3rd Nikon Update

3rd Notice On The Impact By The Major Earthquake In Northeastern Japan
Nikon.com
March 31, 2011

Original Link

The Nikon Group would express our deepest condolences to the victims of the earthquake and extend our profound sympathy and heartfelt concern to those individuals and families suffering from the disaster.

The following is an update regarding Nikon Corporation and its group manufacturing facilities.

Safety of the employees

As have previously informed, to our deepest regret, death of one employee of Sendai Nikon Corporation has been confirmed and safety of three employees is not yet confirmed in the area of Natori City, Miyagi Prefecture.

Reopen of operation at the manufacturing facilities and outlook on the future production

One of our own plants and seven of our manufacturing subsidiaries are located in the disastrous region of Miyagi Prefecture, Tochigi Prefecture and Ibaraki Prefecture *. All of these facilities have resumed their operation now with reopen by yesterday, March 30 of Sendai Nikon Corporation and Miyagi Nikon Precision Co., Ltd.

It has been becoming clearer that we will be able to secure parts/components including their replacements through our investigation of the current conditions and possible measures to secure the procurement in our collaboration with our business partners. However, we have a concern that the situation may continue where our production cannot fully satisfy our customers’ requirement due to inability of full swing production worsened by the planned blackouts of electricity. While we will do our utmost effort to overcome such expected difficulties, we will be most grateful if our customers could understand such circumstances.

Forecast of effect by the damage to our business performances

We are continuing our endeavor to evaluate how the immediate damage by the disaster and planned blackouts of electricity will result in our group companies and business performances. We will announce our findings immediately when it is judged that there will be important change in our forecast.

* Locations of each plant and manufacturing subsidiaries

Mito Plant, Nikon Corporation : Mito, Ibaraki Pref.
Sendai Nikon Corporation : Natori, Miyagi Pref.
Miyagi Nikon Precision Co., Ltd. : Zao-machi, Katta-gun, Miyagi Pref.
Zao factory, Nikon-Trimble Co., Ltd. : Zao-machi, Katta-gun, Miyagi Pref.
Tochigi Nikon Corporation : Otawara, Tochigi Pref.
Tochigi Nikon Precision Co., Ltd. : Otawara, Tochigi Pref.
Kurobane Nikon Co., Ltd. : Otawara, Tochigi Pref.
Nasu Nikon Co., Ltd. : Nasukarasuyama, Tochigi Pref.

40 Amazing Shots Of Motion Blur In Photographs

See all 40 images on Smashing Hub.

Video: Creating A Hubble Galaxy In Two Minutes

Hubble images are made, not born. Images must be woven together from the incoming data from the cameras, cleaned up and given colors that bring out features that eyes would otherwise miss. In this video from HubbleSite.org, online home of the Hubble Space Telescope, a Hubble-imaged galaxy comes together on the screen at super-fast speed.

Learn more about how Hubble images are made by visiting Behind the Pictures.

National Geographic Wallpapers

Fantastic collection of breathtaking National Geographic wallpapers.

GelaSkin for iPad Sunfellow

After a year of waiting for Apple to come out with their second generation iPad, which includes a built-in camera, I lined up and bought an iPad 2 with WI-FI via their online store. It arrived a few days ago and is beautiful. I love it. In a future update, I plan to post a list of my favorite apps.  For now, I thought some of you might be interested in knowing where I ordered a protective cover for the back of the iPad, which is made of beautiful, albeit slippery, aluminum. I ordered the back cover via GelaSkins, which allows you to select from a large gallery of images, or upload your own. I chose to upload my own (included below). The cost, not including shipping, was a surprisingly inexpensive $19.95! Better, GelaSkins also offers stylish clothing for lots of other products, including iPhones, iPods, cell phones, laptops, netbooks, tablets, eReaders, and more.

My only complaint: most of the images that GelaSkins offers -- at least the first few hundred I rummaged through -- were dominated by what I considered to be unattractive, modernistic images -- so I applied to be one of their artists and see if they would like to expand their gallery offerings to include at least a few Native American rock art images from Sedona. We'll see what happens...

2nd Nikon Update

2nd Notice On The Impact By The Major Earthquake In Northeastern Japan
Nikon.com
March 22, 2011

Original Link

The Nikon Group would express our deepest condolences to the victims of the earthquake and extend our profound sympathy and heartfelt concern to those individuals and families suffering from the disaster.

We have set up the Emergency Headquarters for Disaster Control headed by the President on March 11 immediately after the earthquake, and have been gathering safety information of our employees, examining damage to the manufacturing equipment and continuing every effort to resume operation at the earliest possible. The following is an update regarding the impact of the earthquake on the Nikon Group and outlook on the future production.

1. Safety of the employees

To our deepest regret, death of one employee of Sendai Nikon Corporation has been confirmed. Safety of three employees is not yet confirmed in the area of Natori City, Miyagi Prefecture.

2. Damage to the manufacturing equipment and outlook on the future production

One of our own plants and seven of our manufacturing subsidiaries are located in Miyagi Prefecture, Tochigi Prefecture and Ibaraki Prefecture in the disastrous region*. Operation has been suspended at all of them after the earthquake.

At Tochigi Nikon Corporation, operation has started from Friday, March 18.

At Sendai Nikon Corporation and Miyagi Nikon Precision Co., both of which have been severely damaged, operation is expected to resume by the end of this March. Operation at the remaining facilities will start tomorrow on March 23.

Even after operation resumes, we have a concern that the situation may happen where our production cannot fully satisfy our customers’ requirement due to inability of full swing production caused by problems such as the planned blackouts of electricity and procurement of components from our business partners. While we will do our utmost effort to overcome such expected difficulties, we will be most grateful if our customers could understand such circumstances.

