Today Nikon announced that as of the beginning of October 2011 they have produced a total of 65 million Nikkor lenses (as of April 2011 that number was 60 million):
TOKYO – Nikon Corporation is pleased to announce that total production of NIKKOR interchangeable lenses for Nikon SLR cameras reached sixty-five million at the beginning of October 2011.
In 1959, Nikon (then Nippon Kogaku K.K.) released its first SLR camera, the Nikon F. At the same time, Nikon also released its first NIKKOR interchangeable lenses for Nikon SLR cameras, among them the Nikkor-S Auto 5cm f/2. In the half century since, NIKKOR lenses have become the favorite lenses of a wide variety of users, and have been extremely well received by a great number of photo enthusiasts and professional photographers.
In March 2011, total production of NIKKOR lenses reached sixty million. Since then, Nikon has continued to expand the product lineup by releasing two new NIKKOR lenses for FX- and DX-format SLR cameras. The fact that NIKKOR continues to satisfy a wide variety of photographers is evidenced by production of an additional five million lenses in just half a year, bringing total production to sixty-five million.
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There is also a new free iPhone app called iP-PJ that lets you project content stored on your iPhone to the Coolpix S1200pj camera. Full details are available here.
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75 Comments
Wow, 5 million in the last 6 months! Pretty impressive given the tsunami!
Think about it this way: they have produced almost 10% of they lenses in the past 6 months!
Or more likely, they changed the way they counted.
Its like the number of hamburgers sold at Ronnie’s Steak House, they don’t have a person counting the number sold at every McDonalds in the country.
It may have gone up by retrospectively classifying the Nikon-E lenses as Nikkor.
YES, they do – in counting the burgers and anything else.
Sales data from their computers (P.O.S. systems or such) identify WHAT is sold per Store every minute worldwide too.
Same in Supermarkets and other Industries! Why do you think they gave you those Discount Cards at the Supermarkets in America?
P.O.S = Point of Sales and not the other derogatory term!
Query Database and find results!
They can even do it in real time, as they are now connected via Satellite or the Internet worldwide.
Hence, they know what they sell every minute – especially the larger Chains.
For what it is worth, those discount cards you get at the grocery store are for something entirely different. They are tracking each and every item you purchase and from that, deducing your income, interests, etc. A friend of mine used to work for the company that is behind it and they track purchases throughout the entire US for a wide range of industries and they are all cross referenced.
They can use the demographic information for advertising and they have run mailers that get a 50% response rate (normal is 1-3%) by knowing as much as they do about people’s customers. I know that our local car dealership uses them and they send out oil change discount cards each and every time my car hits 3,000 miles — despite the fact that I never told them how much I had driven.
As a software developer (I write search engines for a living — along with my other food related business), I know I can write software that can look at your grocery store purchases and make a reasonable guess what you are cooking and perhaps what you forgot. Pretty straight forward stuff.
@Art
Got you in the fine points, as also in that Business but did not want to over-complicate the issue here for the short attention span folks – LOL.
Bottom line:
They know who you are and what you buy by various methods and thus the person’s claim about not counting the individual burgers was wrong.
They also track you with Supermarket Cards while learning how and when to give sales or discounts, hence the same thing with different results.
Live and work in America and also in the Industrial Environment, so see this almost daily and install equipment too plus troubleshoot it.
Bugers don’t have serial numbers. Lenses do. So, the count must be exact…
@Yagion
LOL – yeah burgers don’t individually have serial numbers but their boxes do plus LOT numbers, hence they know what they produce, where it was produced, sourced from and where it was distributed to plus when it is cooked, they know the lot numbers and the expiration date.
Computers, bar codes and such – forgot!
US Government Regulations for Recall purposes in case of bacteria contamination or such!
USDA and Department of Agriculture!
E.G – listeria outbreak via cantaloupes in America now.
But how many of them were the 18-55?
Your bursting our bubble!
Any data on their arch rival Canon’s lens production? 65 million is a huge number by itself, but if we have the data on Canon, we can put things in prospective.
Canon made an announcement earlier this year.
It was also some huge figure, but who cares?
It doesn’t actually put anything in perspective.
Hyundai have made far more cars in the past decade than Rolls Royce have made in over a hundred years.
So what?
Who cares?
What difference does it make?
There is no ‘put things in perspective’
Even if Canon have produced more (which I think they have – in fact they have probably made more EF lenses since the mid 80s than all of the Nikkors since 1959) – does it really matter?
Not one jot!
And let’s not forget Leica -who would have made even less again – it doesn’t matter.
