The 8 mm movie camera series of Nippon Kogaku K.K., started with "NIKKOREX-8" (released in December of 1960 (in March of 1961 in Japan), see Part 18.) was followed by new products one after another according to the change of the 8 mm movie camera of the world.
Especially big change broke out in 1965. It was the appearance of so-called "Type S" standard film.

The 8 mm movie film up to that time was called "Double 8" and it adopted a complicated system that used film of 16 mm wide, and after 25 feet of the first half width of the film was finished, the film was reversed and shooting was made with rewinding the film.

It was the means of simplifying this operation of "reversing the film" that the prototype prior to "NIKKOREX-8" introduced in the last part adopted a special film magazine.
Then, a new film standard appeared, which eliminated this inconvenience using the film of 8 mm wide from the beginning, and that the frame size (area) was enlarged by 50 percent with decreasing the size of perforation (the holes for advancing the film). This was the film called "Type S".

Such new standardization of 8 mm movie film had been proceeded by Fuji Photo Film of Japan and Eastman KODAK of U.S.A. separately. Both parties made mutual concessions in the way and the frame size and the perforation size were standardized as "Type S". However, the film cartridges were made separately as "Single 8" of Fuji and "Super 8" of KODAK, thus the cameras were separate, though the projector was common for both.

As it was quite obvious that this new "Type S" film was superior than conventional "Double 8", manufacturers which marketed 8 mm movie camera all developed cameras adopting either "Single 8" or "Super 8" of these new standards.
After examining these new standards, Nippon Kogaku decided to adopt "Super 8" in consideration of the dominant position of KODAK in export markets, and released Nikon "SUPER ZOOM-8" equipped with 5X zoom lens (see photo) in 1966, at the first step.

In September of 1967, the next year of the release of Nikon "SUPER ZOOM-8", the 1st Nikon 8 mm Movie Contest was held. This contest was held every year and was regarded as one of the leading contest in this world, but on the other hand, it seemed to be effective for sales promotion of 8 mm movie cameras as well, and after that, the sales of Nikon 8 mm movie cameras increased rapidly.

However, it was due to the influence of this contest more or less that the 8 mm movie camera of Nippon Kogaku, started with low-priced simple "NIKKOREX 8", was gradually changed its direction to the high-grade product.

As a matter of course, rather advanced amateurs enter in this contest. We've heard that someone built a cottage annex to the main house exclusively used for his hobby of 8 mm movie, and another installed electricity as far as to the beach in order to film a marine turtle.

These advanced amateurs require rather high performance even for 8 mm movie cameras. Nippon Kogaku changed its policy to such direction to cope with the request of these advanced amateurs as it released Nikon "8X SUPER ZOOM" that was equipped 8X zoom lens (7.5 ~ 60 mm) with relatively simple Nikon "SUPER ZOOM-8".

The cartridge of "Super 8" originally aiming at the home movie maker, had the first-priority in the easy loading and the compactness. As the film is twice longer than "Double 8", the diameter of wound film becomes larger.

While "Single 8" of Fuji Photo Film avoided that by decreasing the thickness of the film base, "Super 8" of KODAK prevented the cartridge to become large by making the feeding spool and winding spool coaxial.

The coaxial mechanism of "Super 8" is valuable because it also makes the drive system of the camera simple, but this structure of cartridge made the rewinding difficult.

"R" patents was unrivaled for its superb idea. Therefore, it was possible to obtain the exclusive possession of that technology if so desired, but Nippon Kogaku took the policy of licensing the patent to others giving priority to the expansion of the 8 mm movie market. Licensees range from Japanese to European manufacturers and a good many "Super 8" cameras with the rewinding function were released.

After making thoroughgoing preparations, Nikon "R10 SUPER ZOOM" and Nikon "R8 SUPER ZOOM" were finally released in 1973.
In contrast to former times, they were intended to be high-grade models aiming advanced amateurs from the beginning with such features as fast zoom lens with high magnification, macro mechanism covering full range, reverse shooting, variable shutter opening angle, and so on. They were welcomed by high-level amateur movie makers, as planned at the beginning, and sold well.
In addition to "R10 SUPER ZOOM", the highest-grade model, "R8 SUPER ZOOM" succeeding the conventional "8X SUPER ZOOM" was released at the same time, and contrary to our expectation that moderately-priced "R8" would sell more, expensive "R10" sold more.

The "overlapping / rewinding" function, the strongest selling point was automated as far as possible and its operation was simplified. However, inside the company, there were many people who have the opinion that "its operation is too difficult", mainly among senior people and the plan was almost rejected. Development members made a narrow escape with their enthusiasm.
In the market, the evaluation of "simple operation and high performance" was dominant, and development members were pleased with it as "their intention was understood".

"Super 8" cameras with sound recording were developed and released from various manufacturers. Sound-recording model had been prototyped in Nippon Kogaku as well. This prototype of sound-recording model was to be a well-shaped, ultra-compact camera of simple operation equipped with 6X zoom lens, but it never made a debut, and Nippon Kogaku completely gave up the movie camera business in 1979.
There had been a growing trend to switch over to the home-use video camera, and the discontinuance was made foreseeing that. It was a right decision, on looking back upon from now, but it was a very regrettable discontinuance for many people concerned.