Pentax KX

This article discusses the cameras – mainly 35 mm SLRs – manufactured by Pentax (ペンタックス^?, Pentakkusu) Ricoh Imaging Corp. and its predecessors, Pentax Corporation (ペンタックス株式会社^?, Pentakkusu Kabushiki-gaisha) and Asahi Optical Co., Ltd. (旭光学工業株式会社^?, Asahi Kōgaku Kōgyō Kabushiki-gaisha).

It covers from the first "Asahiflex" models in 1952 and their successor, the pivotal "Asahi Pentax" single-lens reflex camera, to the present time.

The period around 1950 marked the return of the Japanese photographic industry to the vigorous level of the early 1940s, and its emergence as a major exporter. The newly reborn industry had sold many of its cameras to the occupation forces (with hugely more disposable income than the Japanese) and they were well received. The Korean War saw a huge influx of journalists and photographers to the Far East, where they were impressed by lenses from companies such as Nikon and Canon for their Leica rangefinder cameras, and also by bodies by these and other companies to supplement and replace the Leica and Contax cameras they were using. This was the background to the development of Asahi Optical's first camera.

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