Pentax Corp. was founded in 1919 as Asahi Optical Corporation. It is one of the large worldwide acting optical companies, producing still cameras, binoculars, and other optical instruments. As of 2004, the number of employees is around 6000.

Asahi Optical introduced its first 35mm SLR in 1952, the Asahiflex I, which was also the first of the Japanese SLRs. Asahi Optical's first SLR in its modern, pentaprism equipped form was the Asahi Pentax. Asahi bought the name "Pentax" from the East German camera manufacturer VEB Zeiss Ikon, which probably derived it from PENtaprism and conTAX, because it also incorporated the use of a 42mm screw mount. This screw mount was originally used by the Zeiss Contax S, a 35mm pentaprism SLR.

The Asahi Pentax and its derivatives were so popular Asahi Optical would rename itself to Pentax.

Pentax's main competitors include Canon, Konica Minolta, Leica, Nikon, and Olympus.

External links

• Pentax Corporation
• Bojidar Dimitrov's Pentax K-Mount Page
• Asahi Optical Historical Club