papageno wrote:
Many bigger Canon lenses are finished in white paint while most Nikon lenses are black finish.
Yes, with a few Nikon lens in light gray color. Canon's white lenses are telephotos, while Nikon was 28-70/2.8, I saw, I think.
If you really want to know the truth ... its an interesting story that few "Photographers" know ...
This is based on my inside Nikon customer and exec level interchange in 1991 while visiting them at their Yokohama and other plants.
I purchased very expensive semiconductor equipment from Nikon {Semiconductor Equipment Division} for Motorola Inc.
In short - they outsourced all non semiconductor equipment manufacture {cameras, microscopes, sunglasses, etc} at the request of Intel.
Nikon agreed to please their #1 customer and the fact they just could not meet all Intel equipment demand. Their factories were converted to all semiconductor equipment manufacture startin in late 80's.
Sony was the biggest maker of Nikon cameras then although Nikon kept strict control of camera design. Nikon did not make cameras any longer.
There were a few China Companies also.
They supplied 100 % of Intel's Microelectronics Steppers and Scanners at that time and it was only the semiconductor boom that compelled them.
The Yokohama site I visited most was a former camera manufacture factory.
They threw great customer parties in Tokyo Ginza bars and girls galore .
It was high fast and wild times then.
The VP of engineering at Yokohama said photo and cameras were a saturated bizz and Semiconductors were the big $ future.
But ... in the late 90's Semiconductors went bust as well as Nikon's Electon Beam "Scalpel" project. The loss shocked the company and they realized cameras now digital could be a boom biz - thus they started back in competive photo in the 21st century.
It is boom to bust to boom again after they recouped their losses.
The 90's were very dark for Nikon and many were laid off and factories closed - now its reorganized differently and more diverse - they almost lost it all cause of greed. They took major write-offs in 99, 01 and now are back in positive profit.
See Nikon annual reports from 1998 to 2002 for more info.
Ha ha, at least my Canons (an F-1 and a Canonet) are metal, mechanical machines, instead of the melted chocolate bars that Canon's been turning out these past 20 years.
It's because of the flutes in the top of the pentaprism that very slightly resemble Darth Vader's helmet. Someone made the connection in an article several years ago.
and girls galore