August
1999
Introduction.
Olympus was founded in 1919. It
was intended that the company should build microscopes,
and their first microscope was brought to the market in
1920. It wasn't until 1936 that their first camera
appeared, a folding camera with Zuiko lens and Compur
shutter which takes 16 exposures on 120. This camera is
now difficult to find. In 1942 the company changed its
name from Takachiho Seisakusho to Takachiho Kogaku Kogyo
Co., becoming the Olympus Optical Co. a few years later
(in 1949).
Takachiho is the name of a large mountain, reputedly
the earthly home of the Japanese gods, just as Olympus is the name
of a high mountain which is supposed to be the earthly home of the
Greek gods. The Mizuho Optical Institute was established in 1936 as
an engineering laboratory; Mizuho was the name for the legendary "golden
isle" from which would emanate the light of good fortune, or Zuiko
- hence the name of the lenses.
Zuiko lenses are usually given a single letter designation
as well as their specification e.g. Zuiko F f/1.9 32 mm. The letter
indicates the number of elements in the lens and is a simple alpha/number
substitution, where A = 1, B = 2 and so on. Thus, F = 6, so the f/1.9
32 mm. lens has six elements.
Due to tight import restrictions, many
Olympus cameras never made it to the British market, and
those that did never achieved the degree of recognition
that the later cameras managed, especially the Olympus
Trip (which was the subject of a truly inspired
advertising campaign with David Bailey).
Other well-known and popular cameras
made by Olympus include the Olympus XA cameras, the
Olympus Pen half-frame cameras, and the Olympus OM
series. Less well-known is a cine camera, which also
carried the Pen name.
Pen Half-Frame
series: There are too many Olympus
Pen cameras - about 20, plus several single-lens reflex
Pen F cameras - for me to detail all of them, so I've
picked a few which are, for various reasons, interesting
or significant. All of these cameras are half-frame i.e.
they take 48 exposures on a 24 exposure 35 mm. cassette,
or 72 exposures on a 36 exposure 35 mm. cassette. They
all take portrait format pictures.
The range started in 1959, with the
Pen, with Zuiko f/3.5 28 mm. lens and Copal X shutter.
This camera appeared in the UK market in about 1962, when
it cost £16 16s.
Pen
EF. The final model to be
introduced, as far as I can find out, was the Olympus Pen
EF, which came out in about 1981. This Pen had a Zuiko
f/3.5 28 mm. fixed-focus lens, a simple two-speed
programmed shutter with a built-in CdS meter and a
built-in pop-up flash. The Pen EF is less common than
most Pen cameras, although not rare.
Pen D. One
of the most popular Pen cameras now - and the one reputed to have
the best lens - is the Pen D. Introduced in about 1962, the Pen D
has a Zuiko f/1.9 32 mm. 6 element lens, Copal X shutter and uncoupled
selenium meter which gives a reading using the EV scale. This camera
appears in the UK in about 1964, when it cost £32 11s.(Picture).
The Pen D2, which came out in about the same year (1964), was the
same as the Pen D but it had a CdS meter. It was not imported into
the UK for very long and I have not been able to find price information
for this camera. In 1965 the D2 was superseded by the D3, which had
a Zuiko f/1.7 lens. The metering cell on all three of these cameras
is above the lens. In 1967 the D3 cost £39 7s. 10d.
Pen
Rapid. Probably the rarest Pen
cameras are the two which were made to accept Agfa Rapid
cassettes. I have not been able to find any record of
these cameras ever being offered for sale in the UK. The
Rapid EES and Rapid EED both have standard Pen
equivalents.
The Pen EES and the
Rapid EES are fully automatic
cameras with a fixed focus f/2.8 30 mm. zone-focusing
lens. The EES was introduced in about 1962 and made for
about 6 years, during which time it was a very popular
camera. It appears in the UK in about 1964, when it cost
£26 5s. The Rapid EES was introduced in about 1965
and discontinued the following year; like the 'Rapid'
system itself, the camera did not catch the buying
public's eye.
The Pen EED and Pen Rapid EED
have an f/1.7 seven-element Zuiko lens and automatic metering. A low-light
warning can be seen in the viewfinder. The Rapid model preceded the
EED model to the market, coming out in about 1965. It was discontinued
in 1966, after only a few months of production. The EED was introduced
in 1967 and production lasted about 5 years, during which time it
enjoyed steady sales. In 1968, the Pen EED cost £49 10s.
The Pen 8
EE is a Standard-8 cine camera
with electric drive (16 f.p.s. only) and a 9 mm. to 27
mm. f/1.8 Zuiko zoom lens. It has a reflex viewfinder and
automatic exposure, with built-in CdS meter. The zoom
lens may be removed and the camera used with a fixed 13
mm. f/1.8 lens. This camera was introduced into the UK in
about 1964, when it cost a little over £49. It
disappears from the UK shortly after the introduction of
Super-8 (1965).
Filter
Sizes
|
S
|
22.5 mm.
|
|
EE
|
22.5 mm.
|
|
EES
|
22.5 mm.
|
|
W
|
22.5 mm.
|
|
D
|
43 mm.
|
|
D3
|
43 mm.
|
|
D3-FL
|
43 mm.
|
|
D-EL
|
43 mm.
|
|
EED
|
43 mm.
|
|
EM
|
43 mm.
|
|
EE-2
|
43.5 mm.
|
|
EE-3
|
43.5 mm.
|
|
8EE 13 mm.
f/1.8
|
22.5 mm.
|
|
8EE 9 mm. to 27 mm.
f/1.8
|
52 mm.
|
|
EEE 9 mm. to 27
mm. f/1.8
|
52 mm.
|
Note: I like to give price information in both
sterling and American dollars. However, this information
is not always available to me, in which case I use
whichever I can get. I do not convert from one currency
to the other; market conditions vary and camera prices
were often very different in the U.S.A. and Britain, so
conversion would not give an accurate picture.
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