Originally posted by Merts It's been covered before (done to death actually), but here is a brief synopsis regarding the branding of Pentax cameras.
Pentax is a brand name, not a company name. (Except for a brief period where it was part of the company name).
The brand has been owned by a few different companies. Ricoh is the current owner.
The original Pentax manufacturer Asahi Optical Company branded many of their cameras with Pentax on the prism housing and their company name on the rear. The ME Super for example has Asahi Optical Co clearly stamped into the memo holder on the back of the camera. My K2 also had Asahi Optical Co on the rear of the camera (and Asahi on the prism housing). Photos of both these cameras can be found way back on page 20 of this thread. The Spotmatic also had Asahi Optical Co clearly on the rear of the camera.
So the K3 branding is 'the traditional path' IMO.
Though you are technically right, what you have said is a bit misleading.
To start, Asahi Optical Company was Pentax. As time progressed the brand name became far more recognizable than the Company Name. So they changed it and became Pentax. During that period their name appeared in many locations on Pentax cameras including on the front, on the back and likely on the bottom.
Pentax then merged with Hoya, I think around 2006, who later purchased all of the Pentax stock and Pentax became a subsidiary of Hoya. The only location that I have ever found the name Hoya was on the tag located on the bottom plate of the camera though I certainly have not looked at every camera.
Pentax was then purchased from Hoya by Ricoh, which is where we are today. There was the original company and then two subsequent owners. Again, up until the K3, Ricoh had placed their name on the tag located on the baseplate.
I guess I am missing the "tradition" here.
Pentax cameras were sold by, and branded by, both Sears (as Tower) and by Honeywell (as Honeywell Pentax) during the early years when Pentax was trying to get a foothold in the US market. But Pentax was never owned by either of these companies.