Pentax Heiland ,Pentax Honeywell, Asahi Pentax, Pentax Samsung, Pentax SK,, Hoya Pentax HD...

First, there was Asahi, and it was good. Then later, the company renamed itself and became Asahi Pentax in the fullness of time. I guess - I'm not an expert on the Japanese side of the house.

Heiland was a US maker of flash units in Denver, Colorado that became an importer of Pentax - just as Bell & Howell imported Canon. Back then, Japanese manufacturers were more or less willing to go along with the idea that they could not sell into the US without a US company 'introducing' them - so Bell & Howell got to relabel Canon cameras, and Heiland got to relabel Pentax. Actually, today we'd call it co-branding.

Heiland was absorbed by 3M, which spun them off along with Honeywell, and Heiland became Honeywell; hence, Honeywell Pentax.

Honeywell eventually decided to bail, and Pentax USA was formed, with their headquarters still in Golden, Colorado - where they still are.

Hoya does not own Tokina to the best of my knowledge - people keep saying that, but I do not believe it is true. I could be wrong.

Pentax is a renowned lens maker in their own right, however. They have cooperated with Tokina making lenses, and they have done deals with Schneider-Krueznach to so label the same kit lens they sell on their dSLR on the Samsung clone of same.

The real considerations are ownership positions. Hoya will own Pentax, and will create a new business from the two, Hoya Pentax HD. Asahi Pentax will be gone, never to exist again. Honeywell and Heiland are long gone. Whether or not Tokina, Samsung, and Schneider continue to do cooperative marketing with the new Hoya Pentax HD is anyone's guess.

You called it in your last statement - Hoya is a marriage - the others are just business associations. Huge difference.

Hoya and tokina are the same company. THK i think. I think it's good to have alliances although i don't know if there is an immediate benefit to us.

i think samsung actually owns the schneider name. don't know this for a fact though.

the samsung pentax partnership seems to be the most beneficial long term. Samsung is a giant and ensures K mounts future. it also brings electronics expertise to a area which is much more electronic then 35mm. and i assume samsung will market it's on APS CCD's at some point.

plus, samsung lenses, made at the Pentax factory, are specd the same as the pentax and identical for 25% less cost.

Before anyone replies to my post...i just realized the Pentax Hoya merger. I assumed it was part of the lens making colaboration but it seems deeper. So my answer would change to, "i have no clue". This could be good. And I still believe THK is the parent company of Hoya, Kenko and Tokina, although maybe it's just the USA distributor of the 3 brands. More info on this would be appreciated.

http://www.nikonians.org/html/resources/non-nikon_articles/tokina/Tokina_AT-X_M100AF/Tokina_AT-X_M100AF_1.html#tokina_story

The tokina story you linked to was what i'd always heard. Nikon engineers and Hoya glass. And for me I've always loved the build of ATX lenses. Built like tanks and optically excellent.

If the link was correct it would explain why Tokina lenses seem to be the best optically and build (overall) of the 3rd parties.

Asahi is a glass manufacturer ... is this why Pentax was associated with Asahi, making the glass fro their lenses?

http://www.cameraquest.com/pentorig.htm

Just found this on-line ...

"Asahi is a glass manufacturer ... is this why Pentax was associated with Asahi, making the glass fro their lenses?"

No. This is another company. Asahi Optical used the brand name Pentax from the late 50's on. Before that the cameras was called Asahiflex. A few years ago Asahi Optical change their name to Pentax corporation in order to avoid confusion and to get a stronger brand identity.

THK is the US importer for Hoya's brands. Hoya bought Tokina and Kenko (Who had earlier merged) back in the 90's. I've had this confirmed by a reliable source (the industry author Bob Shell) on the PDML list.

Schneider Kreuznach is a brand controlled by Samsung. Pentax and Samsung have a strategic partnership for cameras (A long standing one for P&S cameras that recently was extended to DSLR's) and Pentax has made all the Samsung cameras and lenses prior to the GX-10, which is the first which isn't simply a rebadge of a Pentax unit (The K10D and GX-10 are very similar but not identical, unlike the earlier Samsung DSLR's which featured different silkscreening and a slightly changed firmware as the sole differences)

the Tokina engineers from Nikon would all be retired now, if not deceased, so wold have little effect on the quality of Tokina, if they ever did.