🚣🏻 😓 🥥 The history of Pentax (article plus video) 🏘️ 🙏🏽 👩🏾‍⚕️

Modern SLR cameras still use the inventions of engineers who worked at Pentax. Once the production of their cameras was superior to Canon and Nikon combined. By the end of the century, Pentax could no longer compete with them on equal terms, but at the same time did not stop production and occupied its own special niche.How did this happen? Let's find out.

Start

The history of the Pentax company began in 1919, when Kumao Kajiwara opened a small production for the production of glasses and binoculars. The company was called the Asahi Optical Joint-Stock Company (ASAHI Optical Joint-Stock Company). "Asahi" in Japanese means "rising sun." There was still a long way to the name Pentax. Only a few employees worked for the company, but in ten years it has managed to become one of the leaders in lens manufacturing in Japan.

The secret of the company was in a special way of polishing glasses. While everyone used wool, Asahi Optical used asphalt resin. Engineers borrowed this method from telescope and telescope technology.

At this time, they were noticed by Konika, already a serious company with a forty-year history by that time, which in 1933 proposed Asahi Optical to begin production of lenses for Pearlette cameras. Konika had a simple goal: to reduce production costs and make cameras more affordable. Prior to connecting Asahi, many components were imported from Germany and other countries. Localization has helped to increase popularity by reducing prices. So, Konica cameras with lenses from Asahi have become one of the most popular in the Japanese islands.

There were a lot of orders. And so, a year later, Asahi Optical built a new plant on the outskirts of Tokyo. Lenses were produced there for the leaders of the Japanese photo market of that time - the companies Konika and Chiyoda Optical (Chiyoda Optical). In 1936, the latter introduced the Minolta Flex model - a two-lens reflex camera made in the image of the German Rolleiflex. The lenses were manufactured by Asahi Optical.

Like many manufacturers of optical equipment of those times, Asahi Optical received government orders for the production of optical sights, binoculars and so on. Then the company was headed by 27-year-old amateur photographer Saburo Matsumoto, who, despite the harsh conditions of the regime, dreamed of producing photographic equipment.

On the company's website and other sources, little information was preserved about the development in wartime, but it is known that in 1945 Tokyo plants were destroyed during the bombing by American troops. Almost all workers died. This was a serious loss for Asahi Optical. The company had debts to suppliers and contractors, and it was impossible to get money for completed orders from the defeated military.

It was possible to pay off debts. Through the sale of surviving equipment and materials. Thanks to this, in 1946, Matsumoto managed to restore part of the production, find workers and receive an order for processing binocular lenses from the occupation forces. By the way, the Nikon company then also carried out orders for the Americans.

News of the refurbished factory quickly spread among industrialists. Asahi Optical began to receive orders for the production of various optical elements. However, until the 1950s, the company acted as a contractor, and not as a manufacturer of its own final product.

Own product

In May 1948, a total solar eclipse was observed in northern Japan. Especially for this event, Asahi Optical created a compact astronomical telescope and produced them in a small batch. Several employees packed their telescopes in backpacks and set off to sell on Hokkaido Island. Although the telescope optical tubes were made of cardboard, the high quality of the lenses compensated for the modest design. This was the right step from several points of view: the study of consumer demand and advertising companies that did not require large expenses.

Short-term success prompted President Matsumoto to decide on his own production of binoculars. The main calculation was on the high quality of the manufactured lenses and on the relatively low competition in the binoculars market. In 1948, Asahi Optical launched a new binoculars on the market - an ultra-compact Jupiter with a six-fold magnification and small 16 mm front lenses (these parameters are usually specified in the 6 × 16 mm format). The device, which provides unprecedented clarity and contrast (thanks in large part to the advanced enlightenment of the lenses) was an incredible success with buyers in Japan and beyond. To meet the increased demand for binoculars, I had to work until late in the evening, and sometimes at night. So the production soon jumped from five hundred pieces a month to several thousand.

