“This is my Nikon.”
“There are many like it, but this one is mine. My Nikon is my best friend…” Et cetera.
The Nikon SP – tl;dr version:
Nikon introduced the original SP in 1957 to compete with the Leica M3. Nikon’s effort represented the pinnacle of mechanical rangefinder camera technology, complexity, and sophistication. It was also one of the prettiest cameras ever made. Comparatively few were manufactured – 22,000 or so from 1957 to 1962. Nikon built its first SLR, the Nikon F, around the SP’s chassis and shutter. Following the release of the F, photography and photojournalism were forever changed, and so while the SP was Nikon’s greatest rangefinder camera, it was also its last. The End.
At the beginning of the millennium, Nikon did some crazy shit, if you’re a film camera lover. Just as digital was asserting itself in earnest and everything analog was going Bye Bye, Nikon made the F6 (their most advanced 35mm SLR), the FM3A (an insane hybrid masterpiece of the FM and FE lines of cameras), and then a reissue of the Nikon S3 rangefinder and their famous 50mm f1.4 rf lens.
Then in 2005, as the ultimate engineering flex (and to give collectors erections lasting longer than 24 hours), Nikon announced they were reissuing an exclusive, very limited run of the Nikon SP in black enamel paired with a matching 35mm W-Nikkor f1.8 lens. Only 2,500 sets would be made, to be sold exclusively in Japan, by lottery. No luck for a regular schmuck in Brooklyn.
But then! (13 years later)
I got my SP from Popflash in 2018. I went for SP 1095. The guy who bought SP 1843 wrote THIS.
I love this machine like crazy, plus the story of its creation and history are worth sharing. Some of the better links I’ve found are at the bottom of this post.
Two photographs:
[I use my 2005 SP all the time. It’s a camera, after all.]
LINKS:
- The 2005 SP project, as documented by Nikon
- Two links on Cameraquest: the Original SP and the 2005 Limited Edition.
- Camera Legend post – Nikon SP
- A lovely, and extensive gallery of images made with a 2005 Nikon SP, from GIGANTOPTIK
- An overview from Pacific Rim Camera
Bonus material:
Butler's Website 