More than 100,000 "Made in Occupied Japan" cameras are made but priced beyond the reach of most Japanese due to high taxation. For the masses, there are cheap mini-cameras which used 14mm-width roll film.

In May, Miki Jun, a Japanese photographer and a stringer for Life Magazine, visits Horace Bristol's office in Tokyo and shows him a Nikkor 85mm f/2 lens. Bristol is so impressed with the performance that he give it to David Duncan, a Life magazine photographer, to try. They later replace their German made Leica and Zeiss lenses with Nikkor lenses.

In June, the Korean War breaks out and David Duncan is assigned to cover it. He uses Leica cameras with Nikkor lenses (50mm f/1.5 and 135mm f/3.5). The sharp photos create a sensation among the Life Magazine photo staff. Word spreads and other photographers of other publications begin to use Nikkor lenses.

In October David Duncan during a visit to New York goes public with the news of the superiority of Nikkor lenses. A camera column in the December 10, 1950 edition of The New York Times and the February and March 1951 issues of Popular Photography feature stories about Duncan's use of Nikkor lenses. Nikkor becomes famous outside of Japan, boosting the Japanese camera industry.

Nippon Kogaku Kogyo K.K., forerunner of Nikon, introduces their second 35mm rangefinder camera. The Nikon M uses a 24mm by 34mm film format, not the standard 35mm format.

The Nikkor 50mm f/1.5 lens is replaced by the 50mm f/1.4 lens which becomes the first high-quality f/1.4 lens to be mass produced.

Kodak introduces a new multilayered film stock in which emulsions sensitive to red, green, and blue are bonded together on a single roll. Patented as Eastmancolor.

Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard with Gloria Swanson and Joseph L. Mankiewicz's All About Eve starring Bette Davis, are the first of a series of films critical of Hollywood mythology.

American photographers Irving Penn and Richard Avedon become known for their work in advertising and fashion photography.

Revival of the Western and the movie musical. Historical epics and science-fiction films represent the myths and fears of modern America.

Dramatic rise in independent production marks the dwindling power of the Hollywood studio system.

One-quarter of the total American box-office income comes from drive-in theaters.

European nations enter into bilateral coproduction agreements to increase access to international markets, spread out financial risks, and produce big-budget films to compete with Hollywood.

Aaron Siskind's photograph New York 2, demonstrates a trend toward abstraction.

The Berlin International Festival is launched.

After decades of research, acetate film stock is developed and becomes the industry standard, replacing unstable and highly flammable cellulose nitrate.

W. Eugene Smith’s photo essay, Spanish Village.

The first Dryden Theatre series is devoted to "The Transition From Silence to Sound."

Nippon Kogaku Kogyo K.K., forerunner of Nikon, introduces their third 35mm rangefinder camera. The Nikon S uses the 24mm by 36mm film format, the 35mm standard.

Founding of Cahiers du cinéma, an influential Parisian journal notable for its politique des auteurs, or celebration of the film director as author and source of meaning.

Akira Kurosawa's award-winning Rashomon focuses world attention on Japanese cinema.

Canon Camera Company Ltd. changes names to Canon Camera Company Inc.

Japanese camera makers are no longer required to engrave their products with "Made in Occupied Japan."

The US Supreme Court declares that films are protected by the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech.

Luis Garcia Berlanga's Welcome, Mr. Marshall!, Spain's first official entry at the Cannes Film Festival, satirizes America's expanding power.

Fred Waller premieres his three-screen, three-projector widescreen process with This Is Cinerama.

Norman McLaren's animated short Neighbours develops pixillation technique.

Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen's Singin' in the Rain, a peak in the movie musical form.

Vittorio De Sica's Umberto D causes controversy in Italy for centering on the plight of the nation's aged and urban poor.

A portrait of Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida photographed by Miki Jun appears on the cover of Life magazine.

June 1 is set as "Shashin no Hi" (Day of Photography) in Japan.

First Playboy publication

Asahi Optical Co. introduces their first camera, a 35mm SLR called Asahiflex--Model 1. It is the first Japanese SLR camera.

Asahi Graph magazine publishes photos of the atomic bomb devastation after the publishing ban by Occupation authorities is lifted.

In December, Canon Camera Company markets the Canon IVSb 35mm rangefinder camera, the world's first to feature X-sync flash synchronization.

The Korean War ends.

Henry Koster's The Robe, the first CinemaScope film, premieres at the Palace Theatre in Rochester. The next half-decade will witness a host of competing widescreen technologies.

Teinosuke Kinugasa's Gate of Hell, Kenji Mizoguchi's Ugetsu Monogatari, and Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story bring international acclaim to Japanese cinema.

Jacques Tati introduces his enduring comic persona in Mr. Hulot's Holiday.

The success of Arch Oboler's independent production Bwana Devil, made with a polarized 3-D process requiring special lenses and glasses, spawns a brief craze for 3-D films.

