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42-568: The original Pen was introduced in 1959. It was designed by Yoshihisa Maitani , and was the first half-frame camera produced in Japan. It was one of the smallest cameras to use 35mm film in regular 135 cassettes. A series of derivatives followed, some easier to use with the introduction of exposure automation, e.g. the Pen EE; others with a wider aperture lens and a manual meter, such as the Pen D. In 1966

84-519: A Leica IIIf ; because he regarded it more as a hobby than a career, he enrolled in Waseda University to study automotive engineering, but continued to spend his free time in photography. After Sakurai learned that Maitani had filed a camera patent as a student, he recruited Maitani to work for Olympus. When he started with Olympus, the company sent him to the factory for two years to learn practical aspects of manufacturing before moving to

126-516: A rotary shutter which enabled them to be X-synchronized at all shutter speeds including 1/500 s. The Pen Rapid EE.S and Pen Rapid EE.D were variants of the Pen EE.S and Pen EE.D designed to accept the Agfa Rapid cassette instead of the regular 35mm cassette. They were both made from 1965 to 1966, and met very little success. The Digital PEN series is a wide range of mirrorless interchangeable lens digital cameras made by Olympus. They use

168-412: A 30mm f/2.8 lens or a 28mm f/3.5 lens. The Pen D was a more expensive model, launched in 1962. It has a 32mm f/1.9 lens, a shutter going to 1/500 and an uncoupled selenium meter. The Pen D2 , launched in 1964, is the same model with an uncoupled CdS exposure meter replacing the selenium one. The Pen D3 , launched in 1965, is the same with a 32mm f/1.7 lens. The Pen EE was introduced in 1961 and

210-499: A built-in flash, or a touch screen . Olympus claimed the E-P3 to have the world's fastest autofocus system. The next model in this range was the E-P5 from 2013. It got some of its new features from the more professional OM-D E-M5 , like the new 16 MP sensor and along with it, the 5-axis sensor stabilization system, and a tilting LCD screen . It had the max. shutter speed of 1/8000s, which

252-412: A cold flash shoe. It was only produced between 1964 and 1965, and today fetches high prices on the collectors' market. The Pen EM , produced from 1965 to 1966, is a motorized Pen model. It has a 35mm f/2 lens, and a CdS exposure meter allowing automatic or manual exposure. The Olympus PEN F series of cameras were half-frame SLR cameras produced between 1963 and 1970. The cameras were unique in using

294-469: A full-frame, and 28mm to a 40mm. The original Pen is a very compact half-frame camera , with just a viewfinder, no meter and fully manual settings. It has a 28mm f/3.5 Zuiko lens. Its shutter settings are 25, 50, 100, 200, B; its aperture range from 3.5 to 22. The back is removed completely for film loading and unloading. The Pen S is almost the same camera, with the following shutter settings: 8, 15, 30, 60, 125, 250, B. It existed in two versions, with

336-434: A hot shoe. The Pen EF , launched in 1981, was the last Pen model. It is like the Pen EE.2 or Pen EE.3, but with a small built-in flash, and was only sold in black finish with white lettering. It also functions at a larger range of shutter speeds. The Pen W or Pen Wide is a very rare variant of the Pen S model, with a wide-angle 25mm f/2.8 lens, equivalent to a 35mm in full format. It only exists in black finish, and has

378-461: A planned series of advertisements that would feature Maitani prominently, similar to how contemporaneous campaigns made automotive designers into household names. In October 1979, Maitani relented, on the condition the ads were limited to the American market only, and the ads, crediting him as a mononymous genius, were running by early 1980. Although some have credited Maitani with the design of

420-492: A process that Maitani called his "unreasonable demand to reduce the size and weight by half", adding that "repetitions of this process eventually led to the creation of something that photographers want, something that I wanted. If something is not available to buy, you have to make it yourself." A few years later, Olympus released the OM-2, which used an electronically-timed shutter and exposure meter that measured light reflected from

