Pentax lenses are designed for interchangeable-lens cameras using 120 film and 135 film sizes; they are manufactured and sold by Asahi Optical Company and its successors: Pentax, Hoya and Ricoh.
They were first badged as Takumar as introduced in 1952 with the company's first camera, the Asahiflex. The Takumar branded lenses were well respected, especially the Super Takumar line, which was applied to lenses with high performance anti-reflective coatings and optical designs. Most competitors at the time were still satisfied with the variations of the single-coating process using magnesium fluoride () and later some of the two and three layer processes as well. Asahi Pentax soon introduced the Takumar Super-Multi-Coated line of lenses which was a 7 layer process as the industry had just caught up with similar forms of 5 layer multi-coated optics.
Eventually Asahi Optical slowly consolidated lens production under the Pentax name and transitioned some of the successful designs that were first introduced as Takumar lenses to use Asahi/Pentax badging as well as beginning to use the "smc" abbreviation for Super-Multi-Coating. Eventually the Asahi branding faded away and the Pentax name became used exclusively. Pentax lenses saw many feature changes in response to market advancements, such as: incorporating "Auto-Aperture" with the M42 mount, the light weight and compactness with the 'M' series, Aperture Priority overrides with the 'A' series, and Auto-Focus with the 'F' series.
Modern Pentax lenses for digital SLR cameras have seen the elimination of the aperture ring completely as found on Pentax DA and D-FA series lenses. They use the Pentax KAF mount (and its variants, KAF2, KAF3 and KAF4). All of these lenses have an autofocus feature, either operated from a motor in the camera body or from a silent "SDM" in-lens motor. Lenses compatible with the M42 and Pentax K mounts are also made by third-party companies.
History
The Asahi Optical Company was founded in 1919 by Kumao Kajiwara, designing eyeglasses and binoculars. In 1940, Asahi Optical designed the Promar lens for a Chiyoda Kogaku camera, followed by the first single-lens reflex camera from Asahi, the Asahiflex, in 1952, which introduced the Takumar lens brand. In 1957, the Asahi Pentax camera was launched with the M42 mount.
Takumar brand lenses were supplied with Pentax cameras from the late 1950s until the mid-1970s using the M42 (Pentax) Screwmount. Asahi Optical soon began supplying lenses using the Pentax name from 1975, when they introduced the K bayonet mount, although Takumar-branded M42 screw lenses continued to be available new for a period.
Many of the first-generation Asahi 'K' mount lenses are adapted from the original Takumar Super-Multi-Coated designs, which include the 7-layer process multi-coated versions which originally were released for the M42 mount. The change to the bayonet also had an impact in the industry as the M42 mount had been adopted by many other camera manufacturers and photographers took advantage of the cross-compatibility between brands.
Similarly, the introduction of the 7-layer coating first used with the Takumar name and later as Pentax raised controversy. Some doubted its durability as well as its claims of flare control. Pentax's confidence in the technology was demonstrated by keeping a lock on the patent for quite a while. Asahi Optical also had active partnerships with Zeiss, Tokina, and others, sharing optical designs.
Pentax has developed many special-purpose lenses, including a lens for infrared photography using quartz elements. In addition to the 35mm line, Pentax added lenses for professional medium format 645 and 67 cameras. Pentax's digital interchangeable-lens camera bodies maintain compatibility with any Pentax K mount and even the M42 screwmount (with a Pentax adapter) ever made. 35mm and 645 lenses optimized for digital cameras are currently in production.
