Nikon had started manufacturing the rangefinder camera with *Nikon I, then through **Nikon M, Nikon S came in the market in December, 1950. In those days, the reputation of high-performance Nikkor lenses spread rapidly worldwide and the Nikon's camera also got high popularity among the proffesionals.
One of the feature of Nikon S is that it has the flash sync contact for higher shutter speeds, "F" and slow shutter speeds, "S", which Nikon M doesn't have. This spread even further the name of Nikon to the world and the production began to increase.
In addition, it is often said that the appearance of the camera body of Nikon S series is like "Contax" and the structure of it is like "Leica". The fact is that the picture format of Nikon S camera is 24 x 34 mm that is 2 mm shorter in the width than 35mm format which Leica and other cameras adopt.

* Nikon I - This camera adopted the modified picture format of 24 x 32 mm. This is called "Nippon format" or "Nikon format". While eight projections of it transport the film on the normal cameras, seven projections of the sprocket transport the film to the next exposure on this camera so that forty exposures are taken. But, because of that modified picture format, the photofinishing laboratory ran into problems and for that reason, the production of this camera stopped. Only 738 of this was manufactured.

** Nikon M - The picture format was changed to 24 x 34 mm from 24 x 32 mm on Nikon I, and also the sprocket has eight projections on this camera. It is said that "M" means "Medium" of Leica format (24 x 36 mm) and Nikon format (24 x 32 mm).


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