I saw a post by a Scuba Diver the other day, saying how much he loves the Nikonos series of cameras, so I did a bit of research on them. Nikon have ceased production of this series.

Andrew Dawson from Photo.net says this about the Nikonos Underwater Cameras

“If you’ve ever been around a group of scuba divers–or even if you haven’t–you’ve probably seen it. That orange and black (sometimes green) brick that defies the curse of salt water: the Nikonos camera. Manufactured by Nikon, the Nikonos line dates all the way back to a prototype made by Jacques Cousteau himself. Nikon, in their wisdom, has ceased production of new Nikonos cameras.

Fortunately, there is a gargantuan used market that will be around for many years, and Nikon will continue to provide service for the foreseeable future. The latest version is the Nikonos V (that’s five); it’s a fully waterproof, compact 35mm camera that can be submerged to a depth of 160 feet/50 meters. That’s deeper than most divers ever venture; if you do, your camera is probably the least of your worries. (I’ve read reports of the Nikonos being taken as deep as 200 feet; it didn’t flood, but the pressure made the controls almost impossible to operate.)”

Here’s the history of how the Nikonos Series of Underwater Cameras began

Here’s what Ramón Palacios said about those days when he first wanted to use a camera while scuba diving and there were none available:

“The problems now were:

* The cumbersomeness of the underwater housings (Where to store them and how to carry them)
* The price, which resulted ludicrous (above that of any of my cameras)
* Each camera required its own special underwater housing, to enable the use of their individual controls.
* To top it, each combination camera-lens needed a different clearboy or dome.
* Surely this contraptions are justified for serious depths, below 300 feet or more, but they were ridiculous for snorkeling and difficult to justify for recreational diving where we were normally not interested in going below 120 feet.

It just had to be another solution ………
Ives Jacques Cousteau, our oceanographer hero who did show us the sea,

-he who with the Mexican oceanographer Miguel Bravo were able to make Cancun Bay a sanctuary, patrimony of humanity- had dreamed with creating the perfect underwater camera. So he asked his company La Spiro Technique, to investigate the necessary but were never able to find the adequate optics. Nevertheless, if with Emile Gagnan he had been able to invent the aqua lung in 1943, to replace the cumbersome divers’ scaphander, something equivalent had to be possible with the photographic camera.

After many painful failures, help from Nikon was requested. Nikon of course jumped to the occasion and accepted the challenge. “