THE JAPAN NEWS

 

By Nana Ando / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

About 450 cameras are on display in a large glass showcase, including such fine products as the much-coveted Nikon Model 1 — Nikon Corp.’s first camera, released in 1948.

On the second floor of Nikon’s headquarters near JR Shinagawa Station, the Nikon Museum provides an excellent setting to learn about the history of cameras, as well as the firm’s technologies in the fields of aeronautics, bioscience and medical equipment.

One of the museum’s features is the Interactive Theater, where four projectors display images on a 3.5-meter-tall by 5.9-meter-wide screen of objects ranging in size from nanometers (a millionth of a millimeter) to the light-years of cosmic space. The projections include those of an influenza virus, the process of placing circuitry on a semiconductor substrate and the moon and Mars.

 

Rare items, such as cameras specially developed for the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, also are on display. One of them was carried on the space shuttle Columbia for its launch in 1981. As astronauts had to wear large gloves, the shutter button was larger than normal so they could operate it, and the body had small protrusions on its surface to help the user handle it smoothly.

Nikon was launched in 1917 with the aim of establishing an optical industry independent of Western technology.

In October 2015, two years before the company’s centennial, the museum opened its Lens Laboratory, where children can get hands-on experience of photography with a touch-panel auto guide.

 

They can choose video images of insects or other members of the animal kingdom and adjust the virtual camera’s shutter speed, 300m effect and ISO light sensitivity levels to take three photos of the subjects in whatever composition and brightness they like. After that, they receive advice in text form on the device, which says such things as, “Brightness can be maintained for subjects even in the dark if you increase the ISO level.”

“We want to enhance the appeal of the optical equipment for both adults and kids,” said Yoshiki Kitamura, vice director of the museum.
Nikon Museum

Photographic works on display in a special section change every three months. Photographer Koyo Okada’s works are on display until June 30.
Location: 2nd floor of the Nikon Corp. headquarters at Shinagawa Intercity Tower C (2-15-3 Konan, Minato Ward, Tokyo)

 

Open: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. (no entry after 5:30 p.m.). Closed on Sundays and national holidays.
Admission: free
Tel: (03) 6433-3900