Recently there was some discussion on NikonRumors about whether Nikon still makes its own glass, spurred on by the new Nikon lens making videos. A reader did some research and sent me the information included in this post (thanks J). It turns out that Nikon’s wholly-owned glassworks, which is its own business called Hikari Glass (Mitsumatanagadan 141 Komagatacho, Yuzawa, Akita Prefecture, satellite image of the factory), is quite the maker of optical materials:
The “raw” glass material before it’s cut out (pictures credit: freshakita.exblog.jp)
Here are some related links:
This Nikon Optical Materials brochure contains more information on the different types of glass and technologies used (click on images for larger view):