The Korean War ends and economic depression sets in. Many small camera equipment manufacturers go out of business. The remaining companies look into exporting their products.

Stalin's death and Krushchev's policy of de-Stalinization create a "thaw" within many eastern European countries, bringing a cultural renaissance and innovative new ideas to cinemas of the Soviet bloc.

Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, is a complex murder mystery starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly.

Launching of film festivals in San Sebastian, Sydney, Tokyo.

Eastman Kodak introduces high speed black-and-white Tri-X film.

Ampex markets first commercial video tape recorder.

Federico Fellini's La Strada sets the stage for the next decade of European art cinema addressing the human condition.

The Japan Camera and Optical Instruments Inspection and Testing Institute (JCII) is established under Moriyama Kinji.

In April, the Leica M3 is introduced at the "photokina" convention in Koln, West Germany.

Asahi Pentax Asahiflex II SLR has instant return type mirror - the first.

Nippon Kogaku Kogyo K.K., forerunner of Nikon, introduces their fourth 35mm rangefinder camera. The Nikon S2 uses is the first Japanese camera to feature a film advance lever and a film rewind crank.

The Japan Camera Industry Association is established by Canon President Takeshi Mitarai

First all-color television series, Howdy Doody begins.

Edward Steichen organizes The Family of Man, one of the most popular exhibitions of photographs ever presented.

Kukla, Fran and Ollie begin color television broadcast.

After three major film roles, James Dean dies in a car crash just before gaining major stardom.

Bengali Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali, is the first of his famous Apu Trilogy.

Major Hollywood studios enter into "telefilm" series production and sell or lease their pre-1948 feature films to TV syndicators.

John Ford's The Searchers, an influential John Wayne Western.

Roger Vadim's And God Created Woman launches Brigitte Bardot as the female sexual myth of 1950s.

Foundation of the Zagreb studio in Yugoslavia, whose animation unit will attract international attention for its lyrical, highly stylized cartoons.

The Leica M3 35mm camera is introduced.

Nippon Kogaku Kogyo K.K., forerunner of Nikon, introduces their first professional grade Nikon SP 35mm rangefinder camera.

First television program broadcast from tape - Douglas Edwards and The News.

The sons of Ernst Leitz II, Ernst Leitz III, Ludwig Leitz and G¸nther Leitz, take over the management of the firm after their father's death.

Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries establish him as the world's preeminent filmmaker.

Launching of film festivals in London and San Francisco.

Terence Fisher's The Curse of Frankenstein, first of Hammer Films's long-running horror series starring Christopher Lee and/or Peter Cushing.

The first space satellite, the Russian Sputnik, is launched.

Asahi Pentax, first SLR with penta-prism, allows for normal frame viewing.

The Canon L1 35mm rangefinder camera and Canon Cine 8T movie camera become the first cameras to receive the Good Design Award from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.

Andrzej Wajda's Ashes and Diamonds completes his trilogy on war and resistance in Poland.

Orson Welles's Touch of Evil marks the end of the American film noir cycle.

Gilles Groulx's Les Raquetteurs, shot at the annual congress of the snowshoes clubs with the camera as participant, soon becomes a manifesto for Québécois filmmaking.

The Minolta SR-2 is the first SLR camera with an automatic diaphragm which maintains maximum aperture for brightest viewing and focusing then stops down only when the picture is taken.

The Asahi Pentax K camera was the first to have a focusing screen featuring a microprism for easier focusing.

Documentary film practice is transformed by the introduction of lightweight 16mm professional cameras and portable tape recorders utilizing the Pilitone system to synchronize soundtrack to image track during shooting.

New documentaries, called "uncontrolled," "observational," or Direct Cinema in the United States and Canada, cinéma verité in France, seek to study individuals and situations on a moment-by-moment basis.

Launching of film festivals in Barcelona and Moscow.

The portable Nagra tape recorder is developed by Swiss inventor Stefan Kudelski.

Robert Frank’s The Americans is a controversial and ironic commentary on the emptiness of modern America.

Alain Resnais's Hiroshima mon amour and François Truffaut's The 400 Blows win at Cannes and confer international prestige to a growing young French film movement, la nouvelle vague.

Bob Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor, U.S., prints an entire electronic circuit on a single crystal or microchip of silicon using a photographic process. This breakthrough enables the computer revolution to begin.

Nippon Kogaku Kogyo K.K., forerunner of Nikon, introduces their first Single-Lens-Reflex camera the Nikon F 35mm format. The Nikon F, designed for the professional, features a modular system with a broad selection of lenses and the first camera to implement automatic lens diaphragm. It is met with great success. Price was ~$400 which was a great deal of money for the time.

In May, Canon markets its first SLR camera, the Canonflex.

The Zenza Bronica is the first Japanese 6x6cm format camera with interchangeable lenses and film backs.

The Olympus-Pen compact camera is the first Japanese half-frame 35mm camera.