The commercial success of Jupiters has seriously strengthened the financial position of the company. Binoculars stood out on the market with lens coating, high quality and durable. Coating lenses from other manufacturers could be ruined by touch. At that time, consumer demand was so great that everything was simply swept off the shelves, regardless of the quality of the goods. But the president of the company, Matsumoto, was determined to produce only high-quality products, for which the company purchased the latest expensive equipment for processing optical surfaces and sent its employees to the laboratory of the University of Nagoya for training. In the market of optical instruments, the authority of the company was rapidly growing - the main capital of Asahi Optical.

In 1950, the customer for the supply of lenses was Sanwa SHOKAI, whose "spy" camera, Micro IIIA (Mycro IIIA), became extremely popular among the soldiers of the occupying forces. The popularity of the mini-camera, which was never used as truly spyware (although, who knows =), happened after people saw it in the hands of Marlene Dietrich who visited Japan. Asahi Optical worked in a very busy rhythm, as the monthly production increased to 25 thousand cameras.

Cameras

By the mid-1950s, there were many companies involved in the production of photographic equipment in Japan. Among them are the now popular Canon, Nikon, Olympus and more lamp Minolta and Mamia. By that time, they had already begun to enter the international market (largely due to the presence in the country of Americans and many journalists from different countries). The military and reporters were fans of German photographic equipment: Lake and Rolleiflex (and Swedish Hasselblad). But these cameras were famous for both German quality and German price. Therefore, Japanese photographers began to simply copy German rangefinder cameras of small (35 mm) and medium format, without making improvements, but selling them at a lower price.

Matsumoto understood that in this way you will not find fame, and decided to launch a fundamentally new product on the market, more modern and perfect than all existing ones. Having carefully studied the products of the leaders of the photographic market, Asahi Optical found that SLR cameras of well-known German manufacturers were not as popular as rangefinder cameras, although they used the same format. Matsumoto's calculation was simple. Low competition among manufacturers of SLR cameras and the high quality of branded optics will allow the company to succeed in the segment of single-lens reflex cameras.

So, the Asahiflex camera became the first Japanese original 35 mm SLR.

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The then SLR cameras had a curious drawback: the mirror that guided the stream of light passing through the lens formed an inverted image from left to right in the viewfinder, which also disappeared for a long time after the shutter was released, regardless of the shutter speed.

Matsumoto understood that releasing another copy of the German camera was somehow not handy for a self-respecting company. He set his designers a difficult task: to construct a 35-mm SLR, which in its dimensions would be close to the rangefinder Lake and at the same time would be devoid of problems with an inverted image. As a result, the leading engineers of the company - Ryohei Suzuki and Nobuyuki Yoshida - had to push hard and set up laboratories right in their homes. But they still succeeded.

Yoshida designed the design of the camera itself, inside of which for the first time it was necessary to place the mechanism for raising the mirror.

Ryokhei Suzuki was responsible for the development of the lens.

Seven months later, in November 1950, the prototype camera was ready. It was decided to shoot the first test film. In case of failure, the developers intended to continue working, and so far not report anything to the president of the company.

But the shots turned out great.

And then Suzuki hastened to report success. Matsumoto was very pleased with these first shots and gave the order to begin production of cameras.

The compact camera had a sturdy metal case, a proprietary 50mm f / 3.5 lens in a brass frame, and a clearly working shutter speed in the range from 1/20 to 1/500 seconds. When the shutter was released, the camera emitted a characteristic click.

At that time, Japan had a rather interesting political situation, and journalists and photo reporters came to the country, who should have liked such a convenient camera. However, despite Matsumoto’s calculations, retailers were suspicious of the new product. In their opinion, the risk of introducing a new product to the market was not justified. But the labor designers at K.Hattori & Co (now Seiko Epson Corporation, which makes Epson printers, not Seiko watches) immediately noticed the new model. Literally examined it from all sides, praised, and even made several improvements. And most importantly, they offered to sell the camera in their stores.

In the spring of 1952, the first batch of one hundred Asahiflex 1 cameras was released.

The shipment was sent to K.Hattori & Co. stores. But the next day, all the cameras were returned to the factory due to the fact that the flash did not synchronize with the shutter. The fact is that the Hattori flash worked with a delay, and during the design, the camera synchronization was tested paired with another flash.

In the fall, a new batch of repaired cameras was sent back to Hattori stores and went on sale.