We assure to extend our best support for restoration of the facilities hit by the disaster to our customers of Precision Equipment and Instruments business, and repair/servicing to our customers of Imaging business suffering from the disaster.

3. Forecast of effect by the damage to our business performances

We are continuing our endeavor to evaluate how the immediate damage by the disaster and planned blackouts of electricity will result in our group companies and business performances. We will announce our findings immediately when it is judged that there will be important change in our forecast.

* Locations of each plant and manufacturing subsidiaries

Mito Plant, Nikon Corporation : Mito,Ibaraki Pref.
Sendai Nikon Corporation : Natori, Miyagi Pref.
Miyagi Nikon Precision Co., Ltd. : Zao-machi, Katta-gun, Miyagi Pref.
Zao factory, Nikon-Trimble Co., Ltd. : Zao-machi, Katta-gun, Miyagi Pref.
Tochigi Nikon Corporation : Otawara, Tochigi Pref.
Tochigi Nikon Precision Co., Ltd. : Otawara, Tochigi Pref.
Kurobane Nikon Co., Ltd. : Otawara, Tochigi Pref.
Nasu Nikon Co., Ltd. : Nasukarasuyama, Tochigi Pref.

Nikon Announcement Concerning Japanese Earthquake

Notice On The Damage Hit By Major Earthquake In Northern Japan (Japan's Tohoku Region)
March 14, 2011
Nikon.com

Original Link

The Nikon Group would like to express its profound sympathy and condolences to the victims of earthquake in Major Earthquake in Northern Japan (Japan's Tohoku region) on March 11. The effects to our group companies are as follows.

Measures To Cope With The Situations

We have set up the Emergency Headquarters for Disaster Control headed by the President on March 11 immediately after the earthquake, and are taking the necessary steps. We are currently endeavoring to normalize our business as early as possible through our BCM (Business Continuity Management) teams established in each in-house company.

Damage To Our Group Companies

2-1. Damage to equipment and buildings

Our group companies, including Sendai Nikon Corporation, Natori, Miyagi Pref., Miyagi Nikon Precision Co., Ltd., Zao-machi, Katta-gun, Miyagi Pref., Tochigi Nikon Corporation, Otawara, Tochigi Pref., Tochigi Nikon Precision Co., Ltd., Otawara, Tochigi Pref., and other subsidiaries as well as our Plants suffered damage to some part of the equipment and buildings. We are suspending operations there and continuing to evaluate further details of the damage. We are unable to announce how soon the operation will resume due to the regional interruption of life-lines although endeavor for restoration are under the way by some of our maintenance personnel.

• For the list of our group companies

• For the list of our plants

2-2. Damage to personnel

Injury is reported to some of our group employees. We are currently continuing to gather safety information of our personnel and its family members.

Forecast Of Effect By The Damage To Our Business Performances

We are concentrated in evaluating how the immediate damage by the disaster and controlled interruption of electricity started from March 14 will result in our group companies and business performances. We will advise our findings immediately when it is revealed that the damage would further expand.

Nikon's Sendai Plant Shutdown, Damaged

The Japanese site Asahi reports that Nikon’s plants in Miyagi Prefecture (where Sendai is located) are virtually impossible to resume operations in 14 days. The buildings were damaged but still standing. The Sendai factory produces high-end and pro level Nikon SLR cameras. Sendai Airport, which has been badly hit by the tsunami is only a few kilometres from Nikon's Sendai plant. -- Source 1 and Source 2

The Sendai plant is not very large but it is where the top level pro Nikon bodies have been built since the mid or late 1970s, so it is the home of the F3, F4, F5, F6, D1, D2 and D3 series cameras and much of Nikon's engineering staff is located there as well. -- Source

...



Location of Nikon plants. -- Source

...

Nikon has shifted much of its manufacturing facilities to Thailand, with some production (especially of Coolpix cameras and some low-end lenses) in China and Indonesia. The company constructed a factory in Ayuthaya north of Bangkok in Thailand in 1991. By the year 2000, it had 2,000 employees. Steady growth over the next few years and an increase of floor space from the original 19,400 square meters (208,827 square feet) to 46,200 square meters (497,300 square feet) enabled the factory to produce a wider range of Nikon products. By 2004, it had more than 8,000 workers.

The range of the products produced at Nikon Thailand include plastic molding, optical parts, painting, printing, metal processing, plating, spherical lens process, aspherical lens process, prism process, electrical and electronic mounting process, silent wave motor and autofocus unit production.

As of 2009, all of Nikon's Nikon DX format DSLR cameras are produced in Thailand, while their Nikon FX format (full frame) cameras (D700, D3, D3S and D3X) are built in Japan. The Thai facility also produces most of Nikon's digital "DX" zoom lenses, as well as numerous other lenses in the Nikkor line.

-- From Wikipedia on Nikon

Related Links:

• Google Maps: Location of Sendai Plant In Japan
• Nikon Sendai Plant Visit (09/15/07)
• Wikipedia on Nikon

Kudos Bridal Fair Cover Shot

Most of you who have been following me, know that one of my images was used as the theme image for the 2011 Sedona Bridal Fair. Along with appearing on websites, banner ads, post cards, and tickets, it also graced the cover of the February 16th special issue that Kudo’s created for the Bridal Fair. In case you missed it, here’s what the cover of that issue looked like. Thanks to Jane Perini, the graphic artist that created the cover, for sending me a high resolution copy. Click on the image below to see a larger version.