Timeline of innovations 1962: Pentax launched the world's first diagonal fisheye lens for 35mm SLR cameras: the Takumar 18mm F11 Fish-eye. 1965: Pentax introduced the 6x7 SLR medium format system. 1967: Pentax introduced the world's most efficient fish-eye lens with a maximum brightness of f/4: Takumar Fish-eye 17mm f/4. 1971: Pentax was the first to use SMC (Super Multi Coating) on all of their lenses. This technology was a milestone in the optical world and is considered one of the best on the market. 1975: World's first distortion-free ultra-wide angle lens (one aspherical element), the SMC Takumar f/3.5 15mm ultra-wide angle. 1981: Pentax was the first to create an TTL-autofocus camera and started the development of autofocus systems. That camera was the Pentax ME-F. 1984: Pentax introduces the Pentax 645 SLR medium format system. 1991: Pentax was the first to introduce Power Zoom on bayonet mount lenses for SLR cameras. That lenses included the FA* 250-600mm f5.6. 1991: Pentax was the first to introduce focusing distance measurement for SLR cameras. That technology was introduced with the FA and FA* series lenses from 1991. 1995: Pentax introduces the world's first fish-eye zoom lens. That lenses was the F 17-28mm F3.5-4.5 Fish-eye Zoom. 2000: Pentax develops and commercializes the world's first diffractive DVD/CD-compatible hybrid pickup lens. 2009: Pentax introduces the world's first autofocus fisheye lens. That lens is the DA 10-17mm ED (IF) Fish-Eye. 2011: Pentax introduces the world's smallest and lightest interchangeable lens camera (ILC). That camera was the Pentax Q. 2012: Pentax first introduced the HD coating as the successor of the successful SMC coating.
Controls, features and changes
Image stabilisation Unlike Canon and Nikon, Pentax, as well as Sony, provides "shake reduction" (SR) functionality within the camera, instead of inside each lens to be purchased. This is advantageous as any lens can be used with full SR functionality, and the lenses are more economical to manufacture as they do not require any shake reduction equipment inside.
Weather sealing Many Pentax lenses, like their medium- to high-end camera bodies, are weather-sealed, allowing for their continued use in poor weather and wet locations. Lenses marked as WR bear a “simplified weather-resistant construction […] which makes it difficult for water to enter the lens” compared to the DA* and AW lenses, which are “dust-proof and water-resistant”.Hoya Corporation: smc Pentax-DA Interchangeable Lens Operating Manual (available online from Ricoh ) Pentax currently provides weather-sealed premium lenses up 560 mm. The largest lens produced by Pentax was the Reflex 2000mm, with non-mirrored lenses available up to the A* 1200mm. As with most manufacturers, telephotos of this range are no longer in production. Pentax provided premium focal lengths well beyond 1200mm, such as their 3800mm through the Pentax telescope division.
Full manual focus First introduced at Pentax 2003 with the DA 16-45mm, the Quick-Shift focus system made it possible that the focus ring don't move during autofocus operations. Also after focusing using the autofocus, the focus ring can be turned to allow immediate focus adjustment for manual focus without the need for an AF/MF switching operation.
Powered zoom Some FA and FA* lenses did come with an integrated motor and two additional electronic contacts for power zoom functionality. This allows to change the focal length with a small twist of the zoom ring at three different speeds. Most Pentax digital SLRs today do support the first two basic functions of Power Zoom lenses.
Supersonic Drive Motor (SDM) The Pentax-developed SDM autofocus systems, with SDM standing for "Supersonic Drive Motor", departs from the previous Pentax system which utilizes a screw-drive autofocus motor inside the camera body. Instead, SDM lenses incorporate an autofocus micro-motor as part of the lens itself. All current production Pentax Digital SLR bodies are compatible with SDM lenses. However the DA* 55mm, DA 17-70mm and DA 18-135mm lenses are not compatible with some older Pentax digital SLR's such as the K110D, first version K100D and earlier models (The K100D Super is compatible, provided it has up to date firmware).
The SDM mechanism is claimed to provide smoother and quieter focusing. The first Pentax cameras to support SDM lens were the K10D (firmware 1.30 or later) and K100D Super. These and subsequent Pentax DSLR bodies support both SDM and in-camera screw-driven AF.