The camera was praised by photographers of that time, although it could not do without flaws. For example, the shutter vibrated significantly during the descent, and a powerful blow of the mirror slightly threw the camera up. But, most importantly, model No. 1 did not get rid of the main problem of all then DSLRs: the disappearance of the image in the viewfinder while lifting the mirror. Many claimed that SLR cameras could not be built differently, but Matsumoto believed in the power of engineering.

Asahi's second DSLR

The flight of thought from point A to point B took two years. Japanese engineers were able to design a camera with instant auto-mirror and very soft descent. She was named Asahiflex II, and her fate was much more successful than that of the first model. A compact DSLR has appeared on the market that can replace a rangefinder camera. Plus, she had no competitors in the market.

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The first attempt to solve the problem of a slow mirror was made during the development of Asahiflex 1. Everything is arranged as follows: the mirror is mechanically connected to the shutter of the button and, when pressed, the mirror rises and holds in the raised position. When you release the button, it returns to its original position, again opening the viewfinder. Obviously? Well, before that, it was necessary to cock the shutter in the mirrors so that you could again see the image in the viewfinder.

The main difference and advantage of Asahiflex II is the instant mirror return mechanism, an analog of which is equipped with all modern DSLRs. Before the shutter fires, he raises the mirror in a split second, and then instantly lowers it. You do not need to release the button, the image from the viewfinder disappears only for a moment, and besides, there are much fewer vibrations.

This improvement has made the camera easier and more convenient to use. Asahiflex II raised the status of DSLRs to their modern level.

Penta ***

The next revolutionary development of the company was a compact SLR camera, equipped not only with a quick auto-pick-up of the mirror, but also with a pentaprism: a five-sided mirror design that allows you to display an inverted image in the viewfinder. At the same time, the viewfinder has a familiar look for rangefinder (and modern SLR) cameras; the mirror photographer no longer needs to look at it from above. The use of pentaprism significantly reduced light loss during reflection and allowed the construction of a compact optical system.

And also pentaprism gave the name to the chamber by which this material was signed.

The usual decision for today - pentaprism, which is hidden in the same ledge in front of the viewfinder, which is typical for any modern SLR - made a splash at the annual national photo exhibition in 1954. Everyone was interested in when the new product will appear on sale, what will be its final technical characteristics and cost. The manufacturer himself could not give an answer to the last question.

Pentaprisms were then widely used in the production of periscopes, binoculars and other military optics. Actually, thanks to the experience in this area, Asahi Optical engineers came up with the idea to use the same solution in cameras. So, military developments actually formed the basis of the technology, thanks to which there are modern SLR cameras. But for cameras, it was very expensive, because mirror polishing for pentaprisms in those years was carried out manually. For the Ministry of Defense, production costs were not a problem, but a civilian product should cost sane money.

In France, there were special grinding machines, but the price for them was biting - the cost was four times the size of the fixed capital of the company. But Matsumoto took a chance, got into debt and decided to buy equipment. And he was right: automation of production processes allowed Asahi Optical to launch production of the most advanced 35 mm SLR cameras at that time at a very attractive price.

Pentaprism is a pentagonal prism in cross section with two silvery reflective surfaces. The principle of its operation is as follows: passing through the lens, the light reflected from the mirror passes through the focusing screen and falls on the pentaprism. It turns the inverted mirror image on the frosted glass into a straight line, which is then perceived through the eyepiece.

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1957- : Asahi Pentax.

The camera was so popular that they began to call the Asahi Optical company. And the word Pentax itself came about as a result of the merger of the words "PENTAprism" and "refleX". The Pentax brand already existed at that time and belonged to the German company Web Zais-Ikon (VEB Zeiss-Ikon) and Asahi Optical had to re-buy this brand. In the US market, the camera got the name Honeywell Pentax, named after the distribution company Hanivel Corporation.

Pentax Development

In 1962, the Pentax SV was released, equipped with a self-timer. In the US market, this camera came out under the name Honeywell Pentax H3v. Now you can install a miniature Pentax Meter on the camera, which was associated with the shutter speed dial. The model was equipped with a high-speed shutter, with which the photographer could reduce the shutter speed to 1/1000 of a second.

