I heard that Pentax used to be famous, but later it declined. I don't know what happened.

After World War II, Japan's economy was very bad, and Japan's heavy industry was basically destroyed because of the war. Therefore, Japan's economic development can only be put on light industry and high-tech photoelectric products. At that time, cameras were just like today's electronic products-high value-added but labor-intensive industries. If production lines or core components were imported from abroad, Japan could quickly occupy the market by virtue of its cheap labor advantage at that time. How similar is this to the manufacturing of electronic products in China today? !

Actually, it's very similar. Studying the rise of Japanese civilian glasses industry after the war, we can always see China after the reform and opening up.

Asahi opt at that time. A discerning Japanese company took the lead in introducing German technology and established pentax to produce the single-lens camera with the highest technical content at that time. It is said that the name pentaprism is a combination of pentaprism and reflector. Sunrise Optics and Pentax are also the first Japanese companies to produce 35mm negative single lens cameras (SLR) (195 1- 1952). 1957, they produced the first SLR camera with a pentaprism viewfinder, which established the standardized model of SLR today. At the same time, Canon, also known as KWANON, can only be a paraxial camera, while Nikon is still focusing on lenses, telescopes and other equipment. Nikon's SLR was born in 1959.

Pentax not only started early, but also took the lead in all subsequent developments, putting revolutionary technology into use again and again and refreshing the milestone of film photography products again and again.

1954, Pentax invented Asahiflex II with mirror instantaneous reset technology, which solved the last problem of practical use of SLR cameras. As early as 1936, Exakta of Germany had invented the first 135 overlooking SLR camera. The first pentaprism 135 SLR Contax S was produced by 1948 in Condex, Germany. However, none of these cameras reset their mirrors automatically, so they are useless at all. You can't take off the lens every time you finish shooting, buckle the reflector and put on the lens before shooting, can you? Therefore, it can be said that Pentax paved the last cornerstone for the practicality of SLR cameras.

1960 Pentax SP SLR camera is equipped with TTL metering system, which can provide auxiliary reference for exposure. Since then, semiconductors and automation technology have been brought into the optical field of photography, allowing more people to pick up cameras more quickly and conveniently and take ideal photos.

197 1 year Pentax ES SLR camera added an automatic exposure control program on the basis of TTL metering system, which is the automatic exposure function that everyone is using now, laying the first step for the fool camera.

198 1 year Pentax ME-F SLR camera is the first mass-produced camera with autofocus function. When matched with AF 35-70 2.8 lens, the camera can focus automatically like the current camera. This function may be taken for granted today, but before that, all camera focusing needs the photographer's personal skills to control manually!

These innovations can still make people fashionable today.

Yes, we can forget the obscure 16-exposure rule of sunshine (you know, many foreigners recite multiplication formula is fatal);

Yes, when we get a strange camera, we can safely switch to P-file shooting (the success or failure of film photography was impossible to know at that time, so how important a reliable exposure control is);

Yes, we can concentrate on the people and things to be photographed in the composition and viewfinder, and forget the focus and depth of field.

In the face of these achievements, Pentax may have created the longest-lived camera lens system PK system, the best and most suitable optical coating technology SMC technology in the world, and the Z- 10 SLR camera with the highest industrial integration in the world. In the second half of the 20th century, the best equipment in the hands of journalists was always the Pentax cannon printed with Takumar (Pentax M42 high-end lens) and champagne ... These may just be created by Pentax alphabet.

= = = = = = = After lyric, organize your thoughts and continue to answer.

As for the decline of Pentax, it was mainly because it gradually lost its keen innovation ability after the 1980s, when Pentax sold well. Pentax M-series and K-series cameras have been enduring for a long time since the 1970s, and have maintained a good market share through small-scale improvement (so we will see a lot of mx, me, me-super, mv and me-F), but this kind of failure to advance gradually brings hidden dangers.

Although Pentax is the first to introduce the me-F autofocus SLR, in fact, me-F is only the prototype of the first TTL autofocus and the first mass-produced product to lay the foundation for the current technical solution. However, before me-F, Nikon, Leica, Konica and Canon introduced many other experimental products. Although most of them have not been successfully sold as products, even after testing, it is found that the technical scheme is simply not feasible. However, in this process, they constantly brush their sense of existence and increase their exposure in major equipment exhibitions. Therefore, even though Pentax has brought the most mature solution, Pentax is the least enterprising impression in the eyes of consumers. In just three years, Olympus, Nikon and Canon have also launched similar products, surpassing Pentax.

