page_title: Pentax
section_title: Early 1950s to 2007
hierarchical_section_title: Pentax / Corporate history / Early 1950s to 2007
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Pentax, 1954 Spiegelreflexkamera, Prototyp Format: 24x36 mm Objektiv: Tessar 2,8/50 VEB Zeiss Ikon, Dresden
context_page_description: Pentax is a brand name used primarily by Japanese multinational imaging and electronics company Ricoh for 35mm cameras, sport optics, and CCTV optics. The Pentax brand is also used by Hoya Corporation for medical products & services, TI Asahi for surveying instruments, and Seiko Optical Products for certain optical lenses.
context_section_description: The period around 1950 marked the return of the Japanese photographic industry to the vigorous level of the late 1930s, and its emergence as a major exporter. The newly reborn industry had sold many of its cameras to the occupation forces (having had far more disposable income than the Japanese), which were well received. The Korean War saw a huge influx of journalists and photographers to the Far East, where they were impressed by lenses from companies such as Nikon and Canon for their Leica rangefinder cameras, and also by bodies by these and other companies to supplement and replace the Leica and Contax cameras they were using.
  In 1952 Asahi Optical introduced its first camera, the Asahiflex (the first Japanese SLR using 35mm film). The name "Pentax" was originally a registered trademark of the East German VEB Zeiss Ikon (from "Pentaprism" and "Contax") and acquired by the Asahi Optical company in 1957. Since then the company has been primarily known for its photographic products, distributed 35mm equipment under the name "Asahi Pentax" and medium format 120 6x7cm equipment under the sub brand "Pentax 6x7" (from 1969 to 1990) and "Pentax 67" (from 1990 to 1999). Equipment was exported to the United States from the 1950s until the mid-1970s by Honeywell Corporation and branded as "Heiland Pentax" and later "Honeywell Pentax". The company was renamed Pentax Corporation in 2002. It was one of the world's largest optical companies, producing still cameras, binoculars, spectacle lenses, and a variety of other optical instruments. In 2004 Pentax had about 6000 employees.
caption: Zeiss Ikon Pentax prototype with a Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar lens
exif: {"Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "ILCE-6000", "Image ExifOffset": "66", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1111111/50000000", "EXIF FNumber": "8", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "1600", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2016:03:05 11:27:46", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2016:03:05 11:27:46", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "1/2", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "29", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00"}