Nikon I, c. 1949

Nikon I (c.1949)

first model Nikon in close to mint original condition, version with 4 polished film guide rails, original shutter (perfect working), non-removable take-up spool, original back door with same number, base plate engraved with MADE IN OCCUPIED JAPAN, matching and very rare collapsible Tokyo Nikkor-Q.C 3.5/5cm no.7051404, very rare chrome cap, ever ready case, original instruction book, blue velvet maker's box. (Serial no. 609405, Condition: A/B)

Starting Price: 9,000 EUR
Estimate: 18,000-22,000 EUR

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[From the WestLicht Photographica Auction highlights page.]

Mike
(Thanks to Mike O'Donoghue)

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Featured Comment by Eamon Hickey: "I just read a nice little book that is essentially about this camera called The Nikon Camera in America, 1946-1953, by Michael Wescott Loder. (Available through TOP's Amazon portal—you're welcome, Mike). [Thank you, Eamon  —Ed.]

"There's also a little piece on Nikon's Global web site, written in shall we say quirky English, about the rediscovery of the original prototype of this camera, serial #6091. It had long since been given up for lost, but in 1997 it was found in an old cardboard box in a corner of Nikon's original Ohi factory. 

"An historically and sociologically interesting argument is often made about the first practical version of this camera (the 'M') and more especially the lenses that Nikon made at the same time: They were arguably the first precision Japanese-made consumer products to gain worldwide recognition for quality equal to European and American manufacturers (in 1950, with articles in the New York Times and elsewhere.) That little camera (well, its direct descendant) and its lenses were, at least in some sense, the vanguard of the Japanese economic miracle. Or so the argument goes."

Comments

[Ken Tanaka]

Ah, a real antique, not a new antique like that Bessa III !

[Gary]

So ... there's no megapixels then?

Seriously though, that looks like a nicely engineered piece of work.

[Tyler Monson]

Ah, memories...
My first new camera was a Contax IIA and I fell asleep that night clicking and winding the shutter.

What a multifaceted source of joy photography has been for me these 50+ years! Sometimes it is good to reflect back, although I think digital now (especially the virtual darkroom) is slicker than deer guts on a doorknob.

Cheers,

[Dale Moreau]

Neat stuff,
I had the great pleasure of meeting a retired NBC newscaster named John Rich recently. He held a presentation of Korean war photographs. A few select images from the couple thousand slides he saved in the attic and only recently dug them out. The interesting part of the story was that (aside from the understanding that these may be the ONLY comprehensive color slides of the Korean War) is that he was reporting the news and his friend David Douglas Duncan said " hey I've got a meeting with the president of this camera company..... So the president of Nikon gave him one of the "new cameras" to use as he traveled around reporting the News.
http://www.dynamic-korea.com/notice/view.php?uid=200800004203&main=NOT

dale

[Tom]

The WestLicht Photographica Auction is held twice a year in Vienna, Austria (my hometown, btw). It's considered to be the largest photographica auction in Europe. They have a permanent gallery (one of the very few in Vienna) too, which features besides austrian photographers the annual world press award exhibiton. There's also a permanent exhibition of various Leica, Hasselblad, Linhof and other old photographic gear. Absolutely worth a visit, when you're in Vienna.

Cheers!

[Dogman]

Damn, that's a purty camera!

It kinda sucks to have a Nikon jones and a Kiev bank account.