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in: Japanese camera makers, Japanese lens makers, Pentax, Pages using ISBN magic links

Changes: Pentax

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* Pentax K-m - 2008 - also sold as Pentax K2000D in North America
  
* Pentax K-m - 2008 - also sold as Pentax K2000D in North America
 
* [[Pentax K-7]] - 2009
  
* [[Pentax K-7]] - 2009
  +
* Pentax K-x - 2009
  +
* Pentax 645D - 2010
   
 
=== Point and Shoot Cameras ===
  
=== Point and Shoot Cameras ===
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== Links ==
  
== Links ==
  +
* [http://www.pentaximaging.com/ Official Pentax Imaging Web Site] (including [http://www.pentaximaging.com/camera-lenses/ lens product list])
 
* [http://www.pentax.co.uk Pentax UK official website]
  
* [http://www.pentax.co.uk Pentax UK official website]
 
* [http://www.pentaxuser.co.uk UK based Club for Pentax Camera owners with forum]
  
* [http://www.pentaxuser.co.uk UK based Club for Pentax Camera owners with forum]

Revision as of 09:51, 25 September 2009

Pentax is a Japanese camera maker, founded in 1919.

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 is set to be completed on October 1, 2007. The new name will be 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 - 2005
  • Pentax *ist DL 2005 - also sold by Samsung as GX-1L
  • Pentax *ist DS2 2005 - also sold by Samsung as GX-1S
  • Pentax K110D - 2006
  • Pentax K100D - 2006
  • Pentax K10D - 2006 - also sold by Samsung as Samsung GX-10
  • 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 645D - 2010

Point and Shoot Cameras

35mm film

K-mount autofocus SLR

  • Pentax *ist
  • Pentax MZ-S
  • Pentax PZ-1 (Z-1)
  • Pentax PZ-1p (Z-1p)
  • Pentax SF7 (SF10)
2753832006_cd8fbd5c08_t.jpg
  • Pentax SFX (SF1)
  • Pentax SFXn (SF1n)
  • Pentax MZ-3
  • Pentax MZ-30
  • Pentax MZ-50
  • Pentax MZ-5N
  • Pentax MZ-7
  • Pentax MZ-M

K-mount manual focus SLR

Pentax K series:

128338947_bdd0afb218_t.jpg

Pentax M series:

353054245_d5d7e1efca_t_d.jpg

Pentax A series:

Pentax P series

Other:

Screw-mount Pentax SLR

47712649_8ceda2862b_t.jpg

Asahiflex SLR

150671964_42eaed5f36_t.jpg

Compact

3530101983_cd53e2c513_t.jpg
  • Pentax Espio
  • Pentax Espio 80
  • Pentax Espio 80V
  • Pentax Espio 115
  • Pentax Espio 115M
  • Pentax ESPIO 125M
  • Pentax ESPIO 140
  • Pentax ESPIO 145M
  • Pentax ESPIO 150SL
  • Pentax ESPIO 170SL
  • Pentax ESPIO 200
  • Pentax Espio 738
  • Pentax ESPIO 738S
  • Pentax Espio 928
  • Pentax Espio Mini / UC-1
  • Pentax IQZoom 70
3951827579_dff5d730ca_t.jpg
  • Pentax PC35AF (and PC35AF-M DATE)
  • Pentax PC-100
  • Pentax PC-300 / PC-300 Date
  • Pentax PC-303
  • Pentax PC-50 / PC-50 Date
  • Pentax PC-500 / PC-500 Date
  • Pentax PC-505 / PC-505 Date
  • Pentax PC-606 / PC-606 Date
  • Pentax Pino 35M
  • Pentax Sport

645 Medium Format

Manual Focus

Autofocus

6×7 Medium Format

1969-present

110 film

22827035_780ebea7e1_t.jpg

1979-1983 interchangeable lens SLR

APS film

Asahi lenses on cameras from other makers

Not all examples of the cameras listed below have Asahi lenses.

Lenses not labeled as by Asahi

For Konishiroku:

For the predecessors of Minolta:

The Heliostar lenses were perhaps assembled by Asahi (see the discussion there).

Lenses labeled as by Asahi

Notes

  1. ↑ Yazawa, p.12 of Camera Collectors' News no.247.
  2. ↑ Yazawa, p.12 of Camera Collectors' News no.247.
  3. ↑ The Coronar and Promar lenses are attributed to Asahi in various sources, and this attribution is confirmed by the "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" ("Inquiry into Japanese cameras"), lens items Lb5, Lb39, Lc9 and N2.
  4. ↑ Its address in 1943 was Tōkyō-to Itabashi-ku Itabashi-chō (東京都板橋区板橋町). Source: "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" ("Inquiry into Japanese cameras").
  5. ↑ Japanese version of the news release found in the Hoya official website. The name "HOYA PENTAX HD Corporation" is written in capital letters.

Bibliography

  • "Kokusan shashinki no genjōchōsa" (国産写真機ノ現状調査, Inquiry into Japanese cameras), listing Japanese camera production as of April 1943. Reproduced in Supuringu kamera de ikou: Zen 69 kishu no shōkai to tsukaikata (スプリングカメラでいこう: 全69機種の紹介と使い方, Let's try spring cameras: Presentation and use of 69 machines). Tokyo: Shashinkogyo Syuppan-sha, 2004. ISBN 4-87956-072-3. Pp.180–7.
  • Yazawa Seiichirō (矢沢征一郎). "Renzu no hanashi (157) Happī" (レンズの話[157]ハッピー, Lens story [157] The Happy). In Camera Collectors' News no.247 (January 1998). Nishinomiya: Camera Collectors News-sha. Pp.11–4. (On the beginning of the company.)

Links

In Japanese:

In French/ English :

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