Pentax
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Pentax is a Japanese camera maker, founded in 1919.
Contents
History
The company that would become Pentax was founded in 1919 as Asahi Kōgaku Kōgyō G.K. (旭光学工業㈾). It was originally an optical company, beginning by making glasses under the Aoco brand (presumably the acronym of Asahi Optical Company), and made its first Aoco projection lens in 1923.[1] It began to produce camera lenses in the early 1930s, under the impulsion of the CEO Kajiwara Kumao (梶原熊雄) and his closest collaborator Matsumoto Saburō (松本三郎).[2] These lenses were not marked as made by Asahi, and were produced lenses for various camera models made by other makers. From 1933, the company produced Optor and meniscus achromat lenses designed at Rokuoh-sha for Konishiroku models. From the mid-1930s to the end of World War II, the company was also the main supplier of Molta, then Chiyoda Kōgaku Seikō (predecessors of Minolta), whose cameras were equipped with Coronar and Promar lenses.[3]
The company changed status in 1938, becoming Asahi Kōgaku Kōgyō K.K. (旭光学工業㈱) or Asahi Optical Co. based in Tokyo.[4] It would keep this name until it became Pentax Corporation (ペンタックス㈱) in 2002. A merger with the Hoya Corporation was completed on October 1, 2007. The new name is Hoya Pentax HD Corporation (HOYAペンタックスHD㈱).[5]
The first camera produced by Asahi was the Asahiflex, that was also the first Japanese 35mm SLR, made as a prototype in 1951 and released in 1952. One of the models of the Asahiflex series, the Asahiflex IIb, was the first 35mm SLR to have an instant-return mirror, thus solving the problem of mirror blackout which had plagued SLRs up to that time (early SLRs left the mirror in its "up" position until the camera was wound for the next shot, blacking out the viewfinder).
Pentax was originally the name of another 35mm SLR camera model, introduced in 1957 and successor of the Asahiflex. The name is derived from the shape of the prism used in SLR cameras (pentaprism), and the ending deliberately looks like the Zeiss Ikon Contax. In fact, the name Pentax was a property of Zeiss Ikon until they sold it to Asahi Optical Co.
Many Pentax cameras were sold stamped with the name "Honeywell". Actually Honeywell was only a distributor, and these cameras were exactly the same as the ones stamped with the Asahi name.
Digital
SLR
- Pentax MZ-D - 2000 - prototype, never released
- Pentax * ist D - 2003
- Pentax * ist DS - 2004
- Pentax * ist DL - 2005 - also sold by Samsung as GX-1L
- Pentax * ist DS2 - 2005 - also sold by Samsung as GX-1S
- Pentax K100D - 2006
- Pentax K110D - 2006
- Pentax K10D - 2006 - also sold by Samsung as Samsung GX-10
*ist by Φ 錯覺Ψ |
- Pentax K100D Super - 2007
- Pentax K20D - 2008 - also sold by Samsung as Samsung GX-20
- Pentax K200D - 2008
- Pentax K-m - 2008 - also sold as Pentax K2000D in North America
- Pentax K-7 - 2009
- Pentax K-x - 2009
- Pentax K-5 - 2010
- Pentax K-r - 2010
Medium Format SLR
- Pentax 645D - 2010
Point and Shoot Cameras
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35mm filmK-mount autofocus SLR
K-mount manual focus SLRPentax K series: Pentax M series:
Pentax A series:
Pentax P series: Other:
Screw-mount Pentax SLR
Asahiflex SLRCompact
645 Medium FormatManual Focus Autofocus 6×7 Medium Format1969-present 110 film1979-1983 interchangeable lens SLR APS film
Asahi lenses on cameras from other makersNot all examples of the cameras listed below have Asahi lenses. Lenses not labeled as by AsahiFor Konishiroku:
For the predecessors of Minolta:
The Heliostar lenses were perhaps assembled by Asahi (see the discussion there). Lenses labeled as by AsahiNotes
Bibliography
Links
In Japanese: In French/ English :
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