I don’t know about you but if I make it to a hundred I’d like people to make a bit of a fuss. Some fancy whisky, a day out somewhere nice. And of course a tribute video. Preferably one featuring an astronaut, dodgy acting and an epic Hollywood trailer ‘This Season’ style voiceover.

Turns out I’m on the same page as Nikon (despite having been a Canon shooter for the past ten years, ahem). The company, founded in 1917, has lost no time this new year in releasing a fabulously over-the-top corporate video celebrating their history.

Yes, there’s an astronaut. In space! Taking very uncomfortable pictures of the side of a space thing. A climber! Climbing! And photographing, in a very safe and controlled manner because he is a professional climber-slash-photographer.

There’s a moment for the company’s ‘Semiconductor lithography system,’ which I’m absolutely certain is very important because it features some CGI, nice pictures of silicon chips and white-coated Science Researchers, doing Science.

As the music builds to a crescendo, I feel the power rising in my soul as well. LIFE photog David Douglas Duncan certainly does: he has a Carry On moment when his eye is caught by a Pretty Lady On the Street in Japan (and makes the cover of the magazine).

But hang on, what’s this? ‘Neekon,’ you say, Mr Gravel-Voiced VO guy? Not ‘Naikon’? Blimey. I’ve been saying it wrong all this time. Well I’ve definitely learned something today, other than the fact that Nikon have manufactured over 100 million Nikkor lenses. That’s… a lot.

And we end on the revelation that ‘portions of this video are creative dramatizations.’ Well Nikon, we at Photo Gear News salute you, both for reaching such an impressive milestone and for choosing to mark it in such glorious fashion. Here’s to the next 100 years of cameras, technological progress, and maybe making lenses that focus the right way (just kidding, we realise that’s never going to happen).