In April, 1946, when the production items and their specifications were decided, the "Camera and Projector Committee" was reorganized and the "Camera Committee" was newly established. It consisted of members from the Research Department, Designing Department and Production Engineering Department. This committee was to proceed with production planning.
The Research Department and Designing Department, in their mutual collaboration, proceeded the design and test of two models of camera bodies. On July 25, the anniversary of the company founding, mock-ups of a TLR camera and small-size camera were exhibited.
In the designing and prototyping stage, the TLR went ahead, but a problem with its lens shutter was left unsettled.
The Pronter type shutter on the market didn't meet with our standards of durability and accuracy. Therefore the company decided to produce a high-class Compur type shutter inside the company. Unfortunately, it turned out that the press tools were extremely expensive.
Subsequently, it was decided that development of the TLR should be suspended, and concentration should be placed on the 35mm(135 format) camera.

Incidentally, the production of the TLR camera was abandoned, due to the success of the 35mm camera.

The first production order of small-sized cameras was issued in June 1946, two months after the specifications had been finalized. In July, the "Camera Work-shop Construction Committee" proposed the equipment and facility planning that was necessary for the Camera Workshop.
Further, at the meeting of the board of directors in August, an extremely short-term development schedule was agreed upon by mutual consent The prototyping would be finished in December, and the new product would be completed at the end of February, 1947.
Around 1946, there was a large demand for Japanese-made cameras. The demand was estimated to reach 170,000 pieces, mainly consisting of orders from CPO and planned reserves for collateral export in return for imported goods whici included food goods.
On the other hand, the production capacity for camera manufacturering was not yet sufficient. Production capability could only meet one third of the demand.
In response to this situation, Nippon Kogaku decided to complete the product as early as possible.

In the process of prototyping, improvements were addressed with regard to the problems of function in each section. For example, light leaks and the guarantee of the stability of slow shutter operation. The drawings were amended each time, but in order to hasten the completion, the mass production of parts were started before the problems were completely settled. The confusion was addressed in the work-shop, and the first two pieces of prototype were only completed in November, 1947.
The specifications of the camera (it was called the Nikon Camera later) were as follows :

In the process of the evelving development of the camera, some original inventions were incorporated into the camera design.
One of them, for example, was the shutter mechanism.
In order to improve the accuracy and durability, while controlling the rotational friction of the focal-plane shutter to a minimum, a radial bearing was used the first time.
While cameras of other makers located the slow shutter dial at the front of the camera, the Nikon Camera made it coaxial, arranging the slow shutter dial and fast shutter dial concentric, therefore, enabling it to operate at the top of the camera.

In the "Photographic Community in Japan," there were a lot of expectations for the release of our new camera.
Therefore, in October1947, just before the completion of the first prototype, we announced the Nikon Camera (later it was called the Nikon I, to distinguish it from the later models) and started advertising. The domestic retail price for the camera with the NIKKOR 5cm f/2 was fixed at 57,690- Japanese Yen, and released in March, 1948.
The sales Department immediately started negotiating with Trade Corporation and closed a deal of 200 sets of NIKKOR 5cm f/3.5. Of the 200 sets, 50 sets were exported to Hong Kong in October. This was the first export of the "Nikon" camera.
In the next year, 1949, the production quantity of the Nikon Camera (Nikon I) was increasing gradually, and in March, the second purchase by Trade Corporation was made. 110 sets were exported to the U.S.A., Europe, Hong Kong and Singapore.
The reason why the export proceeded in this way was because the Ministry of Commerce and Industry took the measure of promoting foreign export. They assigned all of the production to export, and did not permit domestic sales. The only exception was for a special-purpose demand in October 1948, in response to the strong request of GHQ (General Headquarters) to allot the production of cameras mainly to export.

