Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Bay Village, Ohio USA |
The Asahi Optical Company was formed back in the twenties, I believe, to make lenses for other companies to use in microscopes.
In 1952, Asahi introduced their first camera, the Asahiflex I. This was a 35mm SLR with a waistlevel viewfinder and a non-return mirror. It used a 37mm screw mount lens.
This camera and its immediate followers were sold, both under the Asahi name in camera stores, and under the Sears house-brand, Tower.
In 1957, Asahi introduced the Pentax. At that time, Pentax was simply a model name, not the name of the company. The camera was officially, the Asahi Pentax. This was the first to use the 42mm M42 screwmount lens mount that became known as the Pentax mount, although it was by no means exclusive to Pentax.
Sometime around 1960, the Heiland photographic division of the Honeywell Corp. became the sole US importer for Asahi products. The name of the Japanese maker remained Asahi Optical Co., or AOC.
There were a series of M42 cameras, beginning with the Asahi S2 (identical to the Heiland H2), and the S1, S1a, S3 and SV (Honeywell H1, H1a, H3 and H3v). In 1964, they introduced the now-famous Spotmatic, which went through several model changes until the last version, the Spotmatic F in about 1973.
In about 1974 or 1975, Honeywell ceased to be the US importer. Asahi formed their own subsidiary and, from that point on, the cameras were branded as Asahi Pentax cameras, worldwide. I'm not sure of the details of the Honeywell departure. Was it Honeywell's desire to get out of the photo business or Asahi's desire to take control of the US market. In any event, the Honeywell name disappeared from the photo business at that time.
I don't believe that any K-mount cameras were ever sold with the Honeywell name on them. Whether they were imported by Honeywell or not, I don't know.
The name remained Asahi Optical until 1997, I believe, when the corporation changed its name to Pentax Corporation. There was no change of ownership at that time.
About three or four years ago, Hoya bought controlling interest in Pentax Corp. The then merged Pentax into Hoya Corp., and the Pentax Corp. ceased to exist. At that point, Pentax was once again, only a brand name, rather than a corporate name.
On July 1, 2011, Hoya announced that it was selling the Pentax photo-imaging business, along with the intellectual property (trademarks, copyrights, patents, etc.) to Ricoh. This deal has not yet closed. That is scheduled to happen on Oct. 1, 2011.
In short, the cameras were made by AOP from 1952 until the name change in 1997, after which they were made by Pentax corp. until the Hoya takeover. Between about 1960 and 1975, Honeywell was the US importer. Everywhere else in the world, the cameras were virtually always sold under Asahi Pentax brand.
After the first few years, during which the cameras were sold by sears under the Tower brand, I don't believe that Pentax has ever made a camera using anyone else's name.
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