16 Facts About Nikonos

Nikonos is the brand name of a series of 35mm format cameras specifically designed for underwater photography launched by Nikon in 1963.

The early Nikonos cameras were improvements of the Calypso camera, which was an original design by Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Belgian engineer Jean de Wouters.

The Nikonos system was immensely popular with both amateur and professional underwater photographers.

Nikon ceased development and manufacture of new Nikonos cameras in 2001, but the camera remains popular, and there is a large and active secondary market.

Nippon Kogaku acquired the patent to the Calypso in 1963 and began manufacturing the Nikonos equipped with Nikkor optics instead of the original SOM Berthiot and Angenieux lenses.

Related searches

However, in the French Magazine "Focus-Numerique" Mr Tetsuro Goto, the Director of Laboratory Research and Development at Nikon Japan said on the future of Nikonos: “personally I think the Nikonos will be reborn in the future.

Nikonos was introduced at Photokina 1963; in the beginning, each camera was individually tested for water-tightness.

Nikonos II was cosmetically and dimensionally similar to the original Nikonos, but the shutter speed dial has an additional rewind setting, and the rewind knob is equipped with a lever to facilitate operation.

Internally, all parts of the Nikonos II were coated to avoid corrosion; in case of leakage, the internal parts could be rinsed in fresh water and dried, leading some to call the Nikonos II indestructible.

Nikonos V retained the new features of the IV-A and added manual control to set discrete shutter speeds.

The Nikonos V was capable of off-the-film-plane flash metering with the SB-102 speedlight, which was introduced alongside the camera at the Photo Marketing Association Show in Las Vegas, held April 1984.

Previous Nikonos models used lens-mounted knobs for aperture and focus; these controls were moved to the top deck and front grip of the Nikonos RS, respectively.

Two most common Nikonos lenses are the UW 28mm and the W 35mm with the UW 28mm being considered the better lens.

Nikonos lenses designated "UW-Nikkor" were specifically designed for underwater photography only.

The first Calypso-based Nikonos cameras were equipped with two-pin sync ports for flashbulb units.

The SB-102 and -103 were introduced with the Nikonos V, with the SB-103 a more compact version of the SB-102, which in turn was an updated version of the SB-101.