Indeed one could argue that the nikkors must last longer as they are replaced far less often hahahaha
Enjoy whatever lens you have and remember – it’s all about the image.
Good point.
It seemed to start as a rant but I like the ending. It really is all about the image=)
From earlier on in the year Canon posted the following announcement:
http://www.canon.com/news/2011/feb07e02.html
According to this http://cpn.canon-europe.com/content/news/50_million_lenses.do Canon have produced 50 million EF lenses, up from 40 million in 2008.
6 million, ok, I only want one 18-200 mm, but is much money.
Impressive!
Congratulations, Nikkor!
To commemorate this special event Nikon will jack up all their prices
And keep stock levels lower than a snakes belly.
1+
They are lucky I purchased one otherwise it would have been 64,999,999.
Do you know the difference between to produce and to purchase/have sold?
Your purchase probably ranks in the 63millions
So, Nikon, this is relevant how?
Ask Opie or worse – ask Gomer Pyle or Goober.
Try Floyd the Barber too – LOL
Could not resist the Mayberry humor.
And so? Canon produced 650 milion…
It includes lenses for J1/V1 and possibly some new stuff for DSLR-s. Maybe also lenses for compact cameras. If we cont, that lenses are most probably built in a huge batches and stored somewhere – it’s not so suprising. However, I hope there’s 70-200/4 and 17PC-E among them…
Read it again, guy. The press release said “Nikkor”.
as odd as it might be many coolpix are labeled “nikkor” and the new 1 lenses are “1-nikkor”
Contrast that with the film era when the consumer lenses were branded Nikon-E – despite being exactly the same lens as the Nikkor lens in many cases. Or maybe because of that.
Read the release one more time, guys. This time do it without distractions and maybe even read it out loud so you don’t skip over anything.
65m SLR lenses.
SLR does not include Coolpix nor does it include the Nikon 1 in Nikon lingo (though it is indeed strange that they didn’t just say F-mount as they usually do on these press releases).
You could have figured this out without the use of the term SLR in the current press release. The number couldn’t mean Coolpix was included because Nikon is selling 10m+ Coolpix every year, and the last press release DID say F-mount at 60m. If you were to add up all the lenses Nikon has made over time, the number would be more than double the 65m number.
Which means that the 60 million Nikkor and 65 million DSLR are both consistent. The first does not include the Nikon Series-E glass (which was not Nikkor branded), the second does.
@PHB
Not really – the Series E lenses were usually lower cost as in more plastic plus less elements inside.
Perhaps the most famous Series E Nikon was the 75-150 F3.5 Zoom – had one and very sharp indeed but not constructed robustly like Nikkors.
Series E – Economy glass.
Here is a run down on the line:
http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/hardwares/classics/emfgfg20/eserieslenses/index.htm
I know what it stands for, thats the glass I started with.
But despite the fact that it was sold as ‘economy’ many of the designs are exactly the same as the Nikkor glass of the era.
OK so some (but not all) of the glass had more plastic. I don’t know about you, but I use the glass parts of the lens to take my photos, not the bits that are plastic or metal.
read this:
http://www.nikonusa.com/Nikon-Products/Camera-Lenses/1-NIKKOR-Lenses/index.page
@Martin
Thanks for the reminder, as this probably is where the additional lenses came from suddenly.
Series 1 Nikkors – OK.
Great news anyhow.
Nikon provides aid to the victims of floods in Thailand
October 17, 2011
Nikon Corporation would like to express its profound sympathy and condolences to the victims of the floods in Thailand.
In response to this tragedy and to extend the immediate support to its victims and affected area, Nikon Corporation has decided to donate as follows.
Cash donation 12 million Thai Baht (Approximately 30 million yen)
The donee and timing of the donation are now under consideration.
Nikon sincerely hopes for the earliest possible recovery from this disaster.
http://www.nikon.com/news/2011/1017_03.htm
isn’t that approximately 100 D800 bodies…
They just crank up 100 more units and have the rest of us pay for it…a special edition.
Lets say the 100 units of D800 retails for 30 million yen, the corporate tax is usually 30%, that means 9 million tax saving and free publicity.
If the metarial and production cost is 60% of retail price, that’s about 18 million yen. Thus, for only 9 million yen, they got the world wide publicity and 100 + more Nikon owners out there with more future purchase ability.
What a deal!
It ALL depends on what that money buys in THEIR currency (Thailand’s) and not our individual perceptions of that per YOUR monetary standards.
You folks find the weirdest things to complain about like you have no darn life or a heart.