462-463: A success, Sakurai approached Maitani and told him that photographers were asking if a Pen SLR was possible; when Maitani showed him the design sketches and explained how it would result in a SLR with an unconventional shape, Sakurai was initially surprised, then approved the development project, which resulted in the Olympus Pen F . To achieve acceptable shutter speeds, many patents were awarded for

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504-510: The E-PL1 . It was released one month after the E-P2 as a cheaper, more beginner friendly option. Their main features were identical, like the 12 MP image sensor, or the 3-axis sensor stabilization system. But there were a few corner-cuts. The E-PL1 had a fastest shutter speed of 1/2000s instead of 1/4000s, a little bit smaller LCD screen (2.7" vs 3") and less premium material usage. The next model

546-535: The E-M1 Mark II . In the cameras that support it, Olympus offers a mobile app called OI.Share (Olympus Image Share), which is free and can be used for taking self-portraits and share message. The app will show a live preview of your image via a Wi-Fi connection to the camera and let you control a host of camera functions from zoom to new art filters before you take the shot which will then download to your smartphone to let you post on social media. This article

588-791: The Micro Four Thirds system , so they all have a 17.3 x 13 mm Four Thirds size image sensor and autofocus . The first digital PEN was the E-P1 , released in June 2009. There are three lines in the Digital PEN series of Olympus: The main PEN range (E-P), the PEN Lite (E-PL) and the PEN Mini (E-PM). Main PEN range: The Olympus PEN E-P1 was the first digital PEN and the second camera in

630-575: The Olympus Stylus (1991), that camera was designed by Tatsuya Suzuki, incorporating some of the basic concepts from the XA, including the capless, caseless design. Maitani retired from Olympus in 1996. The man behind the Olympus OM camera: Yoshihisa Maitani This biographical article related to Japan is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This photography-related article

672-630: The Olympus XA , which was the first camera to win a Good Design Award .   Many of the cameras that I have developed have been unique Olympus-style products. And there's a reason for that. I was simply trying to make things that you couldn't buy anywhere.   When the Monkey King boasted that he could fly to the end of the Earth, the Buddha told him to go. And indeed he flew to the end of

714-708: The E-PL5. The E-PL7 was actually announced one month later with a design change, built-in Wi-Fi and a selfie-friendly higher resolution LCD screen. The E-PL8 from Q4 2016 ran with little development: the only major difference between the E-PL7 and the E-PL8 was the design. The next model was the E-PL9 (2018 Q1), where the max. ISO sensitivity was cut back from 25,600 to 6,400; however, it packed 4K video recording and reintroduced

756-420: The Earth and returned after signing his name on the wall. When he got back, the Buddha smiled and showed him the inside of his finger. "Here is your signature," he said. If you think about it, everything is in the hand of the Buddha.   I love cameras, and I have willfully proclaimed my determination to create cameras that have never existed before. Yet when I think about it now, it seems to be that everything

798-479: The Konica that much, he would buy one for each of them; instead, he urged them to revisit the 100 concepts, but they could not come up with one he found satisfactory, so he started with the idea of a full-frame camera that could be carried everywhere, setting dimensional limits based on the size of a 135 film cartridge and eliminating the need for a case and lens cap. These rough concepts were developed eventually into

840-520: The Micro Four Thirds system. It revolutionized the camera market, because it was the first mirrorless camera which really took advantage of its kind. It included a 12 MP Four Thirds size sensor, which had the same image quality as a Four Thirds DSLR camera, but was packed in a much smaller body. It also included a 3-axis sensor-shift image stabilization system. It carries on in the PEN tradition with its external design clearly inspired by

882-528: The above-mentioned old PEN F half-frame SLR . These cameras look alike as well. The new PEN-F shares a lot of its features with the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II , and also has a built-in electronic viewfinder , which is a unique feature among digital PEN cameras. It is still the most advanced PEN camera as of January 2021. The PEN-F was also the first Olympus camera to use the new, 20 MP sensor, which later ended up in professional bodies like

