Ok, I know I'm horrible for being selective like that -- obviously the terrible storm is a tragedy for many ... but does anyone know if Pentax is affected?
--
Thom--

Hi Thomas:

The main camera and lens factories are in Vietnam, which should not be as affected. I am not sure what facilities Pentax has still in Japan besides engineering and design.

Dale
--
http://www.pbase.com/abundant108
http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/home#section=ARTIST&subSection=272176&subSubSection=1787360&language=EN

Vietnam for lenses, Philippines for camera bodies and the P&S cameras are farmed out. sounds like Pentax should be ok, I hear Sony is highly affected, Canon and Nikon had factories in the area as well as Panasonic
--
Mike from Canada

'I like to think so far outside the box that it would require a telephoto lens just to see the box!' ~ 'My Quote :)'

http://www.michaelfastphotography.com/galleries/VP-BDI_3a.jpg

http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?sort_order=views%20DESC&first_this_page=0&page_limit=180&&emailsearch=mighty_mike88%40hotmail.com&thumbnails=

Canon and Sony are affected.. Nikon, Panasonic and Pentax are not.

But to be honest.. I dont care about the factories. Factories can be rebuild......

Slow Cheetah wrote:
> Canon and Sony are affected.. Nikon, Panasonic and Pentax are not.
>
> But to be honest.. I dont care about the factories. Factories can be rebuild......

--I'm kind of embarrassed even to have asked this question -- I was watching the continuous coverage on the news. The devastation and loss of life is dire.

Let us all pray for those innocent people affected.
Thom--

...is not covered by tsunami warning and so far all areas in the Philippines covered by tsunami warning are all safe and not affected by gigantic waves.

dpr://galleries/980700047/photos/974842
--
www.exp1orer.com
http://www.pbase.com/explorer/image/114493836/medium.jpg

Slow Cheetah wrote:
> Canon and Sony are affected.. Nikon, Panasonic and Pentax are not.

this is not true. Nikon has a major manufacturing facility in Sendai (the city that was hit with tsunami).

For sony the affected areas were "Blu-ray discs, magnetic heads and batteries."

Of course we are all very concerned and devastated by the tragedy there. They will have a long road to recovery, which includes rebuilding and resuming business.


"In the last two days major camera makers Canon and Nikon have both announced a suspension in production operations."


Read more here: http://www.cameragearguide.com/2349/canon-and-nikon-suspend-operations-quake-may-have-major-impact-on-camera-manufacturers-operations-and-consumers-wallets/

--
'Nothing is worse than active ignorance'

~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe~

KingDon wrote:
>
> Slow Cheetah wrote:
> > Canon and Sony are affected.. Nikon, Panasonic and Pentax are not.
>
> this is not true. Nikon has a major manufacturing facility in Sendai (the city that was hit with tsunami).

Nikon manufacturing plants near Sendai did suffer some minor damage, according to Nikon. They'll be back to full operations on Monday, March 14th.

Canon also has suffered from the earthquake, with some facilities also damaged. No news on Olympus. Panasonic did also suffered from the quake, with some employees slightly hurt. No news on Hoya's Pentax-dedicated installations yet, except that the Pentax showroom in Tokyo was closed down for a bit. Their plants in Vietnam and in the Philippines should be unaffected. Sony is maybe the one that was hit harder, with apparently six facilities being evacuated in NE Japan.

Finally, some links of interest regarding the above:

http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/news/

(As of today, March 13th, 2011, 16:37 EDT).

Most important, with the exceptions of a few minor injuries, it seems no employee of either of these companies was wounded or killed during the earthquake and the tsunami that followed, at least at this time. But I'm sure a lot of them are concerned for their friends, family and acquaintances that went missing.

Altough Pentax's factories are located in Southeast Asia and hence unaffected by the tsunami and earthquakes, Pentax's HQ is located in Tokyo and orders are routed through there which is the practise of some Japanese companies. Other Japanese multinationals who maintain regional HQs instead of a central HQ can continue shipping operations because they don't need route their decisions tru Tokyo.

In Tokyo, a lot of transportation links have been shut down and this has affected the offices of many corporations. Employees are working from home and co-ordinating tru phone and chat software.

Let's not forget that the Japanese people need our help. Since most of us can't physically fly over there to help, donating to legitimate charities is the next best thing to do. The American Institute of Philanthropy is an organization that evaluates charities, and they have a list of the best charities to which to donate money. http://www.charitywatch.org/
FYI, charities need cash, not goods.
--
Joe G.
'The universe is wider than our views of it.'
-- Henry David Thoreau