Geeez – give it a rest, please!
Ungratefulness is a tragic SIN!
cool….
are they starting to invent reasons to celebrate now ?
thats just an arbitrary number !
What’s happened in last 6 months, that allowed Nikon to increase lenses production so sharply?
Apparently the new Nikon Series 1 camera system!
J1 and V1 – it seems.
McNikon, over 65 million sold…
I know I’ve bought my share. And then some.
65 millions is nothing, so far HERSHEY have produced 26.524.124.871 whoppers !
That’s a company who have balls !
I CAN’T BELIEVE IT !!!!!!!
I just came back from school, my daugher’s next field trip is on the 26th !!!!!
(and as the pictures guy I always go with them on the trip)
THE DAY NIKON WILL ANNOUNCE THE D800 !!!!
Imagin the torture ! I will have to wait all day until we come back home to check on the D800 specifications !
WOW!
The invisible man has a life and a family – lol
Are they also invisible – how do you see each other then?
Get a smartphone!
-OR- sneak into a Starbucks or McD with your laptop.
LOL!
But you are invisible, so no one will see you and thus no need to sneak in – lol.
Hey, it’s the Invisibles!
Howdie! – comment ca va ce matin?
HEY Vern – talkin to yerself agin? – says the lady to her husband who heard you talk.
I have always assumed that the invisible man is one hell of a hide and seek player.
Yeah – hid away from themselves too.
I fall down and I can’t get up – can’t see my feet – LOL
How many are now made in China?
Congratulations Nikon – quite a feat indeed.
5 million more in such a short period – HOW?
They must have stocked up on some lenses, maybe made some for a new camera system and/or were about to unleash them but something might have happened like a natural disaster or such.
Anyhow, impressive indeed.
Nikkor’s – the greatest variety and some of the most innovative plus excellent lenses ever produced by ANY Manufacturer.
Continue the tradition!
Legendary indeed.
Nikon expected to sell 4.4 million DSLR in 2011. So 10 million lenses for a full year seem at first a bit on the high side. On the other hand people like myself did buy zero DSLRs and I bought still more than 2.5 lenses. Guess it all even out somehow.
Yeah – maybe!
Now to find out how many bodies they have sold since the introduction of the F series in 1959 and also how many before that in the rangefinder series.
Probably more lenses than bodies, but who knows?
Admin, take note, flooding in Thailand has become worse. Water is now 4 meters deep at the Nikon plant. A protective berm broke. At least 250 factories are flooded and 250,000 workers idled.
@Ron
Things are indeed going from worse to worse.
Sad!
Thanks for the update – breaks your heart too.
@Ron
We had NO rain this year in Florida, probably why other places have received more than they should.
I was in Florida last week and there was a tropical depression that dumped a ton of rain on us. Hyperbole much?
HINT – maybe he lives in Northern Florida and you were in Souther Florida – lol
@Joseph
You’re right, I’m talking about the summer rain, it usualy rain 9 out of 10 days (from June to Septembre).
No rain this year (I’m not complaining about it !)
The best season to visit Florida is winter, blue skies, no rain, and 70-75 degrees !
Hi Ron Scubadiver,
I read that earlier on one of the news sites, I also read Nikon had a months worth of stock stored there.
I posted a few days ago, and Thom posted on his blog, if you’re thinking of buying equipment that’s made in Thailand then get it now…once it’s out of stock it might be next year before you’ll be able to get it.
P.S. If you’re waiting for the D400 this might push it further back since it was probably going to be made in Thailand like the D300/s.
sadly, most of those are probably 18-55 kit.
Here’s another blog that were invited to Nikon’s Shanghai plant to see the mirrorless cameras being made…
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-10/17/nikon-n1
They hardly published any pictures from the manufacturing process…what kind of factory tour is that? They should have invited me
Here’s some others who were invited, your invite must have got lost in the post ?
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/42564/nikon-1-factory-tour-china
http://www.ephotozine.com/article/nikon-1-series-china-factory-tour-17607
They all seems to have published the same pics, I can bet that Nikon had to aprove every single image. Did you notice that they do not have chairs? I think Canon invented this.
And how many cameras? Would be interesting to see the lens to body rate
I find it odd that several people have made digs about the number of these that are probably 18-55mm kit lenses. All that tells me is that they’re selling a pile of DSLRs as well, and that each new DSLR owner is a potential lens buyer.
Does anybody other than the foamers on nikonians.org actually care about stuff like this?
If they have produced so many lenses then why has my 85mm F/1.4 G been on back order since August 8?