Asahi Optical Co did not invent the pentaprism. They were simply the
first to use it in a 35mm SLR. IIRC there were a couple Pentaprism TLR's
before that (including the Contaflex)
-Adam
Patrice LACOUTURE (GMail) wrote:
Jens Bladt a écrit :
No, not really. Asahi means "rising sun" in Japanees (AFAIR).
Asahi Optical Company was the name of the company (The Optical company of
the Rising Sun) that invented Pentax.
Asahi initially issued a reflex body with a top-facing focusing screen
for waist-level framing (with inverted image), called the Asahiflex.
Later, Asahi invented the Pentaprism, designed to show the image through
an eyepiece facing behind the camera, and at the same time putting back
the image upside down (yes, the pentaprism all reflex bodies have since
then!).
Their first body with a pentaprism was named PENTAX, as a shortcut of
"PENTAprism refleX".
After the huge success of the early Pentax'es (Spotmatic?), the company
changed it's name to Pentax.
Read more at Pentax' web site:
http://www.pentaximaging.com/world_of_pentax/history_of_innovations/1950-1969/index.jsp
*http://tinyurl.com/bmvay*
Patrice
