There is supposedly that
interview where a Pentax representative says Hoya will not merge Tokina and Pentax, so they have to own both, so it appear.
What is strange is the absence of evidence on the official web pages for a direct ownership, as far as I know
. But there are other web sources.
On Photo.net you can find this post:
"Adam Maas , Dec 23, 2006; 03:07 p.m.
THK is the US importer for Hoya's brands. Hoya bought Tokina and Kenko (Who had earlier merged) back in the 90's. I've had this confirmed by a reliable source (the industry author Bob Shell) on the PDML list. " (
Pentax Heiland ,Pentax Honeywell, Asahi Pentax, Pentax Samsung, Pentax SK,, Hoya Pentax HD... - Photo.net Pentax Forum)
And at pdml from the same source (Bob Shell):
"> I doubt that anyone here even knew
> Hoya owned Tokana until just the other day.
I've known it since the acquisition. There was never any secrecy
about it. Hoya took over Kenko at about the same time. Press
releases went out about these deals, and I'm sure some of the photo
publications mentioned this." (
Re: What Makes a Pentax a Pentax?)
More from pdml. But there are also people at pdml claiming they are not connected.
In Tokinas english lens catalog one can read (page 5 in the pdf version I have):
"Through technical cooperation with Hoya, Tokina has succeeded in
producing high quality molded glass elements with a greater
aspherical shape than any other lens so far."
It appears
a fact (one of few here
) that all three of Hoya, Tokina and Kenko has the same US distributor since 1993:
Tokina Hoya Kenko photo products Inc,
Maybe this is also true for some other places, I found this for Hong Kong.
Hoya Tokina Kenko Imaging in Hong Kong? Any forum fellows who can confirm?
But it is sure not true for my part of the globe where Pentax and Kenko now have the same distributor, but Tokina and Hoya is elsewhere.
(On the Kenko-Tokina web page (which appears to clearly relate them), there is again Slik listed together with them as in the US distributor.)
In several places on the web people refer to the Kenko Pro and Hoya Pro filters as identical, yet an indication, but not an evidence. Could be just that Kenko buy Hoya filters and relabel them.
However, note that on Hoya's global web page, in the "history of Hoya", they list the merge with Pentax (obviously considered to be a very relevant thing in Hoya's history
), but nothing about Tokina or Kenko
. Would they not have considered it equally important if they bought Tokina? OK, for me Pentax is more important than Tokina, but from their perspective, would it not be of about the same importance?
There appear obviously to be some sort of linkage, having same distributor in some places, producing similar lenses under Pentax and Tokina labels. If the interview and the pdml source is wrong, it could just be a collaboration, that started with that both buys Hoya glass and hence sits on the same table from the start so to say
. They might even have some cross-ownership? Does anyone here know if that pdml source is trustworthy? Any reason not to believe in the interview?
I give ogl this: It is odd that one cannot find this ownership in official pages, like the Pentax merge
. Why keep us in the dark
. But are all these other sources wrong, including the interview?
This is like trying to understand who made which Vivitar or Soligor lens from the 70's! Sometimes impossible! At that time it was so much cross connection between different labels that you can get dizzy
just from trying to figure it out, and this was certainly deliberately. So there is the possibility that this is the same trick again: make it look like Pentax and Tokina lenses are more independent than they appear in the eyes of the consumers
. That could explain the absence of official explanations on official web pages.
Then I can't help thinking that the answer could all be out there if I just could read Korean or Japanese
(but my schools only offered French, German and Spanish as third and fourth languages
)
What is more important to me is this: Those lenses that are produced with identical optical design by Pentax and Tokina, are they Pentax design or Tokina design from the beginning??? You can find people claiming both ways on the web.