Big 3 Nikon news for the week

 1. Nikon has been doing the right things lately and whatever they are doing there in Japan has paid off. It was reported in BCN ranking Japan that Nikon has overtaken
Canon in terms of the DSLR market (in Japan only. You won't see jumping Nikon execs from the building). The ranking represents the 1st half of 2010 only.

 Graph source

2. Now, from BCN Japan we go to Bloomberg news. According to Nikon company president, Makoto Kimura, Nikon has plans to introduce a new concept SLR as early as this fiscal year. "The new concept model will probably have an enhanced function for video recording and may adopt the so-called mirrorless structure. It could be any time this fiscal year or the following year, as new models are starting to sell." Kimura said in an interview today in Tokyo. As to the date of release, Kimura declined to comment.

 Nikon President Makoto Kimura

3. Finally we go all the way to outer space. Sometime late December of 2009 it was reported that NASA ordered Nikon cameras to take pictures of the outer space. And now, those photos are back. All images were taken using Nikon equipment which includes Nikon D3s

Nikon's history with NASA

• 1971: Nikon Photomic FTN* (NASA specifications) was used on Apollo 15
• 1980: The “Small Camera”, based on the Nikon F3 and equipped with a motor drive, and the F3 “Big Camera”, which utilized long film, were delivered to NASA. The “Small Camera” was used aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia launched the following year.
• 1991: The Nikon F4 and F4S were delivered to NASA
• 1999: The Nikon F5 and AI AF Nikkor lens were carried aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery to photograph extravehicular activities (EVA)
• 2008: D2XS digital-SLR cameras were delivered to NASA. Eight D2XS cameras are still used in space to document activities such as inspections and maintenance operations.

To read more about Nikon in outer space click this

Big 3 Nikon news for the week