On Wednesday, October 5, 2005, at 03:01 PM, Pål Jensen wrote:
Really? It is no secret that the japanese were good at copying after
the war. Not only did they copy the germans but in the 60's and 70's
they copied each other. It is also noteworthy that Nikon and Pentax
are perhaps the two closest SLR manufacturers in "design philosophy".
Minolta for instance is closer to Canon.
Regardless if you've heard of it or not, the Nikon F copied the Asahi
Pentax in every detail but added interchangeable finders. In fact,
most subsequent Nikons (and many other brands for that matter)
interface was based on that very Pentax camera. Canon at the time had
the winding lever at the bottom of the camera!
I was a camera repairman for a lot of years and I can assure you that
the Nikon F is in no way copied from anything Asahi Optical ever made.
They are quite different internally, and don't look at all alike
externally. I think the Spotmatic is a much better design.
The only SLR camera ever built that was a clone of the Pentax Spotmatic
was the Rollei SL35. Except for the placement of the light metering
switch (which proved to be very troublesome on the Rollei) you could
almost use parts from one to repair the other.
The Nikkormat was clearly Nikons Spotmatic. The EL was totally
indentical to the Pentax ES in features and technology but released
years after.
It may have had similar features, but the implementation is radically
different. The Nikkormat uses a Copal Square shutter, just for
starters.
The Nikon FE was identical of the Pentax K2.
Again, no.
The Nikon EM was a direct respons to the popularity of the Pentax ME
but three years later.
That might be true, or the Nikon might just be a logical product of
camera evolution. It takes more than three years to design a camera.
Incidentally, the LX and the F3 were released simultaneously but they
are as similar one could with reason expect of two professional
cameras for the time; they have the same features set but use
different technical solutions.
My god, man, have you even seen these cameras??? About the only
similarity is that both are 35mm SLRs.
In additions, Nikon have used many Pentax lens designs.
Proof? This is the wildest sort of speculation.
The Pentax/Nikon relation isn't only about copying. Even today there
are collaborations of some sort between the companies. The 11 point AF
system layout in the latest Nikon AF system is in fact developed by
Pentax and used in the *ist's (SAFOX8)(Nikon may have modified it but
the AF sensor design of the system are totally identical).
Sure.......
This is according to Pentax engineers. Whether this is due to
licensing or outsourcing is probably a business secret. Oh.. and the
fact that both Pentax and Nikon use the same sensor in some DSLR's is
probably not a coincidence either...
No, they both buy them from Sony. Where does that lead us? Nowhere.
You are making really amazingly ridiculous statements and equally wild
assumptions about how the photo industry works.
Bob
