13 and 9 researched events on one shared scale. Ihagee 1912–present, Nikon 1917–present.
The axis stretches where either maker has research and collapses where neither does, so a year sits opposite the same year on both. Event counts differ because research depth differs, not because one company did less.
Before Exakta, Ihagee built an unusually broad range of plate, folding, roll-film, stereo, travel, and reflex cameras. Photorex, Viktor, Patent Duplex, Ultrix, Corona, Paff, Patent Klapp Reflex, and Nachtreflex show a factory learning many formats and mechanisms rather than waiting for one celebrated invention.
Ihagee Kamerawerk Katalog 1914 · IHAGEE: Its history until 1945 · Ihagee Non-Exakta Camera Types
Johan Steenbergen founded the Industrie- und Handelsgesellschaft in Dresden in spring 1912. The shortened Ihagee name soon entered formal use. In 1918 he joined with Emil Englisch and six experienced woodworkers to form Ihagee Kamerawerk Steenbergen & Co., bringing wooden camera construction more fully inside the business.
Geschichte des Ihagee-Kamerawerks 1912-1976 · Ihagee Kamerawerk Katalog 1914 · IHAGEE: Its history until 1945
A purpose-built works on Schandauer Strasse opened in 1923 and expanded as Ihagee grew. The factory combined woodworking and precision camera assembly while relying on outside optical makers for lenses. Its mature 1930s catalogs paired established plate and roll-film families with increasingly sophisticated reflex cameras.
Ihagee-Kameras, Juli 1937 · IHAGEE: Its history until 1945 · Ihagee Non-Exakta Camera Types
Karl Nuchterlein's 127-roll-film Standard Exakta appeared in 1933. The Kine Exakta followed in 1936 with a 24x36 mm frame, focal-plane shutter, waist-level finder, and interchangeable-lens bayonet. Together they turned Ihagee's reflex experience into a compact, extensible camera system.
Instructions for using the Kine-Exakta · Kine Exakta camera · Ihagee-Kameras, Juli 1937 · Die 35mm-Exakta-Baureihe des Ihagee-Kamerawerkes Dresden · IHAGEE: Its history until 1945
Camera production largely yielded to wartime subcontracting as Nazi authorities seized control of the foreign-owned firm. Steenbergen left Germany in 1942, Nuchterlein was lost in military service, and the February 1945 bombing of Dresden destroyed the Schandauer Strasse factory, forcing a physical and institutional restart.
Short history of Ihagee · Die 35mm-Exakta-Baureihe des Ihagee-Kamerawerkes Dresden · IHAGEE: Its history until 1945
Workers restarted Kine Exakta production at the former Delta works in 1945, first using a mixture of surviving and newly made parts. Exakta II followed in 1949, and the 1950 Exakta Varex made interchangeable waist-level and eye-level finders central to a professional 35 mm system.
Geschichte des Ihagee-Kamerawerks 1912-1976 · Short history of Ihagee · Uebersicht Exakta-/Exa-Modellreihen · Die 35mm-Exakta-Baureihe des Ihagee-Kamerawerkes Dresden
The simpler Exa brought the Exakta bayonet and interchangeable finder idea to a less costly body, while Exakta Varex, VX, IIa, IIb, VX 1000, and VX 500 carried the main line forward. A large outside-supplier lens and accessory network made the cameras especially adaptable for close-up, scientific, and technical photography.
Short history of Ihagee · Uebersicht Exakta-/Exa-Modellreihen · Die 35mm-Exakta-Baureihe des Ihagee-Kamerawerkes Dresden · Die Exa-Baureihe des Ihagee-Kamerawerkes Dresden
Ihagee revisited 6x6 after the war with a redesigned vertical Exakta, shown in 1952 and produced from 1953. It offered an ambitious medium-format SLR package, but persistent film-transport trouble ended the run after roughly 2,500 cameras, leaving 35 mm as the company's durable system.
Uebersicht Exakta-/Exa-Modellreihen · Die 35mm-Exakta-Baureihe des Ihagee-Kamerawerkes Dresden
Steenbergen established a West German Ihagee company that contested the Ihagee and Exakta names with Dresden. It introduced the Exakta Real in 1966 and later marketed Japanese-built Twin TL cameras. The western company was legally and industrially distinct from the Dresden works and was liquidated in October 1976.
Geschichte des Ihagee-Kamerawerks 1912-1976 · Short history of Ihagee · Exakta without Exakta mount
Pentacon took control of Ihagee development in 1964, incorporated the Dresden company into the combine in 1968, and ended its independent factory identity in 1970. Name-rights disputes encouraged VX and Elbaflex export markings, while product planning shifted toward Pentacon's Praktica architecture.
Geschichte des Ihagee-Kamerawerks 1912-1976 · Die 35mm-Exakta-Baureihe des Ihagee-Kamerawerkes Dresden · Die Exa-Baureihe des Ihagee-Kamerawerkes Dresden
Pentacon produced the Praktica L-derived Exakta RTL 1000 through 1973 and continued the Exa line after Ihagee disappeared as an independent works. Exa Ia, M42 Exa 1b, and Exa 1c reached 1987, with later assembly at Certo, extending the product lineage without restoring Ihagee as the manufacturer.
Geschichte des Ihagee-Kamerawerks 1912-1976 · Uebersicht Exakta-/Exa-Modellreihen · Die 35mm-Exakta-Baureihe des Ihagee-Kamerawerkes Dresden · Die Exa-Baureihe des Ihagee-Kamerawerkes Dresden
Ihagee West entered liquidation in 1976 as Exakta-badged Japanese OEM cameras complicated the final product boundary. The old Steenbergen partnership was deleted in 1996. Later uses of Exakta are trademark chapters, while the historic Dresden and West German camera companies no longer operate as manufacturers.
