9 and 13 researched events on one shared scale. Nikon 1917–present, Pentacon / Praktica 1919–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.
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
Kamera-Werkstaetten Guthe & Thorsch grew in Dresden-Niedersedlitz and passed into the Noble family era. The works built the technical and manufacturing base from which the Praktiflex and Praktica SLR lines emerged, while remaining distinct from the Zeiss Ikon branch that later contributed the Pentacon name.
Entwicklung der Dresdner Fotoindustrie · Kombinat VEB Pentacon Dresden, 1945-1998
The Praktiflex placed a compact 35 mm reflex body and interchangeable screw-mount lens at the center of the Niedersedlitz program. Wartime disruption and postwar dispossession broke the private company, but Siegfried Boehm and the factory carried the camera concept into the state-owned period.
The first Praktica appeared in 1949 with the M42 x 1 lens thread. FX generations added flash synchronization and internal diaphragm actuation, while Praktina and Praktisix projects showed that the same works could pursue proprietary professional and medium-format systems alongside the mass-market Praktica.
Vintage Manuals · Entwicklung der Dresdner Fotoindustrie · Heritage
The East German state combined Kinowerke Dresden, Kamera-Werke Niedersedlitz, Altissa, Aspecta, and Welta as VEB Kamera- und Kinowerke Dresden. The new enterprise inherited overlapping cameras, projectors, factories, and skills, then began pruning and reorganizing them for coordinated production.
Pentacon: Kamera- und Optiktradition aus Sachsen · Kombinat VEB Pentacon Dresden, 1945-1998
VEB Kamera- und Kinowerke Dresden became VEB Pentacon Dresden in 1964. The new name joined the symbolism of five constituent factories with the established Contax-derived Pentacon camera name; Praktica, Pentina, Penti, and the new Pentacon Six remained product identities within the enterprise.
Pentacon: Kamera- und Optiktradition aus Sachsen · Entwicklung der Dresdner Fotoindustrie · Kombinat VEB Pentacon Dresden, 1945-1998
Praktica mat introduced through-the-lens metering in 1965, and the PL loading system followed in 1967. The nova, Super TL, and PL electronic branches translated these advances into cameras aimed at different levels of automation without abandoning the broad M42 lens system.
Vintage Manuals · Entwicklung der Dresdner Fotoindustrie · Heritage
Pentacon became the parent works of a combine in 1968, bringing the Goerlitz optical works and eastern Ihagee organization into a wider production network; other plants followed. Pentacon labels increasingly replaced older maker names, although design origin and factory responsibility remained product-specific.
Pentacon: Kamera- und Optiktradition aus Sachsen · Kombinat VEB Pentacon Dresden, 1945-1998
The Praktica L platform introduced a metal-blade focal-plane shutter and supported a large family of mechanical, metered, electrically coupled, interchangeable-finder, and automatic-exposure bodies. LLC, PLC, VLC, EE, LTL, MTL, and Super TL variants kept M42 central for two decades.
Praktica B cameras replaced the screw thread with an electrically coupled bayonet. B 200, B 100, BC, BCA, BCC, BCS, BM, and BMS bodies shared the new interface, while adapters accepted M42 lenses with reduced automation. Prakticar lenses became the native optical vocabulary.
Vintage Manuals · Praktica cameras and lenses · Praktica Lenses
Kombinat VEB Pentacon entered the larger Carl Zeiss Jena combine in 1985. Cameras, lenses, and precision products were now planned inside an even broader state organization, just as the BX generation attempted to modernize the Praktica bayonet line before political and monetary union.
Pentacon: Kamera- und Optiktradition aus Sachsen · Kombinat VEB Pentacon Dresden, 1945-1998 · Heritage
Pentacon Dresden GmbH was formed in July 1990, but the Treuhand announced liquidation on 2 October. The decision dismantled the large state enterprise, displaced thousands of workers, and scattered assets and records. Schneider and Noble successors carried different pieces of the Dresden tradition forward.
Kombinat VEB Pentacon Dresden, 1945-1998 · 02.10.1990: Die erste grosse Insolvenz
A smaller Schneider-associated successor began work in Dresden in 1991 and later became PENTACON GmbH Foto- und Feinwerktechnik. It continued the Praktica BX 20 S into 2001 while shifting toward precision engineering and scanner products; later branded compacts did not represent the old SLR factory system.
History of Schneider-Kreuznach · VEB Pentacon Dresden - Vom DDR-Grossbetrieb zum Niedergang des Dresdner Kamerabaus
After Dresden SLR production ended, Praktica continued on imported compact and digital cameras and later outdoor optics. Pentacon GmbH ceased operating and was removed from the register in 2024, while Praktica Limited maintains the consumer brand: continuity of name without continuity of the historic camera works.
Heritage · VEB Pentacon Dresden - Vom DDR-Grossbetrieb zum Niedergang des Dresdner Kamerabaus
Read either maker on its own: Nikon · Pentacon / Praktica
