Back in 1960 Nippon Kogaku (now Nikon) was just beginning to feel the success of their Nikon F SLR. But, it was, first and foremost, a lens-making company. At that time, focal-plane shutters were expensive to manufacture, and leaf shutters had a distinct price advantage. So, that’s the route they took.
Nippon Kogaku’s first effort at capturing the amateur market was with the basic, fixed lens, leaf-shuttered, Nikkorex 35 compact camera, of 1960. Built for Nikon by Mamiya, it proved a troublesome design and despite many efforts by Nikon engineers to teach Mamiya how to build it, it seemed that things that were easy for Nikon seemed difficult for Mamiya.
