In 1972, Olympus’ chief designer Yoshihisa Maitani – by then well-known for his Olympus Pen collection – created the Olympus OM-1 together with his staff. It was the smallest 35mm SLR to achieve the market for the reason that 1958 Zunow.
Arriving as much as a decade later than a lot of the established SLR manufacturers, the OM-1 succeeded due to its extremely compact dimension, mild weight, strong engineering, very good lenses and wonderful metering.
A particular characteristic is the shutter-speed dial constructed across the lens mount (just like the shutter pace selector within the Nikkormat FT of 1965), which allowed for extra compact building. This may occasionally sound odd, but it surely was very straightforward and intuitive to make use of.
And, it boasted what’s presumably one of the best viewfinder in any 35mm SLR digital camera of the period. This mixture made it a runaway success.
At first, it was referred to as the M-1 (in honor of its designer, Maitani) however the identify was quickly modified after Leica complained that the identify was too near its “M” collection. Early examples, with the M-1 markings, at the moment are extremely prized by digital camera collectors.
In 1975 your scribe took an OM-1 with the Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 and Olympus’ first zoom lens, the 75-150mm f/4, to the USSR with nice success. The latter had inside zooming, so once you modified focal size, the lens didn’t lengthen.
Whereas not as sharp as trendy, top-quality zooms, it was a lot better than common for the time – and made for a wonderful, light-weight, journey package.
Additionally in 1975, Olympus adopted with an improved OM-2 – the primary digital camera able to truly measuring the publicity straight off the movie, through the publicity!
To develop the TTL direct-metering system, Olympus collected movie from nearly each maker worldwide and measured the reflection ratios for every roll. It found that, whereas movie is made in lots of colours, the reflectivity various by solely 0.1EV, which meant that measuring the sunshine off the movie was certainly attainable.
These outcomes have been additionally used to find out the density of a computer-generated sample printed on the shutter curtain. On this manner, the digital camera might present an preliminary metering worth to the person after which alter it, as vital, if the sunshine modified through the publicity!
To perform this trick, the digital camera had two rearward-facing silicon photodiodes within the mirror field to meter mild reflecting off the movie. Its circuitry might detect when sufficient mild was uncovered and both shut the shutter and even mechanically quench a “devoted” digital flash.
In 1983, the OM-3 and OM-4 cameras appeared. Each featured shutter speeds to 1/2000sec however, whereas the OM3 boasted a totally mechanical shutter and mirror lockup for particular lenses or makes use of, the OM-4 provided a battery-dependent electro-mechanical shutter and aperture precedence publicity modes.
The OM collection of professional-grade cameras (the OM 1, 2, 3 and 4 in numerous variations) and their client variations (all with double-digit mannequin numbers, such because the OM-10 and OM-20) have been made for 30 years. By the point the final ones have been rolling off the meeting line within the early 2000s, over 1.2 million OM collection cameras had been made.
When, in 2021, Olympus bought off its digital camera division, the brand new proprietor (OM Digital Options) provided the OM System OM-1 – a mirrorless digital digital camera named in honor of the unique OM-1. It was to be the final digital camera to hold the Olympus branding, with all later fashions bearing the OM System model.
Whereas the Olympus identify is gone, the brand new agency acquired the manufacturing facility, the engineers and the historical past. The soul of Olympus lives on.
Discover out extra about images’s previous in