Bob wrote: > On Wednesday, October 5, 2005, at 01:20 PM, Pål Jensen wrote: > > > In fact, most Nikons were in fact Pentax copies apart from those > > inspired by Topcon. > > I've never heard that assertion before. It is completely false.
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! The Nikkormat was clearly Nikons Spotmatic. The EL was totally indentical to the Pentax ES in features and technology but released years after. The Nikon FE was identical of the Pentax K2. The Nikon EM was a direct respons to the popularity of the Pentax ME but three years later. 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. In additions, Nikon have used many Pentax lens designs. 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). 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... Pål
