Nikkor is the brand of lenses produced by Nikon Corporation, including camera lenses for the Nikon F-mount and more recently, for the Nikon Z line of mirrorless cameras. The Nikkor brand was introduced in 1932, a Westernised rendering of an earlier version Nikkō (日光), an abbreviation of the company's original full name Nippon Kōgaku ("Japan Optics"; 日本光学工業株式会社).[1] (Nikkō also means "sunlight" and is the name of a Japanese town.) In 1933, Nikon marketed its first camera lens under the Nikkor brand name, the "Aero-NIKKOR," for aerial photography.[1]
Nikon originally reserved the Nikkor designation for its highest-quality imaging optics, but in recent history almost all Nikon lenses are so branded.
Notable Nikkor branded optics have included:
- F-mount lenses for 35mm SLR and DSLR photography (for a full list see Nikon F-mount).
- Z-mount lenses for Nikon mirrorless cameras.
- 1-mount lenses for Nikon 1 series cameras.
- Lenses for Zenza Bronica and Plaubel Makina medium format cameras.
- Lenses for Nikon S-mount and Leica rangefinder cameras, as well as very early Canon cameras.
- Amphibious lenses for Nikonos underwater cameras.
- Macro lenses under the Micro-Nikkor designation.
- Lenses for large format photography.
- EL-Nikkor photographic enlarger lenses.
- Microscope objectives.
- Industrial lenses, including lenses in support of the Japanese war effort during World War II.
Lenses for Nikon systems
Nikon Z-mount
Nikon introduced the Z-mount in 2018 for their system of digital full-frame and APS-C (DX) mirrorless cameras. All of Nikon's Z-mount lenses are Nikkors.
Nikon F-mount
Nikkors constitute the majority of lenses available for the Nikon F-mount, which is itself the largest system of interchangeable flange-mount photographic lenses in history. These lenses are designed for the 135 (35mm) and Nikon DX formats. Over 400 different F-mount Nikkor models are known to exist.[2]
Nikon 1-mount
Nikon introduced the compact mirrorless Nikon 1 camera system using 2.7x-crop sensors in 2011. The Nikon 1 system was effectively discontinued in 2018 with the introduction of the full-frame Nikon Z system.
Nikonos
Lenses for other camera systems
Note: In the case of the Nikkor wides, "W" just means "wide". Prior to approximately 1976, most Nikon lenses had a suffix appended directly after the "Nikkor" name that was used to denote the number of optical elements in the lens design. For example, a lens with eight elements would be marked "Nikkor-O", and a lens with eleven elements "Nikkor-UD".
Zenza Bronica SLR
- Nikkor-D 40mmF4
- Nikkor-H 50mmF3.5
- Nikkor-O 50mmF2.8
- Nikkor-P 75mmF2.8 (two versions)
- Nikkor-HC 75mmF2.8
- Nikkor-Q 105mmF3.5 LS
- Nikkor-Q 135mmF3.5
- Nikkor-P 200mmF4 (two versions)
- Nikkor-PC 300mmF5.6
- Nikkor-Q 400mmF4.5
- Nikkor-P 600mmF5.6
- Nikkor-P 800mmF8
Lenses for large format photography
Nikkor-SW
Four-group wide-angle lens series, consisting of six, seven, or eight elements:
- Nikkor-SW 65mmF4
- Nikkor-SW 75mmF4.5
- Nikkor-SW 90mmF4.5
- Nikkor-SW 90mmF8
- Nikkor-SW 120mmF8
- Nikkor-SW 150mmF8
Nikkor-W
Six-element, four-group series:
- Nikkor-W 100mmF5.6
- Nikkor-W 105mmF5.6
- Nikkor-W 135mmF5.6
Photographic enlarging lenses
EL-Nikkor
The EL-Nikkor series of lenses are designed for photographic enlargers. Most feature 39mm Leica thread mounts, although some feature a 50mm screw mount. Most are 6-element, 4-group designs. Some slower, lower-cost designs (marked †) are 4-element, 3-group designs. Newer versions of these lenses are marked with an "N" (focal lengths to 105mm) or "A" (focal lengths from 135mm). (Per Nikon, Inc. Technical and Service Support (800-645-6689), manufacture and sale of all enlarging lenses has been discontinued.)
- EL-Nikkor 40mmF4
- EL-Nikkor 5cmF2.8/50mmF2.8 (Release of drawing Year : 1956) - M39 Screw Mount.
- EL-Nikkor 5cmF3.5C - "El-NIKKOR-C"
- EL-Nikkor 5cmF3.5 (Release of drawing Year : 1945)
- EL-Nikkor 50mmF4† (Release of drawing Year : 1967) - M39 Screw Mount.
- Helmes 5.5cmF3.5 (Release of drawing Year : 1936) - Tessar Type
- EL-Nikkor 63mmF2.8
- EL-Nikkor 6.3 cm/63mmF3.5(Sale Year : 1966) - M39 Screw Mount.
Industrial special-purpose lenses
Fax-Nikkor
Designed for 1:1 reproduction with a usable magnification range from 0.3x to 3x. Transmission from 350 to 700 nm, no focus shift between visible and actinic light used for photoresists. Completely symmetric lenses with no distortion.
- Fax-Nikkor 160mmF5.6 - φ62mmP=0.75 Screw Mount. (Lens Construction 6 elements in 4 groups)
- Fax-Nikkor 210mmF5.6 - φ72mmP=1.0 Screw Mount. (Lens Construction 6 elements in 4 groups)
- Fax-Nikkor 210mmF7
- Fax-Nikkor 260mmF10 - (Lens Construction 4 elements in 4 groups / Topogon Type Lens)
- Fax-Nikkor 300mmF7 - φ95mmP=1.0 Screw Mount.
Fax-Ortho-Nikkor
Designed for 10:1 reproduction. Field size varies from 200x200 mm to 400x400 mm with correspondingly larger image sizes and very long back-focal distances (several meters). Completely symmetric lenses with no distortion.
See also
External links
References
- The 75th Anniversary of NIKKOR Lenses ^
- Nikon Lenses Roland's Nikon pages, 2023-06-05, retrieved 2023-06-10^