Pentacon

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pentacon logo with a stylized Ernemann tower
The Pentacon building (" Ernemannturm ") in Dresden-Striesen

Pentacon is a Dresden-based company in the optical and precision engineering industry, which was at times an important manufacturer of photo cameras. The name Pentacon is derived on the one hand from the Contax brand of the Dresden Zeiss Ikon Kamerawerke and Pentagon (Greek for pentagon) , since a pentaprism for SLR cameras developed for the first time in Dresden has this shape in cross section .

Today's PENTACON GmbH Foto- und Feinwerktechnik is still based in Dresden. It is part of the Schneider Group , Bad Kreuznach.

history

VEB Pentacon, Feinoptisches Werk Görlitz, assembly of Oreston lenses (" Meyer optics ")
Pentacon advertisement on Prager Strasse in Dresden, around 1975
Slide projector Filius 4

Zeiss Ikon , Dresden, emerged from a total of six companies in the German optical industry in the 1920s. Two of the companies ( Ernemann -Werke, Internationale Camera Actiengesellschaft [ICA]) came from Dresden . After Zeiss Ikon was initially converted into a state-owned company , it was renamed VEB Kinowerke Dresden in 1958 . Another merger resulted in a new large-scale operation in the photographic industry in Dresden, the VEB Camera and Kinowerke Dresden . Were merged

From 1964 the company traded as VEB Pentacon Dresden . Pentacon used the stylized silhouette of the Ernemann Tower as its corporate logotype . The consolidation of the nationalized Saxon optical industry continued in 1968 with the establishment of a combine under the leadership of VEB Pentacon Dresden. So were the

part of the newly founded VEB Pentacon combine . From January 2, 1970, the previous Ihagee was "Object 18" of the VEB Pentacon combine; the labeling of the Meyer-Optik lenses was changed to "Pentacon" in 1971. 1980 followed the incorporation of the

The VEB Pentacon Dresden combine was finally incorporated into the VEB Carl Zeiss Jena combine in 1985 . This connection lasted until June 30, 1990.

Part of the production of Pentacon cameras (deburring the housing) took place in GDR detention centers.

Privatization and liquidation of Pentacon by the Treuhandanstalt

On July 1, 1990, Pentacon GmbH was founded. Due to existential economic difficulties, however , the Treuhandanstalt announced the liquidation of the company on October 2, 1990 . The photo entrepreneur Heinrich Manderman , who had previously sold Pentacon products in Germany under the brand name Beroflex , then acquired Pentacon GmbH iL for DM 8.85 million . Schneider Feinwerktechnik GmbH & Co. KG incorporated into Manderman's Schneider Group.

Part of the Dresden combine was transferred back to the Noble family and is now part of the Dresden camera factory . The Dresden camera factory produces, among other things, panorama cameras of the NOBLEX brand and industrial cameras of the LOGLUX brand, since the trademark rights to Pentacon went to Manderman. The Görlitz operating parts of Meyer-Optik were also made independent again , but were liquidated again in 1991.

In 1991 the Treuhandanstalt did not return the Praktica brand name to the heir of the former owner of the Niedersedlitz camera factory, John H. Noble . Instead, it was added to the Pentacon part of the business, which today belongs to the Dresden PENTACON GmbH Foto- und Feinwerktechnik (a company of the Jos. Schneider Group, Bad Kreuznach). In 1994 there was a legal dispute between Noble and the Schneider Group over trademark rights.

Binoculars and compact cameras have also been branded PRAKTICA since the 1990s . In 2001 the production of DSLR cameras of the Praktica brand was discontinued. The Praktica brand digital cameras have been around since 2002 , and the Luxmedia product range was launched in 2004 . Optics are also produced for Polaroid , for example . On June 30, 2015, the trade in Praktica cameras was discontinued.

The owner of the Praktica brand has been PRAKTICA LIMITED, SL9 7HJ, Gerrards Cross, GB, since September 16, 2015 (see German Patent and Trademark Office Ref.DD646601, 003418944 and 010904605).

Photo cameras

The cameras of the Praktica series and the Pentacon Six as well as the Pentacon Super are particularly well known . In 1967 the PL system (Pentacon Loading) was introduced and from then on it was part of all Praktica cameras.

In addition to the Praktica range, the following were also produced:

in addition there is the

  • beirette series from VEB Kamerawerk, Freital near Dresden

Further products

Pentacon continued to manufacture cine film cameras, for example the AK8 , the Pentaflex 8 or the Pentaka 8B (1964).

The Scan 7000 scanner camera was presented at photokina in 2010 . It has a resolution of 20,000 × 20,000 pixels and runs with the SilverFast Archive Suite.

  • AK8 8 mm cine film camera

  • Pentaflex 8 mm cine film camera

  • Pentaka 8B 8mm cine camera

  • Pentacon Scan 7000

literature

Movie

Web links

Commons : Pentacon  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Anne Worst: West goods from the East Prison. Phoenix
  2. ↑ http://www.photoscala.de/node/7524/pdf

Coordinates: 51 ° 1 '48.65 "  N , 13 ° 47' 54.24"  O