. Sad, but obvious.
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A big part of the problem is, however, no matter what they produce people will be dissatisfied with it because it wasn't some other camera instead. The sleek and small metal DSLR you speak of would be great but it would disappoint those lusting for a digital rangefinder. A bright and crisp optical VF would disappoint those who want a mirrorless camera with an EVF. An EVF camera would disappoint those who like proper optical viewfinders. If the new camera kept the F mount, it would disappoint those who dreamed of using their screw mount lenses on it. If it wasn't an F mount... Heck just look at the people who gripe because their 1988 AF lenses won't autofocus on their new D3500. Its a lose-lose no matter what they do.
 
jonmanjiro said:
Interesting! Will you meet Goto-san in person? Or do you mean this? >

「ニコンF開発試作機（1957年）」と「ニコンF3開発試作機（1975年）」については、映像事業部の後藤研究室長で、フェローでもある後藤哲朗が解析した説明パネルを設置する予定です

http://www.nikon.co.jp/corporate/museum/events/

Just noticed that the Nikon Kenkyukai has a great page on the current exhibit too. Its in Japanese but there's lots of photos.

http://redbook-jp.com/kenkyukai/2017/201704.html
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not sure if it's related. it is an event prepared by my bartender :eek::eek::eek:

i meet him from time to time through common friends. great guy. he is partly instrumental in the Nikon F3's development, the best manual SLR for me. always wanted one, only afforded it as I approach my midlife:bang:
 
the Df is not so bad, i hated it at first and I made a negative review about it when it first came out. when I owned one I made sure that I customise it by changing the focusing screen, the procedure is on my blog but I cannot link to it because of the TOS (understandably so). after plenty of customising in the menu, I finally have a camera that I really enjoyed. it is not perfect but it does the job especially for non-Ai lenses:eek::eek::eek:

I was hoping for a Df2 but it doesn't seem to be one at the works. maybe it's a secret since it's in development.
 
I personally suggested a digital "pikaichi" 35ti, I do not know if it's going to be made. I want it because of the Tessar :eek::eek::eek:

but please, give it a proper manual focus :bang: not fly-by-wire crap like what Fuji does. real men want real helicoids!:bang:
 
Highway 61 said:
What thousands of faithful Nikonians were expecting some years ago was a small and refined full metal DSLR, with very simple ergonomics, few buttons, streamlines design, sporting the large and truly HP Nikon F6 viewfinder to accomodatie genuine Nikon interchangeable screens so that it could work perfect with both the AF and MF legacy Nikkor lenses.
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They became confused and thought we said we wanted a Nikon EL, only uglier.
 
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