Mounts M37 (screw mount, lenses branded Takumar, used for Asahiflex only) M42 (screw mount, lenses branded Takumar, all other Pre-K Mount 35mm bodies, e.g. the Pentax Spotmatic) ES M42 Mount (Introduced in 1971. Allows open aperture metering with Super Multi-Coated Takumar lenses with Pentax ES and ESII cameras. 3rd Party ES lenses include Sigma YS, Sigma XQ, Vivitar TX, and Tamron Adaptall mounts.) K-mount (bayonet mount, all 35mm SLR and DSLR bodies since introduction of the K series in 1975 as well as the K-01 MILC body) Pentax 6×7 mount (bayonet mount, some of them branded Takumar, for the medium format Pentax 6×7 and Pentax 67 film SLR bodies) Pentax 645 mount (bayonet mount for the medium format Pentax 645 series SLR and DSLR bodies) Pentax 110 mount (bayonet mount for the 110 film Pentax Auto 110 and Pentax Auto 110 super SLR bodies) Q-mount (bayonet mount for the Pentax Q series MILC bodies)
M37 mount lenses +Asahi-Kogaku Takumar lenses (M37 thread mount, for Asahiflex) FL (mm) Name Ap. Angle Const. Min. focus Filt. (mm) Φ×L Wgt. Notes Normal lenses 50 Takumar 46° 4e/3g 58 Takumar 41° 5e/3g Portrait lenses 83 Takumar 29° 7e/5g 100 Takumar 24° 3e/3g 135 Tele-photo Takumar 18° 5e/4g Telephoto lenses 500 Tele-photo Takumar 5° 2e/2g
M42 mount lenses +Takumar, Super-Takumar, and Super-Multi-Coated Takumar lenses (M42 thread mount) FL (mm) Name Ap. Angle Const. Min. focus Filt. (mm) Φ×L Wgt. Notes Fisheye lenses 17 Super-Takumar Fish-Eye 180° 11e/7g (built-in) 18 Takumar 148° 4e/?g (fixed) (built-in) Waterhouse stops Ultra wide angle lenses 15 SMC Takumar 110° (built-in) 20 Super-Takumar 94° 11e/10g 77 Wide angle lenses 24 Super-Takumar 84° 9e/8g 58 28 Super-Takumar 75° 7e/7g 49 35 Super-Takumar 62° 8e/7g 49 35 Takumar 63° 6e/5g 35 Super-Takumar 62° 5e/4g 49 Normal lenses 50 Super-Takumar 46° 7e/6g 49 55 Super-Takumar 43° 6e/5g 49 55 Super-Takumar 43° 6e/5g 49 Portrait lenses 85 Takumar 29° 5e/4g 85 Super-Takumar 29° 5e/4g 58 105 Super-Takumar 23° 5e/4g 49 Identically optical Takumar available with manual diaphragm 120 SMC-Takumar 20° 5e/4g 49 135 Super-Takumar 18° 5e/4g 58 135 Super-Takumar 18° 4e/4g 49 135 Takumar 18° 5e/4g 150 Super-Takumar 17° 5e/5g 49 Telephoto lenses 200 Takumar 12° 4e/4g 67 200 Super-Takumar 12° 5e/5g 58 200 Tele-Takumar 12° 5e/5g 49 300 Super-Takumar 8° 5e/5g 77 300 Takumar 8° 4e/4g 82 300 Tele-Takumar 8° 5e/5g 58 400 Tele-Takumar 6° 5e/5g 77 500 Takumar 5° 4e/4g 49 500 Takumar 5° 2e/1g 1000 Tele-Takumar 2.5° 5e/5g 49 1000 Takumar 2.5° 3e/?g Special lenses 50 Super-Macro-Takumar 46° 4e/3g 49 50 Macro-Takumar 46° 4e/3g 49 100 Bellows-Takumar 24.5° 5e/3g 49 85 Ultra-Achromatic-Takumar 29° 5e/5g 49 Uses all-fluorite elements for infrared and ultraviolet photography 300 Ultra-Achromatic-Takumar 8° 5e/5g 58 Corrected for infrared photography Zoom lenses 45–125 SMC Takumar 50.5–20° 67 70–150 Super-Takumar-Zoom 35–17° 14e/12g 67 85–210 SMC-Takumar-Zoom 28°5'–11°5' 11e/10g 58 135–600 SMC Takumar 18–4° 49
K-mount lenses K lenses