Pentax lacked the real flagship machine after the 1980s. Pentax has always adhered to the principle that small is beautiful, and the camera is highly integrated. Even in 199 1, the world's smallest fully automatic SLR camera with built-in flash was produced. But in the eyes of professional users, Pentax is becoming more and more unpopular. After Pentax LX, there are basically no models that can compete with the flagship products of other factories in the same period. But there is no autofocus version of LX, which makes Pentax almost die in this autofocus era. It's too late to quit the last film flagship MZ series, and the all-plastic body can't be compared with those F flagships of Canon Nikon today. The encirclement and suppression of other small factories in Japan, when Japan was also a big country in the camera field. It is said that there were thousands of cameras and lenses of various brands in Japan at that time, and they were all mixed up, but they all liked to follow Pentax, because if they wanted to copy the most famous ones. Moreover, Pentax PK port has excellent compatibility, relaxed licensing environment, and a large number of cheap PK system lenses and cameras appear, so until you see PK port, you can still find a large number of pheasant brand lens products that only sell for one or two hundred yuan. However, this has greatly disrupted the Pentax market. Users with Pentax high-end cameras may not choose Pentax high-end lenses to upgrade their lenses. Users with Pentax high-end lenses don't have to consider only Pentax's body when changing cameras. Imagine what a chaotic scene this is, not to mention the word-of-mouth problem caused by poor quality control of small cottage factories.

Layout decision-making mistakes in the digital age. If the above can only cause pain to Pentax, which is still a first-class brand, then several big mistakes made by Pentax in the digital age will directly lead to the decline of Pentax from first-class to second-class and third-class now. Pentax has been cautious in the digital age and has no previous innovative spirit, which leads to its marginalization in the public view.

4. 1 Especially in February, 2006.5438+0, K- 1 This highly completed Quan Huafu SLR camera was directly removed due to the defects of the third-party CCD, resulting in Pentax still not having a Quan Huafu SLR until 14 years later. This has to be said to be the biggest joke among all SLR manufacturers and the pain of all Pentax users.

4.2 Moreover, after the failure of K- 1, Pentax didn't launch the first digital SLR *ist D that was actually sold until 2003. Please don't spit out this product model, which is a headache for marketers. Nobody can remember anyway. .........

4.3 If Pentax honestly followed the pace of Canon Nikon to update its product line and constantly bring forth new ideas, it might not be like this, but Pentax is more willful than you think! ! Pentax finally took out K 10D, and standardized its products with the once brilliant K letters (used to be K 1000 camera and PK lens), but what consumers saw was a willful product-APS-C camera, which has outstanding image quality, is compatible with all old lenses, and is compact and anti-shake, but with such quality doors, the focus is always not enough.

4.4 One thing beyond technology made Pentax worse. Pentax was acquired by Japanese optical giant HOYA consortium. This is a deal that almost killed Pentax. The impact is far-reaching enough to make all other Japanese manufacturers laugh in their dreams. In 2002, Pentax was actually abandoned by Sunshine Optics and became Pentax Company. At the end of 2006, Pentax and hoya began to cooperate. If you know hoya, you will know that hoya's main business is actually optical lens and medical imaging business, and hoya's products rarely face the final consumers, so hoya didn't know how to run Pentax from the beginning, and hoya didn't pay attention to Pentax's camera business at all. "There is also a heated debate within Pentax about the merger. The merged equity distribution is unfavorable to some shareholders of Pentax, which eventually led to Pentax management unilaterally announcing the suspension of cooperation with HOYO regardless of the board of directors. So in April 2007, HOYO Company, with the support of Pentax's major shareholders, launched a compulsory acquisition of Pentax shares. Pentax was eventually merged into HOYO and became a department under it. Pentax's shares were delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The former management of Pentax vented their dissatisfaction through collective resignation. In the end, Pentax, which has been operating for nearly a hundred years, no longer exists as an independent enterprise. " (This part comes from Baidu Encyclopedia). But in fact, the greater impact is because there is also a Tuli that produces lenses under the Hoya Group. As a result, hoya took Tuli to the Pentax once!