There was one big dilemna with the camera. The picture size of the "Nikon" format (24 x 32 mm) did not correspond to the automatic color slide cutting machines that were used in the U.S.A.
Those machines operated with the Leica format (24 x 36 mm), and if film from the "Nikon" format was used, the pictures would be incorrectly cut.
Because of this problem, GHQ did not permit export of the Nikon I, and CPO hesitated to place the order.
To solve the dilemna, the camera's frame size had to be changed immediately to a 24 x 36 mm size.
Even if castings of the body already worked for the "Nikon," format had to be remodeled. It was impossible to broaden the width to the standard 36 mm.
It was impossible to change the body and to bear the heavy cost of changing the parts. It was a difficult situation for the company, as delay in delivery was not permitted.
Therefore, the maximum modification was made to change the feed of the film to 8 perforations per frame, the same as that of the "Leica" format. The overall construction was not changed, which had a size of 24 x 34 mm.
The prototype of that was completed in July 1949, and it was decided that this model would be put on the market as the Nikon M. Moreover, the Nikon I was discontinued in the same month at the aggregated sum of 738, and all the I inventory was reconfigured to the Nikon M. Beginning in August, the production was switched over to the Nikon M.
The Nikon M was released in October 1949. It was still irregular in picture size but changed to 36 frames, therefore removing the impediment for export.
In January 1949, its monthly production exceeded 100 pieces, and July, it exceeded 200 pieces. These quantities fulfilled domestic demand.

In the spring of 1950, in the U.S.A., one of the export destinations, it was pointed out as a drawback that the Nikon M lacked the flash synchronization mechanism.
Therefore, the Nikon M body was modified to incorporate two synchronization contacts. S (slow) and F (fast), on its left shoulder of the body. Subsequently the production was completely switched over in November.
This camera was called the Nikon S and was released in December.
At the same time, the "Flash gun model BCB" was released.
Incidentally, in March 1950, when Nippon Kogaku was in a difficult business condition, the prototype order was issued to modify the Nikon M to the "Leica" mount (M39 screw mount) . It was management's judgment that the difficult-to-work bayonet mount should be switched to an M39 mount. They anticipated it would have "the effect of production reinforcement and a reduction in production costs," by unifying the two systems of lenses for the Nikon S and M39 mount into one.

In November, the prototype was finished, examined and discussed.
At that time, there was a strong opinion among engineers in charge that the mount, once on the market, should not be changed without more study. Considering that the "Nikon" name became well known in various fields, and the business situation was getting better, the proposal to change the mount was denied. In 1951, the production system was switched to the monthly production system. As a result of the reduction of fabrication time and the improvement of the yield, the monthly production exceeded 500 pieces at the end of 1951, and topped 1,000 pieces in June 1953.

Regarding the photographic lens, in December 1945, the production of a standard lens 50 mm f/3.5 (product name was NIKKOR-Q.C 5cm f/3.5) (Leica screw (M39) mount) for 35mm(135 format) camera was recommended.
In 1946, in addition to the standard lens (focal length 50 mm), the 50 mm f/3.5, f/2 and f/1.5 were planned for manufacture, and in 1947, the production of the 50mm f/2 (product name was NIKKOR-H.C 5 cm f/2) was started. However, the glass stock was exhausted and the company was compelled to redesign the optics using another type of glass.

The plan was to produce the necessary optical glass at Nikon's Ohi Plant (Shinagawa-Ku, Tokyo). Production gradually increased and the required glass soon becamer available.
In particular, with the success of melting barium flint glass (a kind of high refractive index, low dispersion glass) BaF10, the performance of the NIKKOR-H.C 5cm f/2 began to stablilize and in January 1950, the f/1.5 was released.

Additionally, a wide-angle 35mm f/3.5 (W-NIKKOR 3.5cm f/3.5), a telephoto 85 mm f/2 (NIKKOR-P.C 8.5cm f/2), and a 135mm f/4 (NIKKOR-Q.C 13.5cm f/4) were manufactured and released as interchangeable lenses for the Nikon S mount and Leica screw mount by 1949.
The 50mm f/1.4 (NIKKOR-S.C 5cm f/1.4) was released in July 1950, and the 135mm f/3.5 (NIKKOR-Q.C 13.5cm f/3.5) was released in December. The production of these lenses marked the beginning for making fast aperture lenses.