The Asahi Pentax Spotmatic, which entered the market in 1964, became the most popular camera of the decade. The model, which received the 1966 Award “For Good Design” from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry of Japan, became a role model for both the Japanese and German photo industries.

In the 64th year, Asahi released another of her iconic products. Kumao Kajiwara had a brother, Takuma, who, unlike him, did not produce cameras, but used them for their intended purpose. Takuma Kajiwara was recognized as one of the seven greatest photographers in the United States. In honor of him, the legendary lens-fifty Asahi lens - Takumar, which was included in the list of the company's masterpieces today, was named .

In 1969, the world's first 6 × 7 SLR camera was released, the most massive in its class. The device was called Pentax 6 × 7. The camera was equipped with a lens mount and an electronic shutter.

But a much greater achievement of the company was the release in 1971 of the Pentax Spotmatic II camera, on the top panel of which for the first time it was possible to find the same “hot shoe”, which in 1977 became the global standard.

A hot shoe is a slide mount, an invariable attribute of all professional and many amateur cameras. Its fervor is the presence of at least one standard contact for igniting the flash. Accordingly, the old mounts without such contact were immediately dubbed the cold shoe.

In the early 1970s, Asahi Optical took a leading position on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The Beatles influenced the popularity and recognition of Pentax cameras not only among amateur enthusiasts. Pentax had at least three Beatles.

Ringo Starr bought his first Pentax in Japan during the first round. He loved photography almost as much as drumming, but because of the universal popularity that fell on the group, he had to realize his photographic potential in hotel rooms and airplanes. George Harrison also shot at the Pentax. His S1a was sold at auction for four thousand pounds after the death of the musician. Pentax covers half the face of Paul McCartney in the famous portrait. And only John did not want to be like everyone else (but this is not accurate).

Marketing

But the Beatles were not united by Pentax marketing. The company produced very psychedelic commercials, among which the 1964 movie called Black Man's Blues stands out, in which the black man tirelessly repeats Pentax-Pentax-Pentax:

Well, the Japanese would not be Japanese, if they did not turn to the image of a schoolgirl:

Well, here's another video, because Japanese ads can be watched endlessly:

Bayonet K

In 1975, another important stage began for Pentax. The K2 camera model entered the market with a completely new K mount. Prior to this, Pentax produced cameras with the classic M37 and M42 threads.

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Like everything new, not all pentaxists played such a system at the box office, because changing the mount obviously means replacing the entire line of lenses. But Pentax seemed ready for such sentiment and knew how to squeeze the audience. In the same year, two more K-series cameras were released, and to them - 27 lenses with a fixed focal length and four zooms!

This strategy has paid off. Ease of use, variety and quality of performance of the new optics won over many. The K mount itself (with minor changes and maintaining backward compatibility) has survived to this day. And even on the most modern digital SLR Pentax, you can install any lens produced by the company in more than thirty years. That's where the savings and convenience are.

Other historical points

Back in 1971, Pentax was the first manufacturer of photographic optics to apply a multilayer antireflection coating to the lenses of its lenses. We already have technopop video about such coverage .

But Pentax’s legendary lens inventions do not end there. As usual in fairy tales, there should be three good and bad things. Bayonet - one, enlightenment - two, autofocus - three.

But about the latter a bit later.

Perhaps the most legendary camera with a new bayonet mount was the Pentax K1000, released in 1976. Fully mechanical model with a curtain shutter practicing shutter speeds in the range from 1 to 1/1000 seconds. Electricity was required only by the built-in exposure meter. If the batteries were low, you could safely continue to shoot, determining the exposure by eye.

Practice has shown that this unit worked perfectly at temperatures from +40 to −50 degrees, so it was especially fond of extreme photographers. The vast majority of pictures from the peaks of the Himalayan eight-thousanders were made with this camera. Large picture by click The model has lived a long and fascinating life. It was produced for more than twenty years, first in Japan, then at a factory in China. During this time, 2.5 million copies were sold. In 1978, the world's smallest system SLR camera with interchangeable lenses was manufactured. The baby was called Pentax Auto 110. The model was chosen by NASA for filming in space. The choice fell due to weight, only 172 grams.

