The article writes about the last "resignation" of a loyal employee of Pentax, Mr. Hirakawa, Jun (平川 纯), who is a famous and renowned optical engineer in the Japanese optical industry. Mr. Hirakawa designed various classic and very popular Pentax lenses back to the days Pentax was solely owned by the Asahi Optical Company (AOC). With he huge loyalty to the brand that I can see, he yet decided to stay with Pentax even after HOYA's acquisition on Pentax in 2007, until right before his *early* "retirement" recently. In fact, he is the original designer of many of those popular Pentax glass, including the following, just to name a few..
- FA*24/2, FA*85/1.4, FA*80-200
- FA 28/2.8, FA 35/2, FA 43/1.9 Limited, FA 77/1.8 Limited
- DA 10-17/3.5-4.5 Fisheye, DA 14/2.8, DA 40/2.8 Limited, DA*55/1.4
The article further briefs about the only comment from Mr. Hirakawa about his early "retirement", whom is now only at the age of 48, at his Bulletin board that "It is Sad". It seems that he have had no choice other than to "resign" and "retire"! :-(
On the contrary, another ex-AOC top lens designer and the same famous optical engineer, Mr. Sensui, Takayuki (泉水 隆之), who decided to leave the Pentax Corporation in 2001 and switched to Nikon, is now still very active in the industry and his career is still going strong. He is now the manager of a major lens development and design team of Nikon. And, Mr. Sensui's current age is 47, and is only two years younger than Mr. Hirakawa. Below is a very recent interview and report by the Japanese Impress DC Watch, in which Mr. Sensui has just been the "protagonist" of the "show":-
(Full Interview Here: http://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/20101001_397410.html - in Japanese)
Mr. Sensui is actually the designer of some of the contemporary most popular and best Pentax AF glass and then followed by some high-end Nikkor AF glass after he worked for Nikon, to name a few again:-
- FA 20-35/4, FA 35/2, FA* 200/4 Macro and then Nikkor 17-55 f2.8G, Nikkor 105mm F2.8G VR Micro, Nikkor 24mm F3.5D ED and etc.
As an engineer and a corporate executive myself, I feel particularly sad and with deep sorrow for a talent like Mr. Hirakawa to have had his career path ends up like this, at least for the time being. Human resource is actually the most valuable thing for a company. And for a technology brand of which business are being done like that of Pentax, Hoya is actually rather stupid and completely short-sighted to let (or should be "force", very possibly) Mr. Hirakawa gone! People like Mr. Hirakawa indeed is the most valuable asset of the company. His (forced) *early* "retirement" could possibly save some little bucks for Hoya and Hoya just need not to pay his monthly salary anymore, but So What?!
Another issue is that with this precedent showcase, will other talents work for Hoya to develop better lenses even some days later Hoya have changed their mind that they need to employ back some of the talents?!
Lastly, there are some food for thought for we Pentaxians: What new Pentax lenses we have had after the Photokina and what we Pentaxians will have in the future? Another crippled FA 35/2 AL? The FA 35/2, as told above, was just originally designed by Mr. Sensui back to the 90s. The so called DA35/2 AL is actually a variant of the FA 35 by cutting the peripheral glass and then re-packaging it into an all plastic lens barrel with a plastic mount!
Yes, we have had another one-and-only-one new DA lens, i.e., a long 7.5X kit zoom that Canon and Nikon have had theirs quite a while already! Moreover, the new Pentax lens looks quite Nikon alike for its outlook and design. But then WHAT NEW lenses in the Pentaxland are coming? Any *New* Primes? Any Tele-Convertor? Any Full Frame Plan? Any *Minimal Commitment* Shown by HOYA?? Will reverse "engineering" and re-packaging do the job and create a bright future for Pentax? Will re-painting and re-painting their "new" cameras and lenses repeatedly save them? Will those?? >:-[
Related Previous Reports:-
Ten DA/DFA Lenses Officially Discontinued! New Lineup/Format to Come?
The End of the DA Line?
