[abmj]

In this month's issue of Outdoor Photographer magazine, we got an unexpected mention. In an article about cold/inclement weather shooting, the author refers to weather sealing - "Pro DSLR bodies generally are weather-resistant, such as the Pentax K-30 and K-5 series ..." No other brand was mentioned. I can just hear all the CaNikon teeth grinding.

[Ole]

Cool!

[lightbulb]

They are free to go through the torture chamber just like the K5 and K30 did.

[Paleo Pete]

I find all this neglect of Pentax in various publications frustrating, both online and in hard copy.

The people doing this seem to be neglecting the fact that Pentax was the first to develop and market a 35mm SLR, first with a spot metering system, which made the Spotmatic the #1 choice of professionals for along time, and they also had a bayonet mount early in the game that made the K 1000 very popular also, while Canon and Nikon both were playing catch up to Pentax and Minolta innovations for many years. One of my photography books, for instance, has loads of example shots listed as taken with Pentax, usually Spotmatic (they list exposure values for every shot and what camera was used), 2nd is probably Minolta, Nikon is represented, but probably less than Leica and Hasselblad (SP?) and Canon is almost nonexistent, in that particular publication, printed around 1972 or so. I'm in the middle of a move so it's packed away in a box right now, I can't go grab it and look up details.

Now, due to the intensive advertising of Canon and Nikon, Pentax is the underdog, when they actually pioneered the SLR that was eventually converted into a Digital format. Pentax does seem to have a cult following though, and still gets enough sales without heavy advertising to stay float in the photography world, so I guess that says something for both word of mouth advertising and Pentax quality...

Also, I've found several other photography forums online, some have categories for Canon, Nikon, Olympus and Sony but nothing there for Pentax at all...Maybe Ricoh will change all that, who knows. But at least Pentax is starting to get a little more attention...

[Alizarine]

As long as we Pentaxians buy Pentax and inspire a few others to join our ranks, it won't die And of course if the execs don't mess up their decision-making like Kodak did...

[Ash]

Pentax products speak for themselves. The WR feature of the K30 and K-5 are solid and what you would expect from higher grade professional cameras.

[Pål Jensen]

Actually the Spotmatic did not have a spotmeter and the the K-mount was very late in the game; Pentax was the last to introduce a bayonet mount....

[dubyam]

Pentax's real claim to fame is the early development of multicoating (1971). Prior to that, everthing had a single layer of coating set at a general wavelength of interference. Multicoating (or, as Pentax named it, SuperMultiCoating, or SMC) made possible the interference and dissemination of light reflection at various wavelengths, providing for superior light transmission.

I can't speak to which company introduced the first bayonet mount, nor spot-metering, but coating, while originally developed by Zeiss between the two world wars, I believe, was ushered into the modern age by Pentax in the early 1970s.

[Ash]

Here's some history of Pentax, published in the (Australian) Camera magazine this month:

[Jean Poitiers]

Here's some history of Pentax, published in the (Australian) Camera magazine this month:

Thanks Ash ... J

[Laurentiu Cristofor]

I find all this neglect of Pentax in various publications frustrating, both online and in hard copy.

Actually, in 2012 I saw plenty of coverage of Pentax products as well as Pentax ads in Popular Photography and other magazines.

The people doing this seem to be neglecting the fact that Pentax <snip> and they also had a bayonet mount early in the game that made the K 1000 very popular also, while Canon and Nikon both were playing catch up to Pentax and Minolta innovations for many years.

This is very funny. Like Pal pointed out, Pentax's adoption of a bayonet mount came very late - in 1975. Minolta had been using a bayonet mount since 1958, Nikon since 1959, Canon had their FD breech mount since 1971, and Olympus introduced the OM system in 1972. Not to mention even earlier adoptions of bayonet mounts by other SLR makers now defunct: Miranda (1955) and Topcon (1957). Asahi stuck with M42 because of their initial success with it until the market forced them to move on. I get a strong "deja vu" feeling when I look at Pentax's history.

For reference, Pentax's historical contributions are well documented here.

Anyway, the only history that matters when it comes to sales is that of being commercially successful. Every photo company still in business today has a history that their fans can be proud of, but that is not what is selling their products.