MEMORIES

1. A brief history of Nikonos

It was in 2001 when Nikon decided to quit production of the Nikonos V, the last of a lucky series of amphibian cameras with interchangeable lenses, whose story had started exactly 40 years before. Lenses, accessories, and replacement parts were kept in production until the following year. From then on, Nikonos didn’t stop diving, in the hands of thousands of divers, in spite of the overpowering advent of digital photography, and thousands of Nikonos’ are still in business around the world. Probably, as long as someone will keep producing films, someone else will keep shooting underwater with a Nikonos.

Birth

In 1961 the Franch firm Spirotéchnique had designed a camera for 36x24 films, called Calypso. They proposed it to Nikon, who acquired the production and marketing rights, while reserving the European market to the French firm. It was the birth of a myth.

Actually, the first Nikonos branded Nikon was presented at Photokina in 1963 and shipping started in August of the same year.

The camera featured a 35 f2,5 lens, a Galileian viewfinder, a vertically sliding metal-curtain shutter with times from 1/30 to 1/500, syncro flash at 1/60, lever for film advancement and shutter reload, waterproof up to 50 m.

Nikonos II

It became definitely Nikonos, dropping the old name Calypso in 1968, when model II was presented with few changes regarding the film rewind lever and the film pressure plate.

Nikonos III

In 1975 the Nikonos III was introduced with remarkable and substantial changes from the previous models. While keeping the overall structure, the shape of the body shell would change, becoming more squared. The main changes regarded the film transport system, to ensure a more regular spacing of frames, the displacement of the frame counter to the dome, a new viewfinder system, larger and brighter, and containing a frame indicator for the 80 mm lens. The loading lever, the shutter button, and the rewind gear were made more comfortable. The changes caused a slight weight increase to 780 gr with the 35 mm lens mounted.

On the Nikonos III, like the previous models, there were no electronics, and in case of flooding it would be simple to restore all functionalities with a good washing and rinsing session.

Nikonos IV

In 1980, a new project revolutioned the Calypso scheme based on a body consisting of two distinct pieces, the shell and the viewfinder-shutter combination, entirely mechanical. The Nikonos IV was born, totally designed by Nikon, capitalizing on

the latest technological findings, already widely tested on the reflexes. And a real revolution it was. First, thel body was a single piece, with a hinged door at the back, like on reflexes, and the viewfinder aligned to the optics. The Nikonos IV had also a new shutter button, red, placed on the front of the camera, more similar to land cameras, replacing the one adopted by the previous models, based on the release of the film-transport lever.

The advent of electronics

The shutter was electronic with aperture-priority automatic exposure, TTL central light metering. The shutter could also work in a mechanical fashion with a default time of 1/90 in case of empty batteries. The correct exposure was indicated by a LED in the viewfinder. Together with the camera, a new electronic flash was presented, the SB 101, with automatic synchronization, working in automatic exposure, thanks to an external sensor mounted on the camera bracket. Finally, the transport lever, coaxial to the shutter speed control dial, was similar to those of the land cameras. Actually, these innovations had their drawbacks, because the few waterways of the previous models were now multiplied on the Nikonos IV, up to 17, with some particularly prone to wear, because some parts were difficult to wash. The weak points were the shutter button, where the sealing oRing would keep the salt, hardening the mechanism and getting brittle, and the transport lever for the same reasons. The new camera was heavier 900 gr with lens.

Nikonos V

After only 4 years, in 1984, the new and last Nikonos model was presented: the Nikonos V. Completely redesigned in the body, the new camera introduced the possibility of manually setting the exposure time, in addition to the aperture-priority mode. Another remarkable improvement regarded the flash dialog, which became TTL automatic, in combination with the new flashes SB 102 and 103.

A complex system

Since the beginning, the Nikonos had been conceived as as photographic system with interchangeable optics

and specialized accessories. In time, products from other makers joined those from Nikon: lenses, macro extensions, brackets, flashes, offering a range of options capable of tackling any shooting situation.

In the final phase of its production, the Nikonos V could count on 4 Nikkor optics (15, 28, 35 e 80 mm) and on 2 Sea & Sea lenses (12 and 15 mm).

2011