4.4. 1 First of all, Hoya asked Pentax to reduce its cooperation with other lens factories in an attempt to increase the sales of Pentax's own original lenses.

4.4.2 Hoya, the profiteer, asked Pentax to unilaterally raise the lens sales price. After 2008, the price increase was basically unscrupulous.

4.4.3 Tuli was asked to produce some lenses for Pentax OEM, but actually Tuli stopped producing cheap lenses from Pentax Deputy Factory (because all lenses were sold at high prices). On the other hand, Tully obtained a large number of optical patents from Pentax. So Nikon and Canon users suddenly saw AT-X11-162 produced by Tuli. Make good use of it. AT-X 16-28 surpasses the original factory. I think Pentax must have collapsed at this time ... that's all.

4.5 There is also a brain-dead Pentax OEM Samsung that produces camera lenses. The same K 100d is produced with Samsung's logo. There is no second camera manufacturer willing to do this, is there? So is the camera. What is spirit?

Pentax flagship machine and the lens have had several major quality problems, resulting in the loss of loyal users. In fact, every Pentax machine has some quality problems, such as the tilt of K 10D reflector, the CMOS pollution of K-7 and K-5, the bounce of Kx and Kr reflector, the aperture doors of K30 and K50, the ultrasonic motor quality doors of high-end lenses and so on.

Pentax marketing has serious problems. It can be said that Pentax's low profile in the market is simply an act of death. Even though Pentax rarely does advertising and various marketing in Japan, Canon and Leica can be regarded as models of marketing in the camera industry. People who have used Pentax cameras will surely find that many functions of Pentax cameras are designed with great care and humanity, but the problem is that Pentax never thinks it is something worth promoting. For example, the green key real-time metering of Pentax M file allows Pentax camera to support all lenses that can be connected. It can be said that Pentax has never given up the PK port. If you bought a Pentax bayonet lens in the 1970s, you can buy a Pentax camera for direct use today. Canon gave up this point 20 years ago, and Nikon has also given up its early interface (even some low-level cameras don't support motor-less lenses). For example, Pentax's SMC coating has a light transmittance as high as 99.7%, which is nearly 2% higher than Zeiss T*, but Pentax always makes people feel that it is the last of the three major coatings in the world. Well, in fact, many people think that the world's three major coatings should be Canon, Nikon's polycrystalline nano and Zeiss' T* ... or this Pentax housekeeping SMC has undergone seven improvements since the 1970s, but have you seen Pentax's own SMC generation? As a result, the user said, Hehe, your SMC was a technology 40 years ago. What happened today? There are many others, such as Pentax's entry-level machine can be fine-tuned, Pentax camera has the best lens MTF preset, all Pentax sensors are anti-shake, Pentax's advanced machine is waterproof and dustproof, and Pentax camera can be driven by No.5 battery ... These may only be known by people who have used Pentax, but it is really enough to make people feel like Assassin.

= = = = = = = P.S.

I have to admit that Pentax has found its own position in Ricoh in recent years. K-3 and the new K-3II make me feel that Pentax still has hope. This year, Pentax announced that it will launch a full-size camera at the end of the year, which is an explanation for die-hard users.

As for the 645 series that many people pay attention to, it will not be evaluated because poor users have not been exposed to it. However, the significance of 645 to Pentax is an "absolute field" for Pentax to maintain its right to speak in the camera industry. At least in the field of medium format digital, Pentax is on a par with Freescale in Denmark, Hasselblad in Sweden and Leica in Germany.

= = = = = = = = P.S.

As a die-hard Pentax user, watching the film machine Pentax me and digital Kr fight for me and accompany me over the mountains. I will always consider Pentax when I want to change my camera this year. This is the trust between old friends.

Please forgive me for just coming out of the cinema this morning to watch Doraemon: Walk with me. Pentax is my Doraemon in my life, and I never lose my chain when I need it. More importantly, accompany me through the time of "I don't have enough brains, but I'm slow, I hate studying, I'm not confident, I'm lazy, I'm useless in sports, I'm totally useless, I'm a coward, I'm careless, I'm unreliable, I'm afraid of trouble, I have no ambition, I'll forget to take things, I'm a good person, I'm easily carried away, and I'm a spoiled child"

(c) Don't try to use it by hand, please sign it and indicate the source.