Pentax Camera Company History

Asahi Kogaku Goshi Kaisha began life in November 1919, producing spectacle lenses from the small shop in the Toshima district of Tokyo. But film photography fans will know it best from that name it started sporting on a camera in 1957 – Pentax.

The business operating now as Ricoh Company Ltd. was originally founded in 1919, beneath the name Asahi Optical Joint Stock Co. and launched its first SLR camera in the 1950s under the PENTAX name. Pentax was born during the Japanese bonfire of large national corporations at the turn of the 20th century, celebrating its centenary in November 2019. It began life as a lens manufacturer for spectacles, progressing to the camera and cine lenses by the time it changed its name to the Asahi Corporation in 1938. As with most camera companies, Pentax switched to manufacturing military optics during World War II before being disbanded by the occupying Allied forces. After that it reformed in 1948 and continued manufacturing lenses for Konica and Minolta.

Exertis Broadcast Makes

photo ever produced, has entered Photography Monthly magazine’s list. Pentax placed four cameras on Photography Monthly magazine’s set of top 50 cameras in history in 2012. The film is loaded onto a holder, which is essentially several spool holders and a pressure plate attached to a removable camera backplate. Once it’s loaded, the holder is positioned in to the camera back and secured by turning the key on the holder.
influence the caliber of your equipment and the range of accessories compatible with it. This is obviously not a complete set of every camera brand around, but it will help point the way for you to make good purchasing decisions for the photographic desires and needs.

  • GoPro makes a small but reliable selection of compact action cameras that are ideal for outdoor sports such as for example kayaking, rock climbing and downhill slalom skiing.
  • Founded in 1919, Ricoh Imaging produces the award-winning line of PENTAX DSLR cameras, lenses and sport optics equipment, and also Ricoh’s offering of stylish and compact digital cameras and 360° cameras.
  • The selected aperture value and shutter speed are shown in the viewfinder.
  • Arriving at you fromTony and Chelsea Northrup, this awesome video dives deep into the history of the Pentax company and the many events that brought it to where it really is today.

The company was originally called Asahi Kogaku Goshi Kausha and operated as a small family business engaged in the production of optical materials in Tokyo, Japan. From 1919 to 1923, Asahi Kogaku Goshi Kausha produced exclusively glasses and, from there, the company added targets for the film and binocular industry to the production list. In other words, the mirrorless camera market has its top 3 brands holding 74.6% market share, and the DSLR market has its mega-duopoly holding a whopping 96.7% market share.
On October 1, 2011, Ricoh acquired all shares of Pentax Imaging Corp. and renamed the brand new subsidiary Pentax Ricoh Imaging Company, Ltd. Hoya will continue to use the Pentax brand name for his or her medical related products such as endoscopes.

Pentax P70

As well as home TVs in a number of sizes, Samsung makes components for video displays in venues as large as sports arenas. While the survey is still in progress (it ends on 5/27), over 9,000 respondents have previously voted, providing a fascinating snapshot of consumer sentiment in Japan.

“This Pentax 24×36 could have sort of anticipated what was released about a quarter of a century later by Franke & Heidecke as Rolleiflex 2000F,” Kroger writes on his site. Which is sad, I really like my K-1 and I have the 3 Amigos which are stunning lenses, and I’d pay lots of money to be able to use my current Pentax lenses on a complete frame mirrorless body that’s smaller and lighter . In 1975, Pentax tried to take a march on the lens mount wars by introducing the highly successful K-mount. Designed to exactly the same flange distance because the M42 lens mount , the K-mount replaced the aging screw-fit design with a bayonet-type, rendering it easy for manufacturers to change existing lens models.

Pentax 33wr

From beginners to prosumers to full time pros, Nikon has a range of photographic equipment to match those needs. Outside of the Japanese market, Nikkor lenses from Nikon started earning an excellent reputation for image quality and mechanical ruggedness. International press core photographers were putting Nikkor lenses on the Leica and Contax cameras and raving about them to everyone. The Pentax Auto 110, an SLR launched in 1978 with three interchangeable lens options, was ranked 44th. The Auto 110 is considered a pioneer of compact cameras and was considered, at launch, to be the smallest professional-quality interchangeable lens camera. Pentax currently produces a lot more than 20 professional cameras, over fifty percent which are SLRs, with more than 50 forms of lenses and around 60 accessories, along with producing a lot more than 15 digital camera models.

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