To achieve the objective of producing high-quality products,an inspection method was expedited.
Regarding inspecting the performance of photographic lenses, we made inspections of the optical axis with only a simple piece of equipment, called optical axis inspection equipment. The "Hartman optical bench" which was used during war time was not operational.
Using the optical axis inspection, only spherical aberrations could be found to some extent, but aberrations including astigmatism, coma and distortion could not be measured.
In 1947, the "projection inspection method" was originated as the method for inspecting these aberrations.
According to this method, the photographic lens to be inspected was attached to the slide projector in place of the projection lens. The resolving power of the lens was judged by projecting the image of a "test chart" on the ground glass through the lens being tested. This technique produced good results. In 1947, when the production of the NIKKOR-H.C 5cm f/2 lens was started, picture-taking inspection was added for all lens type to be tested, in addition to the projection inspection.
In the inspection room, "Three-dimensional chart" for picture-taking inspection and "Infinity-collection chart" with a collimator were installed.
In August 1948, when the output of the 5 cm f/2 lens increased, the "Hartman optical bench" was repaired and could be used.
The comparison of the measured value and the design value was made very easily and the correction of the design was done efficiently.
At approximately the same time, the projection inspection instrument was also improved so that remote control focusing could be made from the position of the observer.
The "Hartman optical bench" which took one or two days for measuring spherical aberrations and astigmatism were replaced with the imported "Vaisala equipment," which finished the measurement in about an hour.
Beside this, the "focal plane inspection equipment," which brings the position of focus of each lens to the precisely same position was developed, and the inspection items for photographic lenses were well regulated.

Major General, U.S. Army

The effort to pursue and accumulate the technology over long years while following our tradition of quality-first bore fruits and our technology received a favorable reputation internationally.
On January 6, 1951, Major General W. F. MARQUAT, the Chief of Economic and Scientific Section of GHQ sent a letter to President NAGAOKA, Masao and encouraged our company.

"......It is gratifying to note that your company has been accorded world recognition in a most difficult field which demands extensive scientific knowledge and exceptional mechanical skill.

......The employees of Nippon Kogaku may take pride in making a substantial contribution toward the rebuilding of the economy of their country."

Subsequently, in April 1954, at the 4th "Photokina" held in Cologne, West Germany (B.D.R.), Ernst Leitz exhibited the Leica M3 and created a sensation.
In this camera, many new mechanisms were adopted. What attracted public attention was the adoption of the rangefinder mechanism, which switched over the frame in linkage with the lens interchange (variable finder). Our technical staff stimulated by that, completed the Nikon S2 with some modification to the original specifications.

Even U.S. photographic magazines, which had not been eager to introduce Japanese cameras in the past, showed great interest in the Nikon S2.
Leading magazines. including the big three, "Popular Photography," "U.S. Camera" and "Modern Photography," carried articles introducing the Nikon S2, all at the same time.
In February 1955, the Nikon S2 was formally announced to general consumers in the U.S. Market and was met with favorable reaction. Willoughby, the biggest camera shop in the U.S.A., started to sell Nikon for the first time. Additionally, Pearless, a camera shop in New York inserted a full-page newspaper advertisement introducing Nikon.
Although the Nikon had not attracted much attention at the "New York Photo Show" (one of the big three photo shows), held in January 1954, it made a complete change and attracted the attention of the attendants in the "Japan Photo Show" in San Francisco (in May), and in the "Japan Camera Show" (in December) the following year, owing to the appearance of the Nikon S2.
Furthermore, an American consumers magazine "Consumers Research Bulletin" recommended the Nikon S2 in its article entitled "High-priced 35mm cameras" in its June 1955 issue saying:

as far as the 35mm camera is concerned, the Nikon S2 is the world's finest camera in consideration of the price.

Due to many improvements on the body mechanism, the Nikon S2 became an easy-to-operate camera.
The lens series and accessories for various purposes were expanded. The Nikon S2 use was greatly expanded.

As for the lenses, a large aperture normal lens NIKKOR-N 5cm f/1.1, the wide-angle, W-NIKKOR 2.5cm f/4 with a wider angle of view, and the W-NIKKOR 3.5cm f/1.8, the brightest among wide-angle lenses, were released. With regard to telephoto, the NIKKOR-H 18cm f/2.5 and the NIKKOR-T 50cm f/5 using reflex box, were released.

Regarding accessories, in addition to Close-up Equipment, Copy Outfit, and the Oscilloscope Unit for photographing CRT oscillograph, improved versions of underwater housing Nikon Marine, microscope attachment Nikon MICROFLEX and stereo photo equipment Stereo-Nikkor kit were released. They extended the region of photography and expanded the use in the field of science and research.

