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FIG.1
Mr. Heinrich Acht
Looking at an optical lens development history, a full-fledged optical designing was started by several optical engineers invited here from Germany.
To catch up with an optical engineering standard of the advanced countries, firstly, an imitationt was begun with and an optical designing like Triplet, Tessor and Dagor that were major lens types in those days was attempted.
A series of lenses modeled after the Zeiss Tessor lens were named "Anytar". A man in charge of this designing was a German engineer, Mr. Heinrich Acht that was a chief of optical designing section in Designing. It has been told that Mr. Acht undertook most of these lenses designing works. A notebook written and left by YOSHIHASHI, Kagoro, who was one of optical engineers in those days was discovered in Nikon Archives.
FIG.2
Front page of the
YOSHIHASHI notebook
In a B5-version notebook titled "Optical lens, May in 1930", twenty seven (27) optical lens data like the Triplet type, the Tessor type and the Dagor type were noted down there. Of these 27 optical lens data, four (4) lenses, of which focal lengths were 18cm, 15cm, 10.7cm and 10.5cm respectively, were described as Anytar and in all these lenses, F-number was 4.5. According to the YOSHIHASHI notebook, Anytar credited to someone rather than Mr. Acht was the lens 10.7cm f/4.5 that was designed by a German optical engineer, Mr. H. Dillmann and the lens 10.5cm f/4.5 that was done by Mr.YOSHIHASHI.
FIG.3
An optical lens component of Anytar lens 10.5cm f/4.5
FIG.4
A lens aberration of Anytar lens 10.5cm f/4.5
(Zoom Photo)
Anytar lens 10.5cm f/4.5, which was initially designed by Mr. Acht and then, Mr. YOSHIHASHI made modifications to based upon this lens data in1928, seems to be a first lens that a Japanese lens design engineer calculated earnestly using a German lens design method. Figures of a lens component and aberration that were written down in the YOSHIHASHI notebook are introduced here for reference purpose. It has been confirmed that what was designed as the Anytar lens were seven lenses, 7.7 cm, 10.5 cm, 10.7 cm, 12 cm, 15 cm, 18 cm and 36 cm focal lengths. Of these lenses, what is housed in Nikon Archives is Anytar lens 10.7cm f/4.5 with a built-in Compur type shutter and Anytar lens 12cm f/4.5 with the built-in Compur shutter, and the former were working prototypes and the latter were commercial products on which a text "Anytar Nippon Kogaku" was engraved. (FIGS.5, 6 and 7)
FIG.5
Anytar lens 10.7cm f/4.5
(Zoom Photo)
FIG.6
Anytar lens 12cm f/4.5
(Zoom Photo)
FIG.7
Anytar lens 12cm f/4.5
(Zoom Photo)
After Mr. Acht returned to his home country, lens design engineers centering on Mr. Kakuya Sunayama, General Manager of Lens design department, made modifications while putting the German lens design method into full use based upon lens designing data Mr. Acht left over. After the working prototype Anytar lens 12cm f/4.5 was completed toward end of 1929, it was further refined and in 1931, the refined Anytar lens 12cm f/4.5 was told to such an extent that the lens reached the same level with the Zeiss Tessor. But, there is no record of how many these lenses were actually produced, so a total production quantity of this lens is not available.
There is a witness that around 1937, this lens was sold to employees for 20 Japanese Yen and from this, it appears that the lens didn't sell well. Anytar lenses as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 were donated to Nikon Archives by the former President Mr. Yutaka Sugi and even in present days, shutters and apertures built in these lenses are still working. Anytar lens 12cm f/4.5 was further corrected and developed into Nikkor 12cm f/4.5. From this development, Tessor type Nikkors 7.5cm, 10.5cm and 18cm were manufactured one after another. Like this, Anytar that can be said to be origins of the Nikkor lenses was an epoch-making lens.