Geschichte des Ihagee-Kamerawerks 1912-1976 · Short history of Ihagee · Exakta without Exakta mount
Museums, specialist researchers, and international Exakta groups now preserve Ihagee cameras, manuals, catalogs, and specimen data. Their work keeps the Kine Exakta and its broad system visible while also clarifying the separate factories, mounts, OEM bodies, and legal entities that accumulated around the famous names.
Geschichte des Ihagee-Kamerawerks 1912-1976 · Kine Exakta camera · IHAGEE: Its history until 1945
Nippon Kogaku K.K. was founded on 25 July 1917 with Mitsubishi capital by combining the optical work of Tokyo Keiki, Iwaki Glass, and Fujii Lens Manufacturing. Optical-glass research began in 1918, resumed in 1922 after interruption, and reached a stable mass-production basis by 1927. Eight German engineers invited in 1921 helped develop design, production, and factory practice.
The Anytar 12 cm f/4.5 of 1929 was Nippon Kogaku's first photographic lens. The NIKKOR trademark was filed in 1931 and registered in 1932; production history under that name begins with aerial-survey lenses in 1933. Nippon Kogaku supplied the Nikkor lens, mount, viewfinder optics, and rangefinder mechanism for the Hansa Canon introduced in 1936. During the war the company became a large military-optics supplier, but public specialist histories disagree on its exact number of factories.
Nippon Kogaku and Nikon History · Canon Camera Museum: The Birth of Canon · Nikon Corporate History · History of Nippon Kogaku and Nikon
After Japan's surrender, Nippon Kogaku converted to civilian production. Drawings for a small camera were completed in September 1946, and the Nikon Model I reached the market in March 1948. Nikon was formed from the company's NIKKO abbreviation with a final N; Nikon's own history rejects the later claim that it was derived from Zeiss Ikon. Nikkor lenses used by LIFE photographers and Korean War correspondents helped establish the brand abroad. Canon began using its own Serenar lenses in 1948 rather than continuing to depend on Nippon Kogaku.
Debut of Nikon Rangefinder Camera · Frequently Asked Questions for Investors · Canon Camera Museum: Overcoming Postwar Difficulties · Nikon Corporate History
The Nikon F, announced in 1959, established the F bayonet as the organizing interface for Nikon's SLR system. The company combined a new mirror box and pentaprism SLR body with mechanisms and production knowledge from its rangefinder line. The system expanded through professional bodies, lenses, finders, screens, motor drives, and specialized accessories. A 1962 agreement with La Spirotechnique brought the French Calypso underwater-camera design into production as the Nikonos rather than as an original Nikon design.
Debut of Nikon F · Nikonos Underwater Cameras: Development History · Nikon Corporate History
Nikon introduced Automatic Maximum Aperture Indexing, or AI, in 1977 and offered modification of many earlier lenses. The F3 of 1980 used electronic shutter control and a Giorgetto Giugiaro exterior design. Autofocus evolved through the lens-motor F3AF in 1983 and the body-drive F-501 in 1986. In parallel, Ultra Micro NIKKOR optics and related precision work led to semiconductor lithography; the 1980 NSR-1010G was Nikon's first commercial stepper and the first made in Japan.
History of Nikon Semiconductor Lithography Systems · Nikon Family Cousins, Part 9: Nikon FM · Debut of Nikon F3 · Debut of Nikon F4 · Nikon Corporate History
Nippon Kogaku changed its legal name to Nikon Corporation on 1 April 1988. The F4 and later F5 developed the autofocus professional SLR while retaining the F-mount's basic bayonet. Compatibility remained substantial but not universal because different bodies and lenses supported different mechanical couplings, focus drives, CPUs, and aperture controls. Nikon also expanded its international production network and continued industrial, scientific, and precision-equipment businesses.
Nikon F-Mount and NIKKOR Lens Types · Nikon Manufacturing and Group Companies · Frequently Asked Questions for Investors · Debut of Nikon F4 · Nikon Corporate History
The Nikon D1 of 1999 made a Nikon-designed professional digital SLR available at 650,000 yen, approximately one third of the price of competing professional digital systems cited by Nikon. Digital bodies retained the F mount and accelerated the transition from film while adding sensor-format and electronic-compatibility distinctions. Nikon continued professional film-camera development through the F6 and introduced DX-format digital systems alongside the full-frame film mount.
The D1: A Camera That Changed Professional Digital Photography · Nikon Corporate History
In January 2006 Nikon sharply reduced its film-camera and manual-focus lens lineup, concentrating the remaining film range mainly on the F6 and FM10 as the business shifted toward digital. The separate Nikon 1 system appeared in 2011 with a CX-format sensor and its own mount. A contracting interchangeable-lens-camera market contributed to companywide restructuring between 2016 and 2018; Nikon's public record does not provide a single factory announcement that cleanly dates the end of every Nikon 1 product.
Nikon Report 2018 · Nikon Announces Changes to Film Camera Product Lineup · Nikon Announces the Nikon 1 Advanced Camera System
Nikon introduced the Z 7 and Z 6 mirrorless cameras in 2018 with the new Z mount, whose 55 mm internal diameter and 16 mm flange distance created a distinct native lens system. The FTZ adapter preserved access to many F-mount lenses with model-dependent functional limits. Nikon Corporation continues to make and sell imaging, industrial, scientific, healthcare, and precision equipment and retains in-group capabilities in optical glass and components while manufacturing through a global network.
NIKKOR Z Lenses and Mount Adapter FTZ · Nikon Manufacturing and Group Companies · Nikon Corporate History
