Sunpak was a Japanese manufacturer of photographic equipment, namely third-party electronic flashes.
History
Sunpak's first product, a compact flash unit called the Sunpak 7, was released in 1963, although the company was only incorporated in 1972.[1]
Sunpak was a popular brand of auto-thyristor flashes in the 1970s and 1980s.[2]
Along with on-camera and handle-mounted "potato masher" flashes, the company produced various flash accessories as well as a waterproof flash.[3]
In 2007 Sunpak — at the time the lighting division of Tocad Energy [ja] — was merged with Sea&Sea, a manufacturer of accessories for underwater photography; the combined entity was renamed to SEA&SEA SUNPAK Co.Ltd.,[4] while Tocad America continued to be the brand's U.S. distributor.
By mid-2019, with no formal announcement, Sunpak's website was reverted to show Tocad Energy as the company's legal entity,[5][6], while the 2007 corporate site (www.ss-sp.com) redirected to Sea&Sea's. In 2022 Sunpak's website was reduced to a single page in Japanese merely mentioning the discontinuation of support for all products.[7]
