Pentax (Asahi Kogaku)

Asahi Optical Company was founded in 1919, and made projector and camera lenses until the early 1930s. Their claim to fame, however, was the 1951 introduction of the first 35mm Japanese SLR – Asahiflex I. And as if one great innovation wasn’t enough, the company’s Asahiflex IIb was the first SLR to feature an instant-return mirror. The Asahiflex line would eventually become what we know today as Pentax.

A size for everyone – (l-r) Pentax 6×7, Spotmatic SP, Auto 110.

As with a few other camera brands in the ’60s and ’70s, US importers would often rebadge the camera for the home market. Honeywell imported the Asahi and tweaked the name a bit – the Asahi S2 was the same as the Honeywell H2, etc.

The Pentax brand is still around – although it has been traded about for the last two decades. In 2007, Pentax merged with Hoya, and in 2011 Hoya sold the imaging branch of Pentax to Ricoh.

If I had to choose one camera manufacturer that I believe had the biggest impact on photography as we know it, Pentax would be it. Champions of the the SLR concept, they could also be recognized as creators of both the smallest SLR system (Auto 110) and one of the largest (Pentax 67).

And speaking of that, I thought it would make an interesting video to put those two up against each other in a shoot. Check it out!

More Pentax Resources
Pentax Focusing Screens	Pentax LX Finders
System Brochure & Manual (PDF) Pentax Auto 110 System	Sales Brochure (PDF) *Pentax K-Series Lenses & Accessories*
Sales Brochure (PDF) *Pentax Lenses &* *Accessories*	Sales Brochure (PDF) *Pentax 6×7 System*
Manual (PDF) *Spotmatic Operating Manual*	Manual (PDF) Takumar Interchangeable Lenses
Vintage Pentax Ads (50s-70s)	Vintage Pentax Ads (80s)