When Nikon was reformed after World War II, they made rangefinders, the first of which was released in March of 1948. There were eight models released between then and April of 1960. The Nikon F SLR was released in June of 1959. The market was much smaller back then and all of the rangefinders, including special anniversary reproductions, sold just over 151,000 units in total, which is nothing by today's standards.
Nikon I: March, 1948 32x24mm 7-perf 40 exposure. 759 Units Manufactured. MacArthur wouldn't let Nikon export it because the frame size wouldn't work with Kodak mounts.
Nikon M: Oct, 1949. 34x24mm 8-perf 36 exposuroe. 3240 units.
Nikon S: Dec, 1950. 35,127 units. Same as Nikon M, but with Flash sync.
Nikon S2: Dec, 1954. 56,715 units. 36x24mm 8-perf (modern standard) 90% viewfinder. Most popular Nikon viewfinder.
Nikon SP: Sep, 1957. 22,348 units. Titanium shutter, Motor drive ready, dual viewfinder. Cost $375 in 1960, which is $2771 in 2008 dollars.
Nikon S3: Mar, 1958 14,310 units. Basic version of SP. Viewfinder had lines for 35, 50 and 105mm lenses only.
Nikon S4: Mar, 1959 5898 units. Basic version of S3. Not sold in U.S. as the Nikon importer at the time didn't feel it was worthy. Cloth shutter. Not Motor drive capable. No self-timer. Only 50, 105 frame lines.
Nikon S3M: Apr, 1960 195 units. Half frame rangefinder. Motor drive ready. 72 exposure.
There may have also been a black version of the S3 called the Nikon Olympic S3 that was manufactured in 1963.
The 1st Nikon SLR, the Nikon F, was released in June of 1959 and not discontinued until September of 1973 in spite of the fact that there were many new Nikon F models released during that time. That 1st model sold over 862,000 units. It's obvious from the sales that Nikon made the right decision to abandon rangefinders in favor of SLRs. While Leica still makes beautiful rangefinders, Leica is a niche company and generally loses money.
There have been three Nikon rangefinder anniversary releases, all of which were supposed to be sold only in Japan, although some importers got hold of a few copies and I think even BH had some of the last one. They sold for $6000 each:
S3 Year 2000 Anniversary Edition: November 2000. This came with a 50mm 1.4. 8000 manufactured.
S3 Year 2000 Black: Spring 2002. 2000 manufactured. $6000.
SP Year 2005 Black (Nikon Eye Candy) w/ 35mm 1.8. January, 2005. $6000. 2500 manufactured.
Even those these cameras sold for $6000, Nikon made them by hand and were reputed to have lost money on each one. That's probably why we didn't see (although the year isn't over yet) an anniversary edition of the Nikon F, which many had expected this year for its 50th anniversary.
A digital rangefinder has been rumored from Nikon for some time, but I never believed those rumors. It's simply too small a market for Nikon to pursue.
