Pentax

Pentax Corporation

Former headquarters in Itabashi, Tokyo
Native name	ペンタックス株式会社
Romanized name	Pentakkusu Kabushiki gaisha
Formerly	Asahi Kagaku Kogyo Gōshi gaisha (1919-1938) Asahi Kagaku Kogyo Kabushiki gaisha (1938-2002)
Company type	Public TYO: 7750 (–2007); Subsidiary of Hoya Corporation (2007–2008)
Industry	Imaging
Founded	November 1919; 105 years ago (1919-11) Tokyo, Japan
Fate	Merged into Hoya; digital camera business spun off to Ricoh
Successor	Pentax Life Care Business Division of Hoya (medical endoscope business) Ricoh Imaging (digital camera business)
Headquarters	Maenochō, Itabashi, Tokyo , Japan
Area served	Worldwide
Products	Cameras and photographic equipment; binoculars, spotting scopes and telescopes; medical fiberscopes and endoscopes; medical fine ceramics products; information and communications products; components; industrial products; eyeglass lenses
Revenue	JP¥157.3 billion (Business year ending March 31, 2007)
Net income	JP¥3.57 billion
Number of employees	1,661 (as of March 31, 2005; non-consolidated Pentax Corp. only)
Website	Pentax

Pentax Corporation (ペンタックス株式会社, Pentakkusu Kabushiki gaisha) was a Japanese camera and optical equipment manufacturer, and currently, it exists as the Pentax Life Care Business Division of Hoya's medical endoscope business, as well as the digital camera brand of Ricoh Imaging, a subsidiary of Ricoh.

Pentax, founded in 1919 as a town workshop specializing in polishing eyeglass lenses, developed Japan's first single-lens reflex camera, the Asahiflex, in 1952. By 2006, Pentax's domestic market share in digital cameras had declined to 4%. In 2007, Pentax was acquired by Hoya and subsequently merged with the company the following year. In 2011, Hoya spun off the Pentax brand's digital camera business, which was then acquired by Ricoh, leading to the establishment of Pentax Ricoh Imaging (current Ricoh Imaging).

In June 17, 2024, as a response to growing interest in film photography, Pentax launched the Pentax 17, a half-frame film camera.^[1] This launch marks the first Pentax film camera in over two decades.