Pentax

Pentax started in a small Tokyo workshop in 1919, where Kumao Kajiwara set up shop polishing eyeglass lenses. By adopting techniques used for microscope and telescope lenses, the company quickly built a reputation for precision optics. Within a few years, Asahi Optical (as it was then called) moved into film projection lenses, and by the early 1930s it was making camera lenses for other Japanese manufacturers like Minolta and Konica.

The breakthrough came in 1952 with the Asahiflex, Japan's first 35mm single-lens reflex camera. That achievement put the company on the map. In the mid-1950s, they acquired the Pentax name from East Germany's VEB Zeiss Ikon, a portmanteau of 'pentaprism' and 'Contax', and began selling cameras as Asahi Pentax. For decades, Pentax built a loyal following among photographers who valued rugged build quality, innovative features, and a lens mount that stayed compatible with glass from the 1970s right through to today's digital bodies.

Corporate life got complicated after 2000. The company renamed itself Pentax Corporation in 2002, was bought by Hoya in 2007, and then saw its camera business spun off to Ricoh in 2011. Today, Ricoh Imaging runs the Pentax camera brand, Hoya keeps Pentax Medical for endoscopes, and TI Asahi handles surveying instruments. The camera line occupies a small but fiercely loyal niche, competing with Canon and Nikon by offering weather-sealed bodies at lower prices and unmatched backward lens compatibility. [edit]