The popular Japanese companies that have been making cameras for ages were making them for Film cameras. And they have been making films too. When the world became digital, people thought that these companies would go out of business and that only companies that specialize in electronics would make good cameras. Well there are Panasonic and Sony cameras, but even today in the world of digital cameras Nikon rules.
They know how to make lenses. And when taking a photograph, it is the lens that matters, and makes sure that you get a good picture and the part played by the film or the digital CCD is quite low. Ofcourse it is important, but anyone with a bit of technology can make a good CCD and Nikon should be stuffed with money that it will not really have a problem to set up its own R&D to develop a good CCD for its cameras. Nikon still rules the world, and the box camera people will never realize it.