| Asahi
Kogaku began in 1919 by making projector lenses and later, in 1931,
camera lenses. During World War II the company made strictly
military optical ordinance. As with all Japanese optical companies
during the US occupation of Japan, Asahi was reconfigured for strictly
civilian output. The company's first camera, the Asahiflex of
1951 was Japan's first SLR. The Asahiflex camera line became Asahi
Pentax (named for the eye-level pentaprism that was incorporated onto
their Asahi Pentax model AP camera of 1957) and then just
Pentax.
The Pentax name continues on to this day |