Hoya to Cut Digital Camera Workforce Worldwide
Hoya Closing Pentax Production Facilities in Japan
Really NO MORE HOPE WITH PENTAX (Dozen Reasons for WHY NOT PENTAX NOW)
Logging you in...
Chris · 757 weeks ago
you imply that Hirakawa had to go, that Hoya forced him to go without a real reason, just being stupid, etc. This strikes me as highly improbable, since Hoya certainly did not buy Pentax to bury it, and there are thousands of reasons why an employment might end, including personal reasons not having anything to do with the company.
On your repeated claim of a lack of innovation, there is a German saying "You don't see the forest because there are so many trees".
Pentax/Hoya have managed to bring THREE NEW BODIES (K-5, K-r, 645d) and THREE NEW LENSES (35, 18-135, 645/55) in the DSLR department to the Photokina, plus other innovations outside DSLR, plus a couple of nice gimmicks many people can emotionally relate to, like the "Lego camera".
Pentax wins the only Photokina star award for the K-5, Pentax makes history by reviving an affordable and incredibly innovative and easy-to-use medium format system, squarely positioned against Mamiya and Hasselblad.
These are impressive proofs of capability and commitment.
However, Pentax does not satisfy your desire for a full-format system, which I personally think is short-sighted anyway (see my other contribution in this forum), and I would not buy such a system since I would expect that some 24-36 months later, the APS-C sensors will deliver the same resolution/noise/IQ as a FF system now, and the earlier availability of these features, for me, would not match the disadvantages of the bulkier equipment.
Don't grill Pentax because their roadmap is not the same as yours. I believe they know their market, and I am happy to be right in the middle of their target group, because the K-5 is EXACTLY what I wished for.
Best, C
bandymelis · 757 weeks ago
Concerning the APS-C vs FF issue one thing becomes pretty clear to me: the quality achieved with such models as Nikon D7000 or Pentax K-5 will practically equal that of the present-day full frame cameras. Sure, full frame sensors CAN be made to deliver better performance (laws of physics can not be avoided, of course). But WILL it be so? Is there really a practical need for better quality? I know quite a few professional photographers making their living with the APS cameras. I am not a pro, but have personally blown up some of the images up to 1 meter in size, made with my K10D!!! and three studio strobes. (By the way, I use strobes made by myself. You can find the strobes I made and how I made them here: http://www.osipoff.ru/modules.php?op=modload&.... Those professionals say, a FF image would NOT be better for this size. So, the natural conclusion that I draw is not that the APS-C format is going to become obsolete in time, but the oposite is more probable, as FF will ALWAYS sure to be much more expensive. So, why the bulk and cost for a PRACTICAL nothing?!
Barbarosa · 757 weeks ago
c'mone ppl there is no Pentax FF for now so change brand or stop waste your time, noone need to know what You want or not, and ones wishes are not reasons for other ppl just lame farting.
bandymelis · 757 weeks ago
Walter · 757 weeks ago
With both of them gone, a new generation of plastic remakes has begun.
Jarda · 757 weeks ago
If Jun Hirakawa left the company and retired at age of 48, most probably it is due to a health problem of family related personal reasons. We should thank him for what he did so far and mind our own.
But not you. You speculate, you accuse, you insult, you spit your hatred all aroud. Don't you have any kindness, any compassion, any morals?
frank d · 757 weeks ago
tipentax · 757 weeks ago
you really think that a lens is made by ONE engineer ? It is pure marketing ...
Zebooka · 757 weeks ago
I'm allready started selling Pentax gear. (shooting on film Ilford Pan and Kodak Ektar with Zenit 12xps and Helios-44-M-4 58/2.0 and Tair-11A 135/2.8 and Mir-20M 20/3.5)
janneman · 757 weeks ago
I guess that IF he was forced to resign, it was mainly due to: http://ricehigh.blogspot.com/2009/02/da-5514-vs-f...
Also he was not inventor of any patents for the last 5-6 years.
david · 757 weeks ago
Either Pentax is pushing size over everything else, or something else is there.....
Anonymous · 756 weeks ago