And in 1981, the company introduced Pentax ME-F - the world's first autofocus DSLR.

The autofocus drive was in the lens along with the batteries, which is why the early autofocus lenses had a very exotic look . This situation was corrected in 1987 with the advent of an improved K-af mount, which allows you to place the motor inside the camera. The first camera with such a bayonet mount was the Pentax SFX, which went down in the history of photography even as the first DSLR with a built-in flash.

In 1991, Pentax released the Z1 professional SLR camera, which won the prestigious Japan Camera'92 title the following year.

Z was the last series of professional Pentax DSLRs; by the end of the 1990s, the company no longer had the resources to fully compete with the gaining popularity of Canon.

Since 1985, the development strategy of Canon was the development of the EOS system - electro-optical system. And already in 1987 came the EOS 650, which marked the beginning of the Canon EOS DSLR series, which is still in production today. The camera supported the new at that time EF mount, which allowed autofocusing using an electric drive built into the lens, rather than into the camera. The high technology of the Canones formed the basis of their marketing strategy and the popularity of advanced cameras began to gain momentum. In Pentax, they relied on the ease of use of cameras and this was a mistake.

But to say that Pentax completely left the world of professional photographic equipment would be wrong. In 1979, the company introduced the Pentax 6 × 7 medium format camera, becoming the only company from the Japanese five leaders that has a medium format system in its arsenal.

Digital age

The six-megapixel * istD (read as Star-East-Dee), introduced in 2003, became the first mass full-fledged digital SLR Pentax. At the time of release, it was the most compact and inexpensive digital SLR. With its introduction, Pentax began to rapidly gain a position in the digital camera market. So, the company significantly expanded the model line of compact cameras, and also began to actively produce new DSLRs.

At the end of 2006, Pentax began to prepare for a merger with Hoya (Hoya Corporation). Hoya’s main goal was to strengthen his medical equipment business with Pentax’s technology. After quite a long negotiations, during which the president of Pentax was replaced, the company nevertheless became part of Hoya in 2008. The latter closed the plant in Tokyo and transferred production to the countries of Southeast Asia. So, all professional and consumer lenses are now manufactured in Vietnam, and DSLRs - in the Philippines.

In the same 2006, the company secured the support of the Korean industrial giant Samsung, which debuted in the digital SLR market with the GX-1S model - the converted Pentax * ist DS2.

Since then, both corporations have introduced new mirror models almost in parallel. Serious Pentax K20D and Samsung GX-20 cameras became the last such pair - the only devices at that time in the semi-pro segment equipped with 14-megapixel arrays.

In 2011, Hoya decided to sell the Pentax to Ricoh, a company specializing in the production of printing and copying equipment. The deal was valued at 124.2 million dollars. The new company was called Pentax Ricoh Imaging Company, and in 2013 the word "Pentax" completely disappeared from the name.

Today, Rico Corporation, continuing to develop the photo direction, focuses on the production of binoculars and telescopes, lenses for glasses, optics for video surveillance systems, geodetic and medical devices, as well as industrial printing complexes. Production of cameras under the Pentax brand is not a priority and is included in the “other” section in financial reports.

But, nevertheless, Pentax cameras have a lot of loyal fans who are ready to prove that there are no better cameras than that. Among the main forum arguments, Pentax owners talk about a large fleet of K-mount lenses that even fit modern cameras. They also praise build quality compared to the Canon and Nikon in the same price range. They necessarily indicate wonderful color rendition and admire the image stabilization mechanism, which works wonders and can be used to compensate for the Earth's rotation in astrophotography.

The merit of Asahi Optical, later Pentax, in the development of photo technology is difficult to overestimate. This is a 35-mm SLR, and a mechanism for soft return of the mirror, and pentaprism. Without these inventions, the photoworld would not be as we know it now. They may not have been able to maintain leadership, but achievements have remained, and continue to remain relevant today.

Current Pentaxes:

Pentax 645 Z	medium format
Pentax K-1 Mark II	full frame
Pentax K70 Pentax KP	crop

This is a text version of the material specifically for Habr. Initially, we made a video with many historical illustrations.

The history of Pentax (article plus video)