[Steve.Ledger]

(Katakana) ニコン = ni ko n
Pronounced with a short 'i'
Paste the katakana here to translate.

[AdrianN]

Because the vowel "i" is pronounced as "ai" in a lot of words that begin with Ni. Night and nice, for example. Even the pronunciation of "i" in words like "nickle" is more of a "neh" sound rather than the "knee" sound of pronunciation of に/い.

That's not entirely true. There are many words that start with ni and don't use the dipthong /ai/, and nickel (and japanese ni) is pronounced with a short i, rather than long i or schwa.

But, anyway, I think I found the answer: something to do with someone famous mispronouncing it in a song and now all Americans say it incorrectly.

[Steve.Ledger]

Here's how the Japanese pronounce it.
.
[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzTVXoIrfG8[/YT]

[Steve Beswick]

My 1Ds mark III
felt so complete
till some guy with a Pentax
started splashing,
laughing something about "weather sealing"?

Ooh girl I need a new camera
ever since my Canon got wet, girl.
Ooh girl I need a new camera.
what happens when your Nikon gets wet girl?

It is a really funny video, and it makes a good point. I just couldn't resist!

Edit: I just posted this on youtube. Flamewar in 5.. 4.. 3.. 2..

---

Last edited by Steve Beswick; 11-28-2009 at 11:47 PM.

[doc.mark.dimo]

Mark Dimalanta would laugh at them clowns.

the video was entertaining, and I almost felt that I could feel the last line coming because they needed a word to rhyme.

If it were any consolation, its like the old adage... "its always better when people ARE talking about you, then never talking about you at all."

It seems they are merely poking fun. Kind of like this... if you complain and say a porsche "sucks"... We all know they don't, but they have reached a stature that whether you poke fun at them or not, it really doesn't matter.

I think, PENTAX has always been the thorn at Canon and Nikon's side. Pentax seems to always innovate, be better value, and we still have the best coating in the business.

It always made me question why Canon chose to name their latest APS-S with a "7" seeming to ride the glory wave of the "K7".

By years end, we will begin to see the Pentax K7 garnering more awards, whether that means anything or not, at least the people are taking notice and talking...

In the end for me, its always about the work I am able to achieve with my gear of choice, and that has always been PENTAX!

[jogiba]

By years end, we will begin to see the Pentax K7 garnering more awards, whether that means anything or not, at least the people are taking notice and talking...

I agree, with 1st place in Trusted Reviews and Adorama Learning Center Readers' Choice Camera of 2009 in the last week this is going to help get the word out on the K-7 .

[Pentax Convert]

hahaha! this video is the bulls**t that made my day funny again and remember why I'm in Pentax family

Brilliantly put. Pentaxians are a much classier lot, and how couldn't they be. Just look at their cameras!

Anyway, I'm not one to talk, I only have a K1000 and ONE lens at the mo.

[MJB DIGITAL]

Actually this is very amusing! Just more evidence of what drunkeness does to creativity.

Besides, we all know that Nikon lens the girl licked isn't waterproof. How soon before you see fungus inside that baby? I mean the lens, of course

That is a Canon 85 1.2 L, I believe. That lens is soooo rad. Open wide, though, it has some weird circular flaring around specular highlights. I don't care, that lens is awesome. If I'm ever on that lens and it starts raining, though, I give it back to the owner and get my pentax gear out to finish the job alone while canon and nikon gears run for cover. 8)

[unixrevolution]

ps. why do Americans pronounce Nikon as nai-kon?

Because that's how Nikon says it in their own US ads? It's the natural pronunciation for that string of letters if you speak like we Yanks do.

(Katakana) ニコン = ni ko n
Pronounced with a short 'i'
Paste the katakana here to translate.

Why don't we just start pronouncing Pentax as "Pentakkusu" while we're at it?

Finally, I'm all for a little cross-brand poking-fun, but some of the comments on this video are just terrible. Case in point:

Photographers are wanna be artists.........who just can't.

[Ratmagiclady]

If it were any consolation, its like the old adage... "its always better when people ARE talking about you, then never talking about you at all."

I will note for those not born with silver soppn placement being their biggest problem, there are in fact practical limitations to this marketing notion. Which is, doubtless not by accident, something that is 'conventional wisdom' ...dispensed by *Hollywood agents.*


Your mileage may vary, I assure you.

[r0ckstarr]

About 5 seconds into the video, I stabbed pencils into my ears.

[SpecialK]

ps. why do Americans pronounce Nikon as nai-kon?

So we don't sound like you.

Seriously, we bash a lot of other words too.

But at least we don't spell "whining" as "whinging".

[Mike Cash]

(and japanese ni) is pronounced with a short i, rather than long i or schwa.
.

You mean I've been pronouncing Japanese incorrectly for the last 26 years? Rather mean of them not to have pointed it out to me in all this time. Thanks for the lesson. Wanna help me out with Ryobi?

[kalison]

Horrible.

I know that this is just kinda fun with the whole Canon vs. Nikon stuff... but still. Its pretty bad. There are some lyrics in there that arent amusing either.

As a former Canon shooter, I really felt dirty after watching it. Ashamed.

[Blue]

I like to think it's due to the way you yanks like pronounce "i" as "eye".
We tend to say it "nik- kon" down under. And for Iraq, we say "e-raq" (like the "i" in irresistable), instead of "eye-rack".

There in is your first problem. There are many regional accents in the U.S. and variations within those. Just like calling every American a yank would be like us calling an Aussie a Kiwi. Many dialects in the Appalachians, Blue Ridge etc. have differences similar to what one would find around different parts of the British Isles.

Mass media has confounded things.