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Wikipedia / Nippon Camera

was a Japanese monthly photography magazine published from 1950 to 2021. Along with Asahi Camera and Camera Mainichi, it was considered one of Japan's "three major camera magazines," and after the other two ceased it was the last such general photography magazine in Japan to publish, ending with its May 2021 issue.

While the magazine's title can be read as either "Nippon" or "Nihon," it has appeared as "Nippon Camera," in Roman script, on the covers of newer issues; the first issue was marked "NIHONCAMERA."

History and profile

Nippon Camera started in March 1950 as a bimonthly magazine published in Tokyo by Kōgeisha, as the successor to the book series Amachua Shashin Sōsho (October 1948 – December 1949), and became a monthly with the issue dated July 1951. In subsequent decades the magazine was published by Nippon Camera-sha of Tokyo.

The magazine published photographic work by professional photographers, presented and critiqued winners of photo contests entered by readers, reviewed cameras and lenses, and offered instruction on photographic technique; until around 1980 it also carried articles on darkroom processing of monochrome photographs, a feature it shared with its rival Asahi Camera. Nippon Camera-sha likewise published an annual, Kamera Nenkan, from 1951 (issued as Shashin Nenkan in 2006), along with a long-lived practical encyclopedia and other photography-related books.

From the demise of Camera Mainichi in 1985, the only rival attempting to cater to all photographic interests was Asahi Camera; when Asahi Camera itself ceased in July 2020, Nippon Camera was left as the last survivor of the "three major camera magazines."

Closure

On April 15, 2021 the publisher announced suspension of publication with the May 2021 issue, the magazine's 964th, released on April 20, 2021. The closure ended a 73-year history that traced back to the Amachua Shashin Sōsho book series of October 1948, and meant that all of Japan's "three major camera magazines" had ceased publishing. Nippon Camera-sha, which also published technique books and camera magazine-books, was dissolved on April 30, 2021; the final issue, distributed to subscribers, was not stocked by bookstores because the publisher was bankrupt and stores could not return unsold copies.

See also

References