If you consider yourself a Nikon fan through and through, the Nikon Museum tour should be high up on your bucket list.
Award-winning documentary photographer and author Steve Simon has recently visited the Nikon Museum in Tokyo, and as a long-time Nikon photographer, it proved to be an exceptional experience. For those of us who can’t visit anytime soon, he filmed a quick walk-through as a preview to all the wonders we can expect to find. Nikon fans will especially find this a treat!
As a professional photographer, Simon has both relied on Nikon cameras and worked on many advertising campaigns for Nikon Japan. “It’s a weird bond and strange badge of honor that I’ve never strayed. I love photography but I also marvel at the tool itself,” he wrote on his blog post of his latest museum visit. We stress “latest” because he makes it a point to drop by whenever he’s back in Tokyo.
“Located on the ground floor of the Nikon Corporate office in the Shinagawa district of Tokyo, the museum is kind of a “Nikon World” where along with the amazing collection of cameras and lenses, there are odes to other areas of Nikon’s history and business, from stepper machines used in the manufacture of computer chips to microscopes, complex measuring and inspection technology and sports optics,” he added.
The Nikon F, of course, will never go missing in the museum, as it was the camera that put Nikon on the world map, so to speak. For the unfamiliar, the iconic 35mm SLR, introduced in 1959, was such a game-changer, that, as Simon said, it had a lasting impact on photography and photographers who live on today. He added that the Nikon F was in production for almost 14 years with only minor changes. “It was conceived from its inception as the heart of a high-quality professional 35mm SLR system.” The Nikon Museum has a dedicated display for the entire Nikon F series, which goes to show the phenomenal success it enjoyed through the years.
Aside from iconic cameras, the Nikon Museum showcased the myriad of Nikon lenses; a nod to the company’s optics beginnings. A testament to this is the Nikon F mount, which is still in use to this day.
Don’t forget to check out Steve Simon’s website as well to stay updated on his photography projects and adventures.
All photos used with permission from Steve Simon