Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/10/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]> Japanese, Asahi is the old name back in the 50s. Their 50 Takumar lens is > legendary among the early 35mm users. Their OM counterparts MX and ME > Super > are considered by some as the best small cameras ever ( I like my OM > better > :-) ) > > Unfortunately, the digital onslaught almost killed the company (heck, > Minolta/Konica didn't survive either, and they joined hand) and was bought > up by Hoya a couple years ago. They sold a billion of the Pentax K > something > or another digital bodies with DIFFERENT COLORS. Gaudy, really. > > OTOH, their lens are still well respect. They kept coming out with the > "Limited Edition" oddball focal length lens like 31mm, 47mm etc. that get > a > lot of accolade for performance and build quality. > > They were one of the first to announce a full frame digital 35mm camera, > back in.... 2003 or so? but killed it after years of vaporware. Ditto with > the digital 645. It was a sort of miracle that they did finally release > the > beast. > > Of course Saldago shot with a 645. I think most of "Africa" is shot with > that camera. Thanks. Its a name that's been around for "ever" but I've never really looked into the company/history. The Honeywell threw me as a kid: thought it was American Cheers Alastair