Olympus Cameras

Yoshihisa Maitani is unusual as he is a well-known Japanese camera designer in a country where the designer of many iconic cameras was unknown. Cameras, like the Nikon F probably had several designers working together, and although Maitani didn’t in any way work alone, he did inspire others with his vision.

His first creation was the Pen series of half-frame cameras. A keen photographer he had access to the Leica IIIf and, aware of its drawbacks (and high price) he determined to create a camera with similar performance for a reasonable price ( ¥6000) in the late 1950s.

He decided that half-frame was the way to go, before only Leica themselves had made such a camera, the 1950 Leica ’72’. The advantages of this format were compact size and economy with 72 shots per film.

First, he asked the optical department at Olympus to design a Tessar type lens with no cost restraints. They created the superlative Zuiko, but it cost so much that Maitani had very little left to spend on the actual camera. However a combination of mechanical ingenuity and pared down design produced the first PEN camera in1959 which became an instant success for the company. Below is my 1962 Pen EES, allegedly the worlds first “point-and-shoot” camera.