Nikon made bomb sights for Japan’s military before it ever made a camera.
Founded in 1917 as Nippon Kogaku, Japan Optical, the firm ground precision lenses for the military. Through the Second World War it turned out binoculars, periscopes and bomb sights for Japan’s military. Only when the war was lost did it aim that skill at ordinary people, releasing its first camera, the Nikon, in 1948.
Nikon on Brandseum