Olympus

Olympus (オリンパス株式会社, Orinpasu Kabushiki-gaisha) is a Japanese manufacturer established on 12 October 1919, initially specializing in microscopes and thermometers.

In 1936, Olympus introduced its first camera, the Semi-Olympus I, fitted with the first Zuiko-branded lens. The first innovative camera series from Olympus was the Pen, launched in 1959. The half-frame format, allowing 72 pictures of 18 × 24 mm format on a standard 36 exposure roll of film, made Pen cameras compact and portable for their time.

The Olympus Pen system design team, led by Yoshihisa Maitani, later created the OM system, a full-frame professional 35mm SLR system designed to compete with Nikon and Canon's bestsellers. The OM system introduced a new trend towards more compact cameras and lenses, being much smaller than its competitors and presenting innovative design features such as off-the-film (OTF) metering and OTF flash automation. Eventually the system included 14 different bodies, approximately 60 Zuiko-branded lenses, and numerous camera accessories.

Olympus µ[mju:] ZOOM

35-70mm f/4.5-6.9 auto-focus lens

Yoshi

22 Feb 2024

Olympus µ mju ZOOM 35mm film camera lens and flash

Olympus XA2

Zuiko 3.5/35mm wide-angle lens compact clam-shell point-and-shoot

Yoshi

22 Jun 2023

Olympus XA2 compact clam-shell 35mm film rangefinder camera open

Olympus µ[mju:]-II

Fast 2.8/35mm wide-angle compact all-weather point-and-shoot film camera

Yoshi

22 Jun 2023

Olympus µ[mju:]-II fully automatic 35mm film compact point-and-shoot camera opened

Olympus µ[mju:]-1

3.5/35mm wide-angle lens compact point-and-shoot camera

Yoshi

22 Jun 2023

Olympus µ[mju:]-1 fully automatic 35mm film compact point-and-shoot camera front open

Olympus M1 chrome

1972

Tom

3 Nov 2020

Olympus M-1 35mm film SLR camera 1972

Olympus M1 black paint

1972 – The original compact 35mm film SLR revolutionary

Yoshi

17 May 2020

Olympus M1 black paint 1972

Olympus Standard Prototype

1937, 4×5cm pictures on 127 film

Mike

22 May 2018

Olympus Standard Prototype Camera 127 film, 1937

Olympus OM-1 “NASA”

1980

Yoshi

25 Sep 2016

Olympus OM-1 Film SLR camera for “NASA” 1980