Good to see you uncovered the smoking gun concerning Hoya's ownership of Tokina.
The CEO of Hoya says Hoya owns Tokina and you uncovered the quote, so thats good enough for me.
Jeff as you are good at researching these things look thru the prior 8 Hoya quarterly statements ,before April 1 2008, of Hoya buyout of Pentax or "friendly merger" for Hoya Ceo statements to find some insight into Hoya's Ceo public view on Pentax Cameras division purchase versus buying the brand for its medical imaging and everything else Pentax logo'd. At same time look to Pentax statements when they were planning to release some 29 newly designed Pentax lenses in very near future. That was back when the roadmap held credibility for me. Anybody seen 1.4x SDM TC?
Anyways, this topic comes up regularly, maybe your Hoya Ceo quote will convince those pentaxians that refuse to believe Hoya owns Tokina. I'm not sure if this knowledge will make us better photographers but it should stop all the endless debates on who owns Tokina.
I recall the Tokina logo'd 10-17mm aps-c fisheye, 16-50mm 2.8, 50-135mm 2.8, all Tokina logo'd versions of pentax lenses got released many weeks ahead of pentax logo'd versions so I assumed Tokina had the upperhand in the "co-design" of these Pentax lenses and this was well ahead of Hoya's pentax brand buyout.
Originally posted by jeffkrol I find it hard to believe this could be soooo far off base.
To reiterate:
Hideto Fukazawa, Director of Hoya’s Tokina Industrial Division, also pointed out that the new polarizer isn’t as dark as you might expect. In fact, it is significantly lighter in tint than its predecessor. PopPhoto Flash: Hoya
And this one: Can we not interview correctly???
Pentax’s relationship with parent company Hoya was questioned, with Mr Iue replying that “Hoya is really serious about Pentax, as it’s a well-known consumer brand, which Hoya isn’t”. Mr Iue admitted that Hoya bought Pentax predominantly for their medical division and expertise, but they did also want the camera part too. Hoya firmly denied any plans to sell the Pentax photo division to Samsung or any other company, commenting that they had only just bought the company. Similarly, Hoya aren’t planning to sell the lens-maker Tokina, which they also own, or to merge it with Pentax. Pentax and Samsung Partnership Not Perfect | PhotographyBLOG
Don't quite understand the "mystery" around all this but this is about Japan business culture.....
More intertwining:
http://www.edvantek.com/PDFs/Tokina_FA_Catalog_V0_6_1%5B1%5D.pdf November,1990
Established EYEMEC Co., Ltd. (capital: 10millionyen), a sales company
for contact lenses manufactured HOYA inc. Group. Re: addendum. Found Tokina's president.: Pentax SLR Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review