Further, in 1957, the Motor Drive for the Nikon S2 which made film winding and shutter charging automatic and had a wide range of use for news and science photography was added (it was a drive unit incorporating a micro motor and was called the Motor Winder at that time).
The news photographers needed rapid shooting, and around 1953, in the course of designing the Nikon S2, a grip type rapid winder which wound the film quickly was made in prototype form. However, it was not put into production as the Nikon S2 adopted the lever on the body top for film winding.
In 1955, our company had the idea of utilizing a micro motor which was developed by a specialist maker of micro motors, who hit upon the idea of using it for automatic winding.
This development was made by the Prototype Section of the Designing Department in the beginning. It was decided that it should be developed as a motor drive using the coupling mechanism (in this case, the section to convey the winding power to winding shaft of the camera body) developed in the course of the prototype of the rapid winder. In October 1956, the prototyping started.
The prototype was completed after several improvements were made to the micro motor, and the shooting tests were repeated. In March 1957, at the "IPEX" (International Photo Equipment Exposition) held in Washington, D.C., an accessory Motor Drive that could perform a continuous shooting at the rate of 2 frames per second (7.5V DC) or 3 frames per second (9V DC) attracted the attention of the attendants.
As the power source, the use of the R6 (American "AA") size dry batteries (six pieces) was planned. However, the field test by U.S. professional photographers proved that it was not good for practical use as the battery consumption was too quick. Therefore it was changed to the R14 (American "C") size batteries.

Our company had already started the improvement of handling characteristics of the finder when Nikon S2 was completed.
As the finder of each camera from the Nikon I to the Nikon S2 was exclusively for the normal lens, very time the lens was changed, a separate finder had to be fixed on the accessory shoe of the camera top. Also, each time the distance to the subject was changed, the finder's parallax correction had to be calibrated. Handling was complicated.
It became an objective to develop a finder that exceeded the performance of a variable finder used on the Leica M3. This was important, since the finder determined the framing of a photograph, and gave the first impression about the performance of the camera.
This new rangefinder camera was positioned as the flagship model of the S series, and the planning of specifications for the new product had been started.
In September 1954, the design specifications were fixed and, and the section prototype was started in the beginning of the following year, 1955. Up to 10 kinds of prototypes were made for the finder.

This new camera incorporated a number of new mechanisms:

• 1.The universal finder was incorporated to cope with six interchangeable lenses (2.8, 3.5, 5, 8.5, 10.5, 13.5 cm lenses).
  The full-size 1.0x finder, with an automatic parallax correction mechanism for normal and telephoto lenses, and another special finder for wide-angle lenses, were arranged side by side.
• 2.The clap and shock of the shutter were made minimal adopting the rear-curtain accelerating device. This was developed for improving the accuracy of the shutter and a silent brake, using the shaft cramping power of a coil was added, to absorb the shock of the shutter.
  Incidentally, for the shutter curtain produced after May 1959, titanium (Ti) was used for the first time in the world (later to also be used in the Nikon F) instead of the rubberized cloth ("habutae" silk).
• 3.For higher precision and faster flash synchronization, the shutter curtain's traveling speed was increased by 20 % more than that of the S2, and the shutter synchronized at 1/60 sec. with the electronic flash (the Nikon S2 at 1/50 sec.)
• 4.The shutter speed dial settings were equally divided, using a halving (or doubling) progression type, and the dial was a single-pivot, non-rotating type that didn't rotate when the shutter was released. Additionally, it could be coupled with the specially made exposure meter (the Nikon Meter : option).
• 5.Shutter speed settings were colored in green, red and white in accordance with a high, mid and low speed of synchronization (for green, a special fluorescent paint was used for easy identification under dim lighting).

Other features included a dedicated flash synch contact located at the front end of the accessory shoe, the Motor Drive (3 frames per sec.(fps.) possible), and the Finder Illuminator which illuminated the frame of the finder in a dark condition (R6 ("AA") battery built-in), as separate accessories were all directly coupled, eliminating the need of an accessory connecting cord.
This signaled the idea to develop a system camera.
A self-timer was also built-into this camera for the first time in our company.

Our company took part in the "Brussels EXPO '58" held from April to October of 1958 in which 40 countries participated. The Nikon SP, as well as Nikkor lenses and optical glass won the Grand Prix^*.