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924-474: The arrival of the Rollei 35 , a camera almost as compact but making normal 24×36 exposures, would announce the beginning of the end for the half-frame concept. However, Olympus went on producing the simpler models of the Pen family until at least 1983. In the descriptions below, the focal lengths indicated do not give the same angle of view as for full-frame cameras: 30mm on the Pen is roughly equivalent to 45mm on

966-541: The built-in flash in the PEN Lite range. The current model in this category is the E-PL10 , released in Q4 2019. It did not really include any major innovation compared to its predecessor. PEN Mini range: The Olympus PEN Mini was a short-lived category in the digital PEN range. It is not necessarily smaller than the higher-end PEN models, but it simplifies the controls to make the camera more beginner-friendly. The first model in it

1008-413: The camera for half an hour in silence, then enthusiastically encouraged production to start, resulting in the Pen EE. At the time the Pen launched, Maitani believed there would not be a market for a half-frame single-lens reflex camera , but began developing some of the key technologies that would be required, including a mirror that swung sideways and a rotary focal plane shutter . After the Pen became

1050-535: The design department, when he noticed the cheapest camera Olympus sold was ¥23,000 , nearly two months' salary, and he began working on a camera that would retail for no more than ¥6,000 instead. Comparing enlargements from his prototype with the Leica IIIf, he was dissatisfied with the sharpness of the lens on the prototype and so he asked the Olympus optical team to design a Tessar -type lens that would equal

1092-433: The end of 1967, he had convinced Sakurai to pursue a small, light SLR. Maitani set a target of half: 700 g (25 oz) and 20% reduction in height and depth, resulting in a camera that would be approximately half the weight and volume of a Nikon F . To optimize the utilization of internal space, the shutter speed control was moved to the lens mount. The resulting Olympus M-1, later renamed OM-1 , had come about through

1134-482: The film. After the OM-2, Olympus's market share for 35mm compact cameras began to fall and Maitani was enlisted to help design a new product. He assembled of team of 10 to brainstorm ideas; after one year, the team reported back they had 100 concepts but were impressed by the Konica C35 AF , which had just been released, and wanted to produce a competitor. Maitani dismissed that idea and told them if they liked

1176-529: The half-frame and full-frame programs, so initially the sales department began exploring the possibility of rebadging another manufacturer's products. Maitani was aghast: why would anyone buy a camera rebadged as an Olympus when they could simply buy the original camera instead? After he had used SLRs reluctantly for macro photography , as the Leica were not optimized for that use, Maitani realized that SLR weight and size posed another barrier to broad acceptance; by

1218-400: The quality of the Leica; the resulting D.Zuiko was "really wonderful" but consumed his entire development budget. Using his factory experience, Maitani began cutting costs where he could and upon seeing the finished prototype, Sakurai approved production, but the factory manager refused, calling what would be sold as the Olympus Pen a "toy camera", so manufacturing of the half-frame camera

1260-401: The same camera except that it added the "Flashmatic" system when used with the matching GN14 flash. The Pen EE.S2 , produced from 1968 to 1971, is the same as the Pen EE.S with the addition of a hot shoe and a more modern range of film speed settings. The Pen EE.D , produced from 1967 to 1972, is a more expensive automated-exposure model, with a CdS meter, a 32mm f/1.7 lens, a self timer and

1302-407: The settings she had chosen, the picture would not be in focus, so he next designed a prototype with simplified controls, requiring just a single button press. The head of the sales department argued with Maitani over this philosophy, believing that real photographers required many controls and fearing that such a simple camera would not sell. After completing the prototype, the head of sales played with

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1344-410: The titanium shutter and hardened gear train. Maitani called it "a huge failure" because the patents prevented any other companies from making competitive cameras. Because Kodak refused to create half-frame slide mounts, the American market for the Pen F was limited, and the head of exports began pressuring Maitani to develop a full-frame SLR. As a small company, Olympus could not afford to continue both

