Now that the production, service, marketing, and sale of Olympus has been transferred to OM Digital Solutions is a good time to look back.
Semi-Olympus I
Olympus corporation started to make cameras in 1936. The first camera was Semi-Olympus I. It had a Zuiko lens.
Olympus Pen
That was the start. The next big thing was when Olympus hired Yoshihisa Maitani who became one of the legends of camera design. His first design was Olympus Pen. It was meant to be a simple camera that one could use. It was a huge success.
Olympus Pen-F
The next camera that is worth mentioning is Pen-F, the half-frame SLR. It was the first of its kind but was no success. Pen-F also has its digital version that was launched in 2016. It is also a great camera, but what I have heard not a commercial success either. I personally think Pen-F is something the new company should think about and launch an MKII version of it. It is a great camera for street photography.
Olympus 35SP
One of my favorite cameras from Olympus is the 35SP. It has a superb lens. G.Zuiko 42mm f1.7. It also has a very good metering system. It was so good that even Ansel Adams had a 35SP. It was also the first camera to have both a regular light metering system and spot metering.
Olympus OM-1
The first SLR from Olympus was the M-1. Its name was changed to OM-1. Leica did not like that Olympus used M-1 because they already had that name. The M comes from Maitani and the O is of course Olympus. OM-1 was the smallest and lightest SLR of its time. It was again one of Maintaini’s masterpieces.
Olympus OM-4 Ti
The next great OM-series camera was OM-4Ti. It was launched in 1986. It was the first focal plane shutter that allows full speed flash sync. It also appeared in the opening scene of the James Bond movie – Licence to Kill.
Olympus Mju
The best selling Olympus camera was Mju. It sold over 5 million pieces. It was a beautiful small compact camera. It is also the first Olympus camera I have ever bought.
Digital Era
The digital era has not been the best of times for Olympus. They made still some great cameras, like the Camedia E-10. Of course, the E-M5 was a revolutionary camera, and the ones that followed, the E-M1-series particularly.
Olympus has always been innovative. There are a lot of things that they have invented or made a lot better. The first 5-axis IBIS was in an Olympus camera. Olympus also had the first sensor cleaning system. The first 4/3 camera, E-1 had a weather-sealed body.
It will be interesting to see what the future brings us.
Below this text there are two videos about the history of Olympus that can be found in my YouTube channel.
You can find some more about Olympus cameras from their camera museum page. It is in Japanese, but Google Translate will help.
images: Olympus