Pentax

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The company that would become Pentax was founded in 1919 as Asahi Kōgaku Kōgyō Gōshi-gaisha (旭光学工業合資会社). It was originally an optical company and it produced lenses for various camera models made by other makers. These lenses were not always marked as made by Asahi. For a time the company was the main supplier of the Molta company (renamed Chiyoda in 1937) making the Minolta cameras. For example it made the Coronar lenses equipping the Semi Minolta and the Promar lenses equipping the Auto Semi Minolta.[1]

The company changed status in 1938, becoming Asahi Kōgaku Kōgyō K.K. (旭光学工業株式会社) or Asahi Optical Co. It would keep this name until it became Pentax Corporation (ペンタックス株式会社) in 2002.

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 - still in production
  • 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

Point and Shoot Cameras

  • Pentax Optio 330
  • Pentax Optio 330 RS
  • Pentax Optio 450
  • Pentax Optio S
  • Pentax Optio 33L
  • Pentax Optio 750z

35mm film

K-mount autofocus SLR

  • Pentax *ist
  • Pentax MZ-S
  • Pentax PZ-1 (Z-1)
  • Pentax PZ-1p (Z-1p)
  • Pentax SF7 (SF10)
  • Pentax SFX (SF1)
  • Pentax SFXn (SF1n)

K-mount manual focus SLR

Pentax K series:

128338947_bdd0afb218_t.jpg

Pentax M series:

Pentax A series:

  • Pentax Super-A, Super Program (USA)
  • Pentax Program-A, Program Plus (USA)
  • Pentax A3, A3000 (USA)

Pentax P series

  • Pentax P3 (P30)
  • Pentax P3n (P30n)
  • Pentax P5 (P50)

Other:

Screw-mount Pentax SLR

47712649_8ceda2862b_t.jpg

Asahiflex SLR

150671964_42eaed5f36_t.jpg

645 Medium Format

Manual Focus

  • Pentax 645

Autofocus

6×7 Medium Format

1969-present

  • Pentax 6x7
  • Pentax 67
  • Pentax 67 II

110 film

22827035_780ebea7e1_t.jpg

1979-1983 interchangeable lens SLR

APS film

Cameras from other makers with Asahi lenses

Not all examples of the cameras listed below have Asahi lenses

With lenses not labeled as by Asahi

With lenses labeled as by Asahi

Notes

  1. ↑ The fact that Asahi was the maker of the Coronar and Promar is repeated in various places, but no definitive confirmation of this has been found yet.

Links

In Japanese:

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