Major optical equipment manufacturer Nikon Corp. will end the production of single-lens reflex cameras at its affiliate Sendai Nikon Corp.'s facility by the end of this year.
Sendai Nikon, located in Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, is the only Nikon manufacturing base for single-lens reflex cameras in Japan, which means Nikon will be terminating its over seven-decade history of domestic camera production.
The Sendai plant has produced 46 models, totaling about 13 million cameras, including the F5 film camera, which was loved by fans as a masterpiece, and the D1, the top-of-the-line professional digital SLR.
At its peak in 1999, the plant produced about 710,000 SLRs per year, but in recent years, production has dropped significantly, as people have been ditching SLRs in favor of smartphone cameras.
Nikon will move the production of its top-of-the-line D6 model, which Sendai Nikon currently makes, to its Thailand plant, while the Sendai facility will continue to manufacture camera components.
Canon Inc., on the other hand, produces SLRs, lenses and other components in the three Kyushu prefectures of Oita, Miyazaki and Nagasaki.
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