Check this out for some Bling.

Donwon Systems, Korean distributor of Pentax, presented ‘ASAHI PENTAX LX Gold’, world’s first water-proof and dust-resistant SLR camera which was specifically made to celebrate 60th anniversary of the company. The ASAHI PENTAX LX Gold was displayed together with ‘K10D’, Pentax’s newly launched 10-megapixels premium DSLR camera ‘K10D’ at a press event in Korea market.In 1980, shortly after Nikon introduced the third generation of the Nikon F3-series system camera, Asahi Optical Co. Ltd. Japan introduced a professional class system camera on their own; the Pentax LX .The year also coincided with 60th anniversary of the most respectful trade name and camera manufacturing business in the business-Pentax.

The Pentax LX gold was launched on August 25th, 1981 to celebrate the production of ten-millionth Pentax SLR camera. It was 18 carat gold plated with brown leather (also-called lizard skin or snake skin) and was equipped with an SMC Pentax f/1.2 50mm lens also with brown leather and gold finish.

The Pentax LX Gold package included a wooden box with red lining and white silk gloves to handle the camera without leaving fingerprints on the sensitive gold plating. Both the camera and the case were provided with golden carton boxes sporting 10million logo and 1981 lettering. Only 300 pieces of the LX Gold were manufactured, 200pcs for the Japanese home market and 100pcs for the international market. Serial numbers for the LX Gold ranged from XM001 to XM300 (XM meaning ten million).

After plenty of hot/cold and off on the Hoya - Pentax merger is set to go ahead.

Hoya will pay 105 billion Yen (approx. $860 million) for all outstanding Pentax shares. The deal could go ahead as soon as this weekt.

We fully expect this deal to strengthen Pentax’s position especially considering the growing importance of the lens market.

As described below, today, HOYA CORPORATION (“HOYA”) and PENTAX Corporation (“PENTAX”) have entered into an agreement to effect their management integration (the “Management Integration”) by making PENTAX into a wholly-owned subsidiary of HOYA through a tender offer by HOYA to purchase all shares of PENTAX (the “Tender Offer”) to be followed by a share exchange or other appropriate business reorganization transaction.

As announced in the press release titled “HOYA and PENTAX Reach Basic Understanding for Management Integration” dated December 21, 2006, of HOYA and PENTAX, based on the recognition that they are “the best possible business partners”, HOYA and PENTAX entered into a Basic Agreement for Merger (the “Basic Agreement”) on that date. This shared common understanding has remained constant. Notwithstanding our announcement by press release (by PENTAX on April 10, 2007 and HOYA on April 23, 2007) of our decision to abandon the merger planned for October 1, 2007 under the Basic Agreement, we have continued discussions on alternatives to the merger in order to achieve management integration and have consequently entered into this agreement.

Details of the Tender Offer and other related matters will be announced as soon as they become finalized.

Source: DPReview

Some guy recently tested the current crop of SLR cameras with ‘dust removal’ systems to see how effective they actually are.

Sensor cleaning is becoming a standard feature on modern digital SLR cameras. While the manufacturers may use different techniques to get rid of the dust from the image sensor, they all promise clean, dust free images. Do they all work equally well? Can we throw our air blower away? We have tested the four different types of sensor cleaning technologies to see which one will most likely to fulfill the expectations.

I was quite surprised with the results, and how badly they all performed. It turns out they are all pretty much useless when it comes to cleaning/dust removal. Only the Olympus fared reasonably.

Here is our ranking according to effectiveness:

1. Olympus: good
2. Canon: poor (we are disappointed)
3. Pentax and Sony: useless (we are very disappointed)

If you are looking for a camera, have the dust removal as an expectation only at the end of your list. If sensor cleaning / dust removal is a must, the choices are limited to Olympus and Panasonic cameras.

Read the full test here:

Review: Dust removal systems / sensor cleaning

Hoya is familiar to most of us for UV filters and CPLs as that’s what we most commonly see in stores, what many people don’t know is Hoya is one of the biggest manufacturers of optical lenses, including many parts inside the proprietary lenses we purchase.

Hoya and Pentax have jointly announced their intention to merge and become Hoya Pentax HD Corporation (actually Hoya are ‘merging’ Pentax into their business). This merger is due to be completed by October 1, 2007. Once complete Fumio Urano (current PENTAX President & CEO) will become Chairman of the Board and Hiroshi Suzuki (current HOYA President and CEO) will become President & CEO. The major conclusions in this announcement are that the Pentax name will remain, that Pentax’s optical business will merge with Hoya’s but that Pentax’s current imaging systems division (that which is responsible for digital cameras) will continue.

HOYA CORPORATION (“HOYA”) and PENTAX Corporation (“PENTAX”) announced today that they have reached a basic understanding aimed at a management integration of the two companies, expected to be completed on October 1, 2007. The new company’s name will be HOYA PENTAX HD Corporation. Under a corporate center with strategic planning functions, the new company will realign the business areas of HOYA and PENTAX. HOYA and PENTAX have recognized that they are the best possible business partners to establish a solid business structure that draws on their respective strengths. Through this management integration, the planned new structure will allow the new company to swiftly allocate significant management resources to develop strategic business areas, aiming at accelerating future growth.

Source: DPReview