• *Beside the Grand Prix, the following products won prizes.
• Gold prize: CINE Nikkor lenses (for cine camera)
• Silver prize: Nikkor lenses for TV camera
• Bronze prize: Nikon Microscopes

The demand for cameras in the Japanese domestic market increased tremendously owing to the business boom of 1955~1956.
At the height of the depression, after the second half of 1957, many manufacturers sold their products at extraordinarily low prices in order to clear their unsold inventory. However, it was a passing phenomenon and full-scale growth began with the big boom in the second half of 1958.
In the market place, dissemination to the general public was promoted. Each manufacturer produced large quantities of popularly-priced lens-shutter cameras for begining amateurs, thus trying to increase the market share.
Our company released the Nikon S3 in March, 1958 which had been developed in advance of the Nikon SP as a successor to the Nikon S2. This was done to expand the lower end of the high-class camera market, which was beneath the higher-class of the Nikon SP, and in order to increase market share.
The Nikon S3 was almost the same as the Nikon SP, except that the full-size viewfinder was made to cope with three lenses of 3.5, 5, 10.5 cm only, and despite having more advanced functions than "the S2", the domestic retail price was fixed at 86,000- Japanese Yen (with NIKKOR-S.C 5cm f/1.4 and leather case), the same as that of the Nikon S2.
With the release of the Nikon S3, the Nikon S2 completed its mission and was discontinued in June 1958. The aggregate sum of production was a little more than 56,700.

After the release of the Nikon S3, the demand for cameras diversified, due to the rapid increase in the sale of low-priced cameras, and with the appearance of early SLR cameras our high-class rangefinder models were showing signs of slower sales. We took the countermeasure of releasing the Nikon S4 which was the simplified version of the NikonS3, at the domestic retail price of 52,000- Japanese Yen (with the NIKKOR-H.C 5cm f/2 lens and leather case).
It was a low-priced edition which had the finder coping with two lenses of focal length 5 cm and 10.5 cm, and the self-timer and motor drive attaching mechanisms were eliminated.
In the same month, the price for cameras and lenses were revised. The price of the "SP" (with NIKKOR-S.C 5cm f/1.4 and Leather case) was lowered to 85,000- Japanese Yen, that of the Nikon S3 (with the NIKKOR-S.C 5cm f/1.4 and Leather case) to 74,000- Japanese Yen, the reduction rate was about 13 %.

In April, 1960, we released the Nikon S3M which had the picture size of half the 35 mm format of the Nikon S3 (cine size: in the case of the Nikon S3M, 18 mm horizontal and 24 mm vertical) in order to make the speed of the Motor Drive faster.
The Nikon S3M was a half-frame camera to which the Motor Drive could be attached. It could take 4.5 frames per sec. (fps) (7.5V DC) or 6 frames per sec. (9V DC, 9 fps when specially tuned) with the Motor Drive, and could take 72 frames, double that of the normal 35mm full-format (24 x 36 mm) camera.
Suitable for motion analysis photography, including sports photography, this state-of-the-art camera was admired and adopted by news photographers.

In 1959, Nippon Kogaku sold Nikkor lenses to Shinkodo (Bronica Corportation, current Tamron Corporation) which made for Zenza Bronica medium format SLR cameras.

In February, 1957, EL-Nikkor 50mm f/2.8 was released as a practical enlargement lens.

The trend of large aperture for Cine-Nikkor 25mm lens, which is a standard lens for 16mm film movie cameras, started after the release of Cine-Nikkor 25mm f/1.4 in September, 1955, and the release of Cine-Nikkor 25mm f/1.2 in March, 1957.

Other lens, such as Fisheye-Nikkor 16.3mm f/8 was developed in March 1957, after an improvement of 16mm f/8 Fisheye lens (1938).
By the way, developing the 16mm f/8 Fisheye lens, which was used by the former Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) meteorological observation troops. Development of this lense was a tough job because the thickness of the center of the first and second lens, which is the concave Meniscus lens (a concave lens where one side is convex and the other is concave), had to be made very thin.
The Fisheye-Nikkor 16.3mm f/8 used in 120 format camera body of "Indirect X-Ray Photography Device" for "Weather Photography System (Weather Recording System)" can take a monocrome picture of the entire space above the horizon in one frame.
It was used by the Meteorological Agency, The National Defense Academy, and Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK), for meteorological observations.
The medium format camera of "Weather Photography System (Weather Recording System)" was later sold as "Fisheye Camera ("Camera with Fisheye-Nikkor lens")" in September 1960, for 200,000 Japanese yen.