[Michael Piziak]

I recently was having a discussion with a friend and told him that Pentax was once the #1 selling camera company, but he disputed that.
Anyways, was Pentax once one of the top 3 or what?

[kypfer]

Are we discussing overall camera sales worldwide, specific types of cameras, or in a specific marketplace?
Kodak sold a lot of cameras … think Instamatics
Zenit also sold an awful lot of cameras, both in Europe in general as well as behind the "Iron Curtain"!

[ProfessorBuzz]

Asahi Optical came out with a Single Lens Reflex camera in the early 1950's and then they hit it big with the instant-return mirror and pentaprism (where the Pentax name comes from) around '57-58. Nikon introduced their F in 1959 if I recall correctly. Pentax was a top seller into the 1980's, along with Canon, Nikon, and smaller Olympus. The small size and weight of the cameras made them quite popular. However, the C&N outmarketed them in the late 80's and that's when things started to go sideways - cheaper construction and lower quality. Contax (Zeiss) had a presence early on; the glass manufacturers in East Germany had increasing difficulty getting to market due to the cold war. Then there was that weird Swedish company that found their niche in the professional circles (Hasselblad)... interesting times. Kodak sold an awful LOT of Brownies with 620 film; Pentax sold a lot of 35mm SLRs and the medium-format 6x7 - Diane Arbus had one then switched to Rollei.

[Wheatfield]

I recently was having a discussion with a friend and told him that Pentax was once the #1 selling camera company, but he disputed that.
Anyways, was Pentax once one of the top 3 or what?

Back in the 1960s, I wouldn't be surprised if Pentax outsold everything else combined except for the Kodak Brownies and their ilk..

[richfam]

Anyways, was Pentax once one of the top 3 or what?

A couple of data points:

1966: Asahi is the world's first camera manufacturer to produce one million SLRs (after only in 14 years of manufacturing)

1981: The first camera manufacturer to reach the production milestone of 10 million SLR cameras (Asahi Optical)

And a collection of three Japanese TV commercials from Pentax's heyday (featuring the famous "Pentax Girl"):

Youtu.be

Youtu.be

[RGlasel]

a collection of three Japanese TV commercials from Pentax's heyday (featuring the famous "Pentax Girl"):

This post is priceless; the relatively long running time and "artfulness" of Japanese television commercials used to be a real eye opener for marketing majors.

[mroeder75]

It doesn't hurt the bottom line to have a pretty girl modestly flirtatious advertising the company's camera wares. She probably looks exotic to the Japanese audience, and somewhat ordinary in the U.S. I am not sure what the question was; I was distracted.

[biz-engineer]

When I bought my first Pentax DSLR, Pentax had the position that Nikon now has. I don't what happened and why , but Pentax managed to consistently slide down the ranking and be leapfrogged by both Fuji and Sony who started from a lower position. There must be some identifiable causes for the slide down to be consistent over a two decades long period.

[kypfer]

When I bought my first Pentax DSLR, Pentax had the position that Nikon now has. I don't what happened and why , but Pentax managed to consistently slide down the ranking and be leapfrogged by both Fuji and Sony who started from a lower position. There must be some identifiable causes for the slide down to be consistent over a two decades long period.

I suspect it's all down to marketing and how the general public "see" a product.
Pentax's model release rate is relatively low … approx. 30 DSLRs in the last 20 years … all well and good for those "in the know" who realise that the existing model range at any one point is mostly adequate for anyone's needs, but for newcomers to "proper" photography, who are looking for the latest model in their price-range, alternative manufacturers provide a wider choice of "new" models … not necessarily better!
Buy into the latest NiCaFuSo system and you're committing yourself to a relatively new lens system as well, oodles of cash for the manufacturers … buy a Pentax and there's 45 years worth of compatible "legacy" lenses ready to be snapped up, so your total investment is likely to be lower, at least in the first instance.
Less income from sales, less cash available for R&D … it's a vicious circle, one which Pentax seem to be coping with quite well, under the circumstances, but possibly not the best business strategy for the long term

[MarkJerling]

A couple of data points:

1966: Asahi is the world's first camera manufacturer to produce one million SLRs (after only in 14 years of manufacturing)

1981: The first camera manufacturer to reach the production milestone of 10 million SLR cameras (Asahi Optical)

And a collection of three Japanese TV commercials from Pentax's heyday (featuring the famous "Pentax Girl"):

https://youtu.be/9LyyPGgE5Gk

How delightful! Thanks for posting.

