Australian Camera – September-October 2019

OfTheYear’awards– followedby
theOM-30,whicharrivedin 1982,
andthealready-mentionedOM-40
threeyearslater.

TheChallengesOf
Change
YoshihisaMaitani’sotherbig
triumphforOlympuswastheXA
seriesof35mmsub-compacts

• evensmallerthanthePens
  despitebeingfullframe– which
  hedescribedas“caselessand
  caplesscameras”thankstotheir
  niftyclamshelldesign.
  TheoriginalXA(1979)became
  thefirstcameratowina Good
  DesignGrandPrize,anddespite
  beingpocket-sized,it adhered
  totheMaitaniphilosophyofstill
  deliveringhigher-endfeaturesand
  performance.Consequently,it had
  rangefinderfocusing,aperture-

priority auto exposure control and a

six-element Zuiko 35mm f2.8 lens.

Maitani’s genius was also

behind the mju series of pocket-

sized 35mm compacts (called

Stylus in the USA) which kicked

off in 1991 and was able to utilise

the miniaturisation potential of

electronics versus the largely

mechanical XA models. Mju

was another big success for

Olympus and, over the next 12

years, there was a steady stream

of models with either prime or

zoom lenses, before digital capture

changed everything.

Like its main rivals, Olympus

experimented with still video

cameras, launching the analog

VC-100 in 1991 and the digital

VC-1000 in 1993, but it was

already clear that delivering

higher resolutions would require

a different technology. Olympus’s

Camedia line of digital cameras

was launched in 1996 with the

C-800L, which retained traditional

compact camera styling but had

an 810,000 pixels CCD sensor and

recorded images to an internal

flash memory (with all of 6.0 MB

of storage space). In this category

Olympus was competitive from the

start, but things weren’t quite so

rosy in the D-SLR space, a legacy

of having failed to keep up with the

later developments in 35mm SLRs,

most notably autofocusing.

At the time, Olympus cited

concerns about being able to

maintain the imaging performance

of AF lenses (a concern also

expressed by Leica), but the reality

was that it had relied too heavily

on the success of the OM models

and had been left behind in the

autofocus development race. The

last of the OM series 35mm SLRs

(the autofocus OM-707 in 1986 and

its MF cousin, the OM-101) simply

weren’t competitive, and the IS

series of fixed-lens models (known

as the L series in Japan) had little

appeal for the serious enthusiast,

though well equipped.

History Repeats

Yoshihisa Maitani retired from

Olympus in 1996 (and died in July

2009), but his desire to “create

cameras that didn’t previously

exist anywhere” lived on in the

company, and is clearly evident

in the Digital Pen and OM-D

mirrorless cameras. Both have

revived names that were very

significant in Olympus’s camera

history, but there have been a few

twists and turns along the way.

OLYMPUSVC-100‘MAJIN’
1988
LikemostofthemainstreamJapanesecamera makers,
Olympusdabbledwithstillvideosystems. This
illustrationis oftheMajinprototypewhich was
shownatthe 1988 Photokinaandledto the production
VC-100model(launchedin1991).

OLYMPUS O-PRODUCT

1988

A limited run of 20,000 units was

produced of the retro-styled O-Product

35mm camera which celebrated

Olympus’s 70th anniversary.

OLYMPUS VX-303 VHS

VIDEO CAMERA

1983

As portable video revolutionised

home movie-making, Olympus

launched a number of VHS

products during the early 1980s.

OLYMPUSOM-707

XOXOX

Olympus’sfirstautofocus35mmSLRretained

theOMlensmount,butreallycouldn’tcompete

withitsrivalsfromCanon,Nikon,Minolta

andPentax.Olympusdidn’tremainin35mm

interchangeablelensSLRsformuchlonger.

OLYMPUS MJU II

1997

The mju line of ultra-slim 35mm

compacts was hugely successful for

Olympus. The weather-proofed mju

II alone sold just under four million

units.

OLYMPUS IZOOM 75

1999

Olympus was an enthusiastic supporter

of the Advanced Photo System (APS)

and produced a range of iZoom series

compacts which utilised the smaller

format’s space-saving potential.

SPECIAL FEATURE
OLYMPUS 1OO YEARS