Welcome to Nikon's Small World.

The Nikon International Small World Competition is dedicated to furthering creativity and excellence in photomicrography. Combining microscopy and photography, a photomicrographer is able to capture an image of the world that the naked eye cannot see.

First Place, 2007 Competition Gloria Kwon Memorial Sloan-Kettering Insititute New York City, New York, USA Double transgenic mouse embryo, 18.5 days (17x) Brightfield, Darkfield, Fluorescence

2007 Small World Screen Saver - Enjoy the beautiful digital images that were chosen as winners of the 2007 annual Small World Competition on your own personal computer as a screen saver. Small World screen savers have been developed for computers utilizing the Windows (95, 98, NT, 2000, and XP) operating system and are available as free downloads to our visitors.

Purchase Nikon's Small World 2008 Calendar - The Nikon Small World 2008 Calendar is printed in full color on 8.5 x 11 semi-gloss paper and spiral bound for mounting on the wall. Included in the calendar are the top 20 prize winners, the 16 honorable mentions, and all 62 images of distinction. Winning entries included insects, recrystallized chemicals and biochemicals, fluorescently labeled tissue sections, plants, various microorganisms, liquid crystals, and fibers. This year's contest drew entrants from a record 59 countries, as well as from a diverse range of academic and professional disciplines. Winners came from such fields as chemistry, biology, materials research, botany, and biotechnology.

A photomicrograph is a technical document that can be of great significance to science or industry. But a good photomicrograph is also an image whose structure, color, composition, and content is an object of beauty, open to several levels of comprehension and appreciation.

The Nikon Small World Competition is open to anyone with an interest in photography through the microscope. Truly international in scope, entries have been received from the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Winners have included both professionals and hobbyists.

The subject matter for this year's contest is unrestricted and any type of light microscopy technique is acceptable, including phase contrast, polarized light, fluorescence, interference contrast, darkfield, confocal, deconvolution, and mixed techniques. Entries submitted to Nikon are then judged by an independent panel of experts who are recognized authorities in the area of photomicrography and photography. These entries are judged on the basis of originality, informational content, technical proficiency and visual impact.

Entries may be submitted either on film (in 35 millimeter transparency format) or uploaded digitally through your web browser. The links below provide options for entering the contest.

Digital Entries - Entrants may enter Nikon's Small World Competition by uploading digital images directly to our servers. Before you begin, read the Contest Rules and prepare your images for uploading according to the instructions. You may also download a 2008 Competition Entry Form in portable document format (*.PDF) for submission of entries by mail.

Prize List - Winners will receive one of 20 prizes, sorted according to rank in the competition. First place is a vacation trip valued at $3000 (US) or the equivalent amount of photographic, scientific, or industrial equipment and accessories at their suggested retail selling prices in the USA. Honorable mention winners will receive an 16 x 20-inch print of their entries.

Exhibition Tour Schedule - An eclectic group of striking scientific images will soon have viewers asking "What is that?" at a museum near you. These twenty photographs, submitted by photomicrographers from around the globe, are winners of the 32nd Annual Nikon Small World International Photomicrography Competition, and are touring 23 cities between October 2006 and October 2008.

Small World Gallery - The Nikon Small World Gallery gives you a glimpse into a world that most have never seen. It is a window into a universe that can only be seen through the lens of a microscope. Included in the Small World Gallery are images from the 2007 contest winners and the 1st place winners for the past 33 years, all the way back to the beginning of the competition.