Pentax
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company_logo = Image:Pentax logo.png | company_slogan = for your precious moments | foundation = Tokyo, Japan (1919) | location = Tokyo, Japan | key_people = Fumio Urano, President & CEO | num_employees = 1,661 (as of March 31, 2005; non-consolidated PENTAX Corp. only) | revenue = Template:Loss 133 billion Yen (Business year ending March 31, 2005) |) | industry = Imaging | products = Cameras and photographic equipment; Binoculars, spotting scopes and telescopes; Medical fiberscopes and endoscopes; Medical fine ceramics products; Information and communications products; Component products; Industrial products; Eyeglass lenses | homepage = PENTAX Worldwide Gateway|
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Contents |
The Company
PENTAX Corporation (ペンタックス株式会社) Template:Tyo is a Japanese company founded in 1919 as 旭光学工業合資会社; Asahi Kōgaku Kōgyō Gōshi Gaisha, spectacle lens manufacturers. In 1938 they changed their name to Asahi Optical Corporation, by which time they were also manufacturing camera/cine lenses. In the lead-up to World War II, Asahi Optical devoted much of its time to fulfilling military contracts for optical instruments. At the end of the war Asahi Optical was disbanded by the occupying powers, being allowed to re-form in 1948. The company resumed its pre-war activities, manufacturing binoculars and consumer camera lenses for Konica and Minolta. In 1952 Asahi Optical introduced their first camera, the Asahiflex (the first Japanese SLR). Since then company has been primarily known for its photographic products. The company adopted its current name, 'Pentax Corporation', in 2002. Today is one of the world's largest optical companies, producing still cameras, binoculars, and spectacle lenses as well as a variety of other optical instruments. In 2004 Pentax had about 6000 employees.
Cameras
The 1950s marked the emergence of the Japanese photographic industry. The Korean War had seen a huge influx of journalists and photographers to the Far East. There they came into contact with the Japanese photographic industry; companies such as Nikon and Canon turning out copies and derivatives of German photographic instruments of the time such as the Leica and Contax rangefinder and lenses. These cameras and lenses favourably impressed those who came across them and led to considerable growth for their manufacturers. This period of growth led the development of Asahi Optical's first camera.
The Asahiflex Series
Asahi Optical introduced its first 35mm camera in 1952. Unlike the majority of Japanese camera manufacturers of the time, Asahi made a conscious decision not to produce a mere German rangefinder copy, a relatively simple task. Asahi's designers were convinced of the inherent superiority of the SLR and so proceeded along these lines. This effort resulted in the Asahiflex I, which was also the first Japanese SLR. Image:Asahiflex IIb Model I.jpg
The Asahiflex I had a non-interchangeable waist-level viewfinder, with a direct optical viewfinder for eye-level use. The Asahiflex I had non-returning mirror and shutter speeds from 1/25 to 1/500. The camera used the M37 screw mount. The Asahiflex went through some minor modifications for flash use, resulting in the IA. With the IIB a key advance was made - the quick-return mirror. The problem of mirror black-out was one of the main problems with prior SLR designs, greatly reducing usability and leading to the greater popularity of the rangefinder. With the IIB there emerged the first practical quick-return mirror, a vital innovation and one which was quickly adopted by other manufacturers. With the final model in the series, the IIA, the Asahiflex gained slow speeds from 1/25th of a second to 1/2 of a second.
- Asahiflex I (1952 - 1953)
- Asahiflex IA (1953 - 1954)
- Asahiflex IIB (1954 - 1956)
- Asahiflex IIA (1955 - 1957)
Asahi-Pentax Series (pre Spotmatic)
The Asahiflex was an excellent camera, but the market demanded more. The last drawback of the Asahiflex was that the camera lacked a pentaprism; it was very difficult to use the camera in a vertical position and taking pictures of moving objects was almost impossible. The small viewfinder on top of the camera was of little use when the photographer wanted to use a 135mm or 500mm lens. The problem was recognized by Asahi, and in 1957 Asahi Optical's first SLR in its modern form was introduced.
The Asahi Pentax is widely recognised as one of the pivotal SLR designs of the 20th century. The form and layout of the Asahi Pentax (often referred to by collectors as the 'AP') exerted tremendous influence over the next 30 years of SLR design. The AP was not necessarily technologically innovative, most of the technologies present had already been developed. What the AP represented, however, was the first time that the best SLR technologies of the time had been brought together in one compact package. As well as the inherent advantages of the SLR design the AP incorporated instant mirror return, a hinged film back for easy loading and the now firmly established rapid thumb-wind advance on the right of the camera. Compared with the cameras of the time, the AP represented a breakthrough in convenience and usability. The AP dropped the M37 mount and instead utilised the M42 screw mount, first introduced with the German Contax S in 1949. The Asahi Optical lenses bore the 'Takumar' name and quickly gained a high reputation.
There is some confusion about the etymology of the name, some sources claim it was licensed from VEB Zeiss Ikon, and derived from the combination "PENTAprism" and "contaX". The explanation on pentax.com does not mention Contax or Zeiss Ikon at all, and states that the name was formed from "PENTAprism" and "refleX", being the reflex mirror of an SLR camera. A third variation substitutes "Asahiflex" for "reflex", which is at least logical as the Asahiflex cameras had waist-level viewfinders and therefore the pentaprism of the Asahi Pentax would have been a significant differentiating feature.
The AP went through various iterations until 1964. Each successive model incorporated minor improvements, the most noticeable being the incorporation of the two shutter speed dials (one for high speeds and one for low speeds) into one. The AP of 1957 is externally almost identical to the 1964 SV.
Spotmatic Series
However, by the 1960s the clamour for in-camera exposure metering was rising. It was possible to attach an external CdS (Cadmium sulfide) exposure meter to the later AP-derived models, but in 1960 the next breakthrough arrived. At the 1960 Photokina camera show, Asahi exhibited the Spot-matic prototype. This camera took exposure measurements, via a spotmeter, through the taking lens, an incredible innovation. The camera excited tremendous attention and in 1964 the first production Spotmatic (hyphen dropped) emerged. The Spotmatic was virtually identical to the prototype, however the spotmeter was replaced with an all over average reading exposure meter - in order to give more consistent results. The camera was an instant success and was snapped up by the thousand, although Asahi had been beaten into production by the Topcon RE Super which went on sale in April 1963; the Topcon failed to attract the same degree of commercial success.
In 1966 Asahi Optical had produced one million SLR cameras since the first Asahiflex of 1952. It took them another three years, until 1969 to reach two million, such was the popularity of the Spotmatic. This period was a time of complete pre-eminence for Asahi Optical. During the Spotmatic era Asahi were manufacturing more SLRs per month than all the other camera manufacturers combined. One of the technological highlights was the Electro-Spotmatic of 1971. This camera was one of the very first to incorporate automatic exposure. The series concluded in 1973 with the introduction of the Spotmatic F (now incorporating open-aperture metering rather than the stop-down metering of the early models).
However by the mid-1970s the limitations of the M42 mount were being felt. By this time most other manufacturers had opted for the bayonet lens mount in one form or another. It was a great step for Asahi Optical to take but the M42 screw mount, by now widely known as 'Pentax screw mount', had reached the end of its useful life. Pentax were now to adopt the lens mount that would see them through the next 30 years.
K Mount
Image:K-mount-early-(Pentax-ME).jpg
K Series
- K2 (1975 - 1980)
- KX (1975 - 1977)
- KM (1975 - 1977)
- K1000 (1975 - 1997)
Three new models were introduced at once in 1975: the K2, KM and KX. The KM and KX were almost identical in features and operation to the Spotmatic F. The K2, the flagship model of the line, incorporated aperture priority autoexposure with a fully manually selectable range of shutter speeds from 1s to 1/1000. The only other aperture priority camera Pentax had made up to this point, the ES series, only had manual shutter speeds from 1/60 upwards. A later addition to the K series was the K1000, later to find fame as the perennial camera of choice for photography students.
What set these cameras apart from any prior Pentax was the removal of the M42 lens mount. With the K series of cameras, Pentax followed its rivals and introduced its own bayonet mount, the K mount. This new lens mount, still the basis for Pentax lenses and cameras today, offered greater convenience and enabled the production of faster lenses such as the 50mm f/1.2. Eager to keep M42 users in the Pentax system, an M42-K Mount adaptor was offered, enabling M42 users to continue to use their existing lenses (with loss of automation).
The K series cameras followed the design ethos of the time, big and heavy. But scarcely had the K series been introduced than Pentax were working on a new camera line, a new camera line reflecting a new ethos - one which continues to influence Pentax to this day.
M Series
The M series cameras were noted for their compact size, among the smallest and lightest 35mm SLRs ever made. They were all based on the same basic camera body, and all except the manual-exposure MX featured aperture-priority exposure automation. The ME-F was an early attempt at an autofocus SLR.
- ME-F
- ME (1976 - 1980)
- ME Super (1980 - 1987)
- MG (1982 - 1985)
- MV (1979 - 1982)
- MV1 (1979 - 1982)
- MX (1976 - 1985)
A Series
The A series added fully-programmed exposure control (adjusting both aperture and shutter speed automatically) to the feature set of the M series. To enable control of the lens aperture by the camera body, they used the new KA-mount, a backward-compatible modification which also allowed the array of standard K-mount lenses to be used in manual and aperture-priority exposure modes.
- superA/superPROGRAM (1983 - 1987)
- programA/programPLUS (1984 - 1988)
- A3/A3000 (1985 - 1987)
LX
The LX model was a rugged, professional-grade competitor to the Nikon F-series, Olympus OM-series, and Contax RTS cameras.
- LX (1980 - 2001)
P Series
- P5/P50
- P3/P30
- P3n/P30n
SF Series
Z/Pz Series
MZ/ZX Series
*ist Series (Film)
Digital
MZ-D Prototype
*ist Series (Digital)
In 2003 Pentax released their first Digital SLR, the Pentax *ist D which uses a 6mp CCD. In 2004 Pentax released the Pentax *ist DS, their first real consumer model (retailing under $1000 USD). In 2005 Pentax released the Pentax *ist DL, a model with fewer features than the DS and a lower price. All Pentax's digital SLRs are compatible with K-mount lenses, and M42 (42mm screw mount) lenses (with adaptor). Due to the smaller size of the CCD, lenses have a magnification of 1.5x the original focal length. Pentax created DA and D-FA models of new lenses for their digital SLRs, which still feature the K-mount but have a smaller back-focus element designed specifically for use with the Digital SLR lineup.
Medium format
Pentax is one of the few camera manufacturers still producing medium format cameras. At the time of writing, there are two offerings, one in the 6 x 7 cm format and one in the 6 x 4.5 cm format. Both of these use the 120 film format, which is a roll film. These cameras build on the Pentax SLR design experience, and the shape of the cameras is broadly similar to a 35mm SLR camera. By contrast, other medium format cameras by makers such as Mamiya and Bronica tend to be cube-shaped.
Other information
In 2005, Pentax partnered with Samsung to share work on future camera technologies and recapture market ground from Nikon and Canon. It is rumored that Samsung and Pentax will release new DSLR siblings from this agreement.
Pentax's main competitors include Canon, Konica Minolta, Leica, Nikon, and Olympus.