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The Nikon F Mount Turns 50 This Year

From the Nikon site:
Longest history among lens mounts for 35mm-format SLR interchangeable cameras

TOKYO – Nikon Corporation is pleased to announce the 50th anniversary of its legendary F-mount lens-mounting system, employed on the company’s lens-interchangeable SLR cameras and NIKKOR lenses. Apart from Nikon, no other maker has been able to sustain its original lens mount for such an extraordinary period.* (Revised on March 11, 2009)

*Among lens mounts for 35mm-format SLR interchangeable cameras

The Nikon F-mount was first employed on Nikon’s earliest lens-interchangeable SLR camera, the Nikon F, released in June 1959. Nikon has consistently utilized the same mount without changing its basic structure, even as other SLR camera manufacturers found it necessary to alter their lens mounts in response to changing technologies, such as autofocus compatibility and digitalization.

One of the biggest advantages of lens-interchangeable SLR cameras is that users are able to choose from a larger selection of lenses. Maintaining the same basic structure of lens mount for a longer period means a broader, constantly growing array of compatible lenses. For this reason, the lens mount is an extremely important and symbolic element for both photography enthusiasts and professionals, who are able to benefit from ongoing use of their carefully selected collection of lenses. The Nikon F-mount, employed for even the latest, most advanced digital SLRs, has received and continues to garner the highest evaluations as a reliable, long-serving lens mount.

Evolution of the Nikon F-mount

* Introduced on Nikon’s first lens-interchangeable SLR, the Nikon F (1959)
* Auto aperture indexing enables automatic setting of maximum aperture (1977)
* Program auto exposure mode compatibility (1981)
* Aperture information exchange with the camera body through CPU communication (1983)
* Autofocus compatibility (1983)
* Digital SLR cameras compatibility (1995)

Posted by at 6:32 AM | Permalink

Herbert von Karajan

6 March - 18 April 2009

Leica Gallery
670 Broadway
New York, NY 10012 USA

"As a true lover of photography, I always find it fascinating when looking at works such as those of Erich Lessing, the Austrian doyen of photography, to realize how the photographer’s eye can open up new perspectives and perceptions for the viewer. Photographs – a cross between what is transient and what can be captured and recorded – can tell their own stories, beyond any historical or geographical boundaries. Erich Lessing’s photographic oeuvre conveys in its own particular way this visualization of time, the portrayal of a subjective section of the world… Erich Lessing has always been especially fascinated by the world of art and the artist, by the challenge of demonstrating the creative process, of choosing a specific art of documentation as an approach to discovery. This ambition to realize the unreal – culture and concepts – is the underlying quality in his series of photographs taken from the artistic career of Herbert von Karajan. In dynamic, sometimes anecdotal pictures, the encounter between the young photojournalist Erich Lessing and the conductor on the threshold of world fame reflects the highest professional aspirations of both men. Erich Lessing’s oeuvre is closely linked with Leica and the Leica camera. Most of the photographs in this volume were taken with a 1950s M3 camera (still extant); its technical sophistication and lenses enabled him to capture the immediacy and intensity which still draw us under the spell of events and situations.”

- Dr. Andreas Kaufmann, Chairman of the Board of Management and Chief Executive Officer, Leica Camera AG, from his preface to Erich Lessing’s Herbert von Karajan (Metamorphosen, Vienna, 2008)

Posted by at 8:44 AM | Permalink