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)
This is the “glass molding” mashine
The glass is cooled after is being cut
Different stages in the lens production (final polished lens in the middle)
Here are some related links:
- Hikari Glass website
- Hikari full catalog, listing hundreds of glass types with cross references to Hoya, Schott, and others (PDF file).
- Great article about the Hikari glass factory in Akita with lots of details about glass manufacturing, and photos.
This Nikon Optical Materials brochure contains more information on the different types of glass and technologies used (click on images for larger view):