[UMC]

... There must be some identifiable causes for the slide down to be consistent over a two decades long period.

Well - at least in Europe the slide down was consistent for more than 4 decades. And there is a number of good reasons for it:
1. Asahi Optical had always been a company with R&D guys who followed their own belief rather than market demand. Many times they were the first to come up with something but failed to benefit from being the first.
2. By 1976 Asahi Optical was the last of the Japanese major brands to give up the M42 mount, when everyone else had realized that bayonet is faster and more suited for communication between lens and camera.
3. Although Asahi was the first to offer an autofocus system (ME-F), they fell behind when Canon and Minolta came with a radical, new AF-centered approach in the late 1980ies. Pentax's AF always was too conservative, rather slow and definitely not on par with Canon's ring motor solutions.
4. In 2001 desaster started to unfold: Ashai had been the first to present a 24x36mm DSLR. However, the Philips sensor failed to provide the image quality that was required at the high price-point. So they had to pull the emergency brake and go for APS-C.
5. When the *ist-D finally appeared on the market in 2003 it was a nice camera, undoubtedly superior to any other APS-C offering at that time. But how would you be able to catch up on lost market shares by offering a camera that is almost twice the price of your competitor(s)?
6. Whatever happened in the years since then, it was too little, too late.

There is one more aspect to it:

While Asahi and Olympus were camera companies that tried their luck in medical technology, Canon, Minolta, Ricoh, Konishiroku (Konica) and Kyocera (Yashica) became extremely successfuly in printing and copying technology. Canon soon became a universal and quite independent high-tech company with their own semiconductor development branch. Long story short, by 2000 everyone else was significantly larger than Asahi Optical and obviously had more money to spend on R&D as well as marketing.

[Lord Lucan]

5. When the *ist-D finally appeared on the market in 2003 it was a nice camera, undoubtedly superior to any other APS-C offering at that time. But how would you be able to catch up on lost market shares by offering a camera that is almost twice the price of your competitor(s)?

6. Whatever happened in the years since then, it was too little, too late.

Could have said :

6. Did not produce a FF DSLR until 2016, over a decade later than Canon for example. I nearly changed systems because I was tired of waiting, and I expect many others did so.

[TaoMaas]

I think there was a time when the Pentax Spotmatic was the most popular SLR out there. And if you throw in the K1000 sales, since it's pretty much just a Spotmatic with a bayonet lens mount, it might be the best-selling SLR design of all time. I've been shooting Pentax since before they came out with the K-mount. What I've seen is that they're sometimes a bit slow to embrace change and I think that's been their biggest downfall. That's not entirely fair though because Pentax has always innovated even if they chose not to follow certain paths. As someone pointed out, Pentax was among the first to try out auto-focus, but that didn't keep them from becoming one of the last and worst at implementing it into their regular line of cameras. Pentax is still innovating though. Weren't they one of the first to have dual control wheels? I think they were also one of the first to add a third auto mode where it's the ISO that gets automatically set. Wasn't the green button unique when it came out? And I think pixel shift is their latest thing where they were ahead of the crowd. Pentax DOES change where they see fit to do so, but if someone is looking for the latest and greatest, Pentax isn't their brand.

[biz-engineer]

6. Did not produce a FF DSLR until 2016, over a decade later than Canon for example. I nearly changed systems because I was tired of waiting, and I expect many others did so.

I was about to switch to Nikon, but I had four K mount lenses that would work on Pentax FF and Kenspo, at the time Pentax ambassador, said that he had insider info and that Ricoh had big plans for full frame ("the future is bright"), that's what made me upgrade all my Pentax apsc kit to Pentax K1. But I know, a number of Pentaxians who switched from a Penta K5 to Nikon D600 or D800/D800E. The D800/E (2012 or 2013) was tempting because at the time of its release it was the highest resolution and best dynamic range of all FF DSLR models.

[SelrahCharleS]

A couple of data points:

1966: Asahi is the world's first camera manufacturer to produce one million SLRs (after only in 14 years of manufacturing)

1981: The first camera manufacturer to reach the production milestone of 10 million SLR cameras (Asahi Optical)

And a collection of three Japanese TV commercials from Pentax's heyday (featuring the famous "Pentax Girl"):

https://youtu.be/9LyyPGgE5Gk

Is that a Toyota 2000GT in the second commercial?