A yen for early Japanese
You might be forgiven for believing that the Japanese camera industry began in 1959. This was the year the Nikon F was introduced, and it was the camera which largely triggered interest in Japanese cameras. But the Japanese photo industry began long before.
There is evidence of a daguerreotype camera being made in Japan as early as 1845, just six years after the process had been announced in France. In the early days, Japan was a closed country, but later the doors were opened to foreign trade, and Japanese manufacturers became aware of German cameras. So they built their own versions: the Japanese Canon was inspired by the German Leica, while the Japanese Nikon was inspired by the German Contax.