1386-579: The traditional PEN series. The next model in this category was the E-P2 , released in April 2010, which did not include a whole lot of new features. One of them was the multi-functional accessory port under the hot shoe for an optional external electronic viewfinder or an external microphone . The next model to follow was the E-P3 , released in 2011. It packed quite a few new features like 1080p video recording,

1428-526: The two cameras were slightly modified and became the Pen EE (EL) and Pen EE.S (EL) with a modification of the take-up spool to make film loading easier. EL stands for Easy Loading . They can only be recognized by a small EL label on the front, or by examining the take-up spool. The Pen EE.2 , produced from 1968 to 1977, is nearly the same as the Pen EE with the addition of a hot shoe . The Pen EE.3 , produced from 1973 to 1983, seems to be almost exactly

1470-780: Was a whole new feature in Olympus Micro Four Thirds cameras. After 8 years, the main E-P series got updated in 2021, now under OM Digital Solutions ' leadership. They skipped the number 6, and named the camera E-P7 . The E-P7 shares a lot of its internals with the OM-D E-M10 Mark IV , but the design resembles the PEN-F . It lacks an electronic viewfinder, like the previous E-P models. It cannot be used with an external viewfinder though, unlike its predecessors. PEN Lite range: The Olympus PEN Lite range started off with

1512-504: Was in the hand of Olympus. I'm sure that Olympus will continue to create unique cameras, and that those who love Olympus cameras will remain loyal users. Olympus cameras are a little unusual, but I hope that you will continue to understand and support those cameras.  — Yoshihisa Maitani, Special Lecture (Nov 2005) In 1978, the United States distributor, Olympus Camera Corporation, began lobbying Olympus to approve

1554-556: Was involved with the design of many of the company's most well-known cameras, including the Pen and the Pen F half frame cameras, the OM System , and the XA . Maitani credits Eiichi Sakurai , a keen photographer, with shifting Olympus from microscopes to cameras starting in 1935. When he was attending middle and high school, Maitani belonged to a photography club, using the family camera,

1596-688: Was originally based on " Olympus Pen " in Camerapedia, retrieved at an unknown date under the GNU Free Documentation License . Yoshihisa Maitani Yoshihisa Maitani (January 8, 1933 – July 30, 2009) was a designer of cameras for the Japan-based camera manufacturer Olympus Corporation . After studying mechanical engineering at university, he joined Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. (now Olympus Corporation) in 1956. Maitani went on to work for them for 40 years. He

1638-410: Was outsourced instead. At the time, most cameras were manufactured at a rate of a few hundred per month; Maitani set an optimistic production target of 5,000 per month, and the company was astonished to find the camera sold out so quickly. The low price also opened a new market for cameras: a month after it launched, Maitani watched a mother photographing her child using a Pen, but he realized that with

1680-578: Was the E-PL2 (2011 Q1), with a bigger and higher resolution LCD screen, then the E-PL3 (2011 Q4), with a higher, 6 fps burst rate. The E-PL5 was the first PEN Lite model to include the E-M5's 16 MP sensor, but maintaining the 3-axis image stabilization from the older cameras. The E-PL6 (2014 Q3) was not a very innovative model with the only new feature being the time lapse recording capability compared to

1722-603: Was the E-PM1 , released in Q4 2011. It had the same features and the same size as the E-PL3 , but with a simplified button layout and ergonomics. The E-PM2 was released in Q2 2013, it had the same differences compared to the E-PL5 . There is one more model in the Digital PEN range, which does not really fit any of these categories. It is the digital PEN-F from 2016. It pays tribute to

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1764-492: Was the amateur model, with fully automatic exposure and fixed focusing. It is a true point and shoot camera, and has a 28mm f/3.5 lens. The Pen EE family is easily recognized by the selenium meter window around the lens. The Pen EE.S , launched in 1962, is the same model with a 30mm f/2.8 and a focusing ring, made necessary by the wider aperture. The focusing ring has marking for three zones (close (1.2m), group (3m), and scene) and can be adjusted from 90cm to infinity. In 1966

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