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| A
Tour
of the Nikon
Thailand Factory - Story and
Photography
by George Mann |
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The Nikon Factory on
the outskirts
of Bangkok, Thailand
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Undercoating
being applied to D70 top plate
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Final
finishing of D70 top plate
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The Nikon D70
Digital SLR camera is manufactured in Thailand and promising to become
the camera of the year worldwide for 2004.
On the 24th of February, 2004 a small group of Thai journalists (and
one foreigner), visited the Nikon factory in Ayuthaya, just north of
Bangkok. The trip was organized and sponsored by Khun Poolsap Hungsakul
of NIKS Thailand. President of Nikon Thailand, Kenichi Kanazawa gave
the opening and closing presentations to the press and was ably
assisted by General Manager Jesada Thanvareerat.
The main reason for the trip was the imminent introduction of Nikon's
new Canon slayer, the D70 Digital SLR. Nikon is not only manufacturing
the new camera for the South East Asian area but for the entire world.
The projected production run for 2004 is 800,000 units of the D70
camera body from the Nikon Thailand factory. The D70 has been eagerly
awaited world wide by photographers because it is the first Digital SLR
camera body to challenge the immensely popular Canon 300D (Digital
Rebel).
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Micro-electronic
circuits being assembled
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Assembled
control panel
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Assembled
cameras being checked
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Nikon has gone
Canon better this time - and produced a camera that has
capabilities so far not available at this camera's price point and some
capabilities not available before at any price point. Although prices
may vary in different regions, the current battle between Canon and
Nikon is for the US $999. digital SLR camera market.
Nikon Thailand was chosen for this very important Nikon digital camera
project because in order to meet the market demand for a US $999.
camera body, the production cost and production volume possible could
only be provided by Nikon's Thailand factory.
Having been constructed in 1991 the Nikon Thailand plant has twelve
years of precision manufacturing experience. The staff and facilities
remained fairly small though until the year 2000 when the staff was
still under 2,000 employees. Steady growth over the next few years and
an increase of floor space from the original 19,400 square meters to
the present 46,200 square meters brought the present staff up to over
6,000 employees. By June of 2004 this will increase to over 8,000
employees.
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D70
camera assembly
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How
many do you want?
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Almost
fully assembled but (no name plate)
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Thai
Journalists
and Nikon Thailand management
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Nikon Thailand
production capabilities
The range of products produced at Nikon Thailand include plastic
molding, plastic molding of optical parts, painting, printing, metal
processing, plating, spherical lens process, aspherical lens process,
prism process, electrical and electronic mounting process, silent wave
motor, and auto focus unit production.
SLR camera production has been a specialty of Nikon Thailand for some
time, Nikon cameras produced in Thailand are the F80, F65, F75, F55,
and currently the D70.
Nikon lenses manufactured in Thailand are the AF28-80, AF28-100,
AFS24-85, and the AF Zoom Nikkor ED 28-200mm. Currently the factory is
also producing the AF-S DX Zoom Nikkor ED 18-70mm to sell in an
optional kit form with the D70 DSLR camera body.
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Major
D70 camera components
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The
Nikon D70 Digital SLR
The Nikon D70 DSLR will be available world wide by the time this
article is published. All photo enthusiasts will be talking about it
and initial shipments will have already been sold out in most places.
The first most impressive thing about this camera is obviously it's low
price for a Digital SLR, but the second most impressive is the design.
This is not a cheap looking camera, it looks just like a high end
professional DSLR but is a little smaller and a lot lighter.
Major points are the ability to use the whole range of Nikon lenses,
fully automatic and manual light metering with easy scene setting for
novice photographers, built in flash and external flash hot shoe,
advanced Nikon iTTL flash system capabilities, automatic and fully
manual lens focusing. In other words this is a camera for the first
time Digital SLR user as well as the seasoned professional who wants a
lightweight second camera to use when he is not working or in need of
advanced professional level capabilities.
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To
be continued .......
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Art
on the Assembly Line
A well designed machine is also a work of art and sometimes the
workplace itself that produces these machines can becomes a gallery
that can present it's works of art in a better way than any other
environment.
This assembly line conveyor belt does not look like it could possibly
be the real thing but rather an abstraction of a process for design or
advertising purposes.
In reality though this was found, or rather stolen art that was hidden
in a corner and not at all obvious to the naked eye. A glittering river
of D70 innards in an ultra clean environment.
As beautiful as almost any sunset I have ever seen.
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Clean
assembly line
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| All above images of Nikon Factory in Thailand are the
copyright property of George Mann - if you are interested in using any
of these images please contact george@dpmac.com |
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