Nikon is Japan's oldest manufacturer of camera lenses. Prior to making camera lenses, the company specialized in high-end optics. Nikon has a rich tradition of making some of the best camera lenses in the world.
First Lenses
Nikon actually developed their first lenses before they had even created a camera. The first Canon camera to come to market, a rangefinder released in 1936, came with a 50mm Nikon lens. It wasn't until after the Second World War that Nikon released its own camera body and a line of lenses to go along with it.
First Systems
The first Nikon camera came out in 1948, and shortly thereafter the company developed a rangefinder system that started to compete with European heavyweights Contax and Leica. Nikon developed several lenses to support this camera, and these lenses quickly were recognized as some of the best in the industry. In fact, the Nikon S series camera used a Contax mounting system. Most of the S series lenses were coated to improve performance.
Single Lens Reflex (SLR)
Nikon introduced its famous F series SLR camera in 1959, and quickly followed with a series of prime lenses for the camera, as well as the first zoom Nikon lens. The company also developed an adapter so the new lenses would fit on their old rangefinder bodies.
These lenses are called the "pre-AI" lenses because of the way you had to match the lens to the camera meter by rotating the lens to its largest aperture and back.
In 1977, Nikon upgraded its lenses to an "automatic indexing" system that enabled the user to match the aperture and meter with one twist. These lenses still work well with the new Nikon digital camera bodies.
E Series
Nikon introduced its E series lenses and cameras in 1979. These lenses were designed with affordability in mind. The professional lenses still had the Nikkor designation, while the E series were called Nikon lenses and skimped a bit on materials to save money. These lenses were the first to use plastic materials in the lens bodies. The lenses were still high quality and in fact better than many third-party lenses of the day.
This system never really caught on, however, and was supplanted in the 1980s when Nikon started to make cameras with autofocus in the camera body.
Autofocus Lenses
Nikon introduced autofocus lenses in 1986. Autofocus provides a tremendous benefit to both the amateur and professional photographer, enabling much faster photography. Improvements on these lenses followed in the 1990s. Nikon introduced the AF-D series lenses in 1992; these lenses helped provide distance information to the camera. In 1998, Nikon introduced the AF-S lenses. These lenses have the Silent Wave Motor; the motor is controlled by the camera, and these lenses are the only ones that work on Nikon's less expensive digital SLRs like the D40.
Modern Developments
Nikon introduced its vibration reduction (VR) lenses in 2000. These lenses help a photographer take better pictures without using a tripod in low light. VR helps reduce the effects of blurring from a shaky hand.
In 2003, Nikon introduced the DX lenses. These lenses have a smaller opening that matches the size of the sensor in their digital SLRs. Only Nikon's more expensive SLRs, such as the D700 and D3, have a sensor that is the same size as 35mm film. Using a DX lens on an FX camera will result in black around the edges of the photograph. The advantage of a DX lens is that enables a digital SLR with the smaller sensor to take wide-angle shots, though there still is a crop factor of 1.5 on the lens. For instance, a 12-24 DX lens is about the equivalent of a 20-35 film lens.
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