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02-08-2014, 10:06 PM   #181
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Even if there were American companies selling cameras they probably wouldn't be made here. Even Japanese cameras and lenses are made in Malaysia or other low cost labor markets. Or they are made by robots.

02-09-2014, 02:44 AM   #182
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QuoteOriginally posted by boriscleto Quote
Because the names Polaroid and Kodak belong to the Chinese junk dealers now. Besides, Apple sells more cameras than any of the camera companies.
And Samsung even (much) more....
02-09-2014, 10:19 AM - 1 Like   #183
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QuoteOriginally posted by boriscleto Quote
That trademark was vacated at the end of WW II along with all other German patents and trademarks. Pentax = Pentaprism + Contax.
Except in South Africa, a traditional partner to Germany and the IIIrd Reich, which did not recognize immediately the termination of German IP rights after WW II, hence the "Asahi Pentar" there.

QuoteOriginally posted by boriscleto Quote
(...)
The Contax trademark is owned by Kyocera who stopped using it in 2005.

The Contax brand is owned by Carl Zeiss AG and currently licensed to Kyocera but Carl Zeiss will get it back in 2015.

---------- Post added 02-09-2014 at 06:37 PM ----------

QuoteOriginally posted by boriscleto Quote
And the Zenit 1 was just a Zorki rangefinder with a mirror and prism replacing the rangefinder. The Zorki being a Leica copy. It was released a year after the Asahiflex and 4 years before the Pentax.
True but the whole picture is even more complicated.

The thread mount of early Leica rangefinder cameras, called L39 of LTM (Leica Thread Mount), has a register (flange focal distance) of 28.8mm, a diameter of 39mm and a thread of 26 turns-per-inch (tpi) (approximately 0.977mm pitch) of Whitworth thread form. Indeed, in the 1930s Whitworth threads were the norm in microscope manufacture and Leitz was a major manufacturer of microscopes, so they had the tooling set up to produce the Whitworth thread form.

The thread mount of early FED (Soviet) rangefinder cameras had a register distance of 28.8mm and a diameter of 39mm but its thread was a 1mm DIN thread, hence the name M39x1. Later on, Soviet rangefinder camera makers adopted the 26tpi Whitworth thread too.

The early Zenit SLR cameras’ mount adopted the 39mm diameter of the Leica thread mount with a register of 45.2mm instead of 28.8mm to make room for the mirror box. Later on, they adopted the classical M42 mount.
02-09-2014, 12:14 PM   #184
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QuoteOriginally posted by Mistral75 Quote
It's'the same with Rolls-Royce for instance: the brand name belongs to Vickers for aircraft engines and to BMW for cars.
Exactly. The same with Volvo. Volvo trucks and other commercial vehicles are still made by the original Volvo company, currently named Volvo Group. Volvo Cars is the company sold off to Ford and then sold again by Ford to Zhejiang Geeley Holding Corp. of China.

02-09-2014, 12:18 PM   #185
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So Volvos are Chinese now? I think I've learned a lot more about brand and corporate identity in the last couple pages...
02-09-2014, 12:34 PM   #186
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QuoteOriginally posted by dansamy Quote
So Volvos are Chinese now?
But still made in Sweden. I guess one could argue that Volvo is a Chinese car with off-shored production 8-)

-Matti
02-09-2014, 01:19 PM   #187
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QuoteOriginally posted by dansamy Quote
So Volvos are Chinese now?
QuoteOriginally posted by arky Quote
But still made in Sweden. I guess one could argue that Volvo is a Chinese car with off-shored production
My wife's first car was a Volvo 240DL wagon. BOXY. Built like a tank. Impressive safety features for its day. 4-cyl. engine with pistons as big as your thigh.

Made In Canada.

02-09-2014, 04:38 PM   #188
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QuoteOriginally posted by monochrome Quote
My wife's first car was a Volvo 240DL wagon. BOXY. Built like a tank. Impressive safety features for its day. 4-cyl. engine with pistons as big as your thigh.

Made In Canada.
Not exactly true. The car final assembly was made in Canada from mostly part from Sweden .... to save import tax.
02-10-2014, 12:10 PM   #189
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I hope they do continue using the legendary Pentax name on their DSLR's. If this is true, from a marketing standpoint, I can understand where they are going.
02-10-2014, 12:26 PM   #190
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QuoteOriginally posted by Mistral75 Quote
It's'the same with Rolls-Royce for instance: the brand name belongs to Vickers for aircraft engines and to BMW for cars.
And SAAB with formerly and hopefully again cars, airplanes and technical military gear being I believe three different companies, two for sure.

I am sure if one thought about it and searched there would be lots of examples, mainly from divisions being broken off from the main company
02-10-2014, 05:43 PM   #191
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International trucks and engines are made my Navistar. Case-International farm equipment is made by New Holland which is majority owned by Fiat.
02-10-2014, 06:30 PM   #192
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I think Volvo ended on top of the Volvo/White/GMC truck manufacturing company.
02-11-2014, 02:06 AM   #193
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The US movie industry is full of illustrations of companies/brands that are not what they appear, as a result of splits/mergers/asset stripping etc. The history of MGM from the 1960s on is exemplary - hard to keep track on which company currently owns which bit of the old movie studio/distributor - and the most consistent use of the brand being the MGM Grand hotels and casinos, which has no remaining connection to the film company that went bankrupt in 2010. Does it matter? Do you enjoy an MGM film any more or less knowing it isn't made by the "real" MGM but is little more than a brand of convenience with a certain cachet? I don't think so. Same for Pentax. I am unable to see the name on the front of a camera through its viewfinder, and what I see through the viewfinder is all I care about. Let me pose this as a conundrum; if Ricoh announced tomorrow that the long awaited K mount full frame DSLR (and let's assume it is a reasonably priced, well built and specified piece of kit) is going into production and will be on sale in a couple of months, but that it would have Ricoh rather than Pentax on the front; would you want one or would the name put you off?
02-11-2014, 02:43 AM   #194
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QuoteOriginally posted by mikechopragant Quote
The US movie industry is full of illustrations of companies/brands that are not what they appear, as a result of splits/mergers/asset stripping etc. The history of MGM from the 1960s on is exemplary - hard to keep track on which company currently owns which bit of the old movie studio/distributor - and the most consistent use of the brand being the MGM Grand hotels and casinos, which has no remaining connection to the film company that went bankrupt in 2010. Does it matter?
No, as soon as a brand is hollowed out of any meaning like that, it doesn't matter anymore. Such brands have no cachet whatsoever. Isn't that exactly the reason why people tape over the camera brand name? It stops fellow photographers from rolling their eyes or making "Pffff..." sounds.

Last edited by Clavius; 02-11-2014 at 02:54 AM.
02-11-2014, 03:31 AM   #195
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It wouldn't bother me much because my first SLR was a Sears KSX, made by Ricoh. Sears sold a number of very high quality "consumer" cameras, and the best were made by Ricoh.

What has drawn me to buying and using Pentax digital equipment is the reverse-compatibility with the many PK lenses I already own. I have some, not a lot, of Canon and Fuji gear, but their new camera bodies aren't compatible with the older (Canon FD, M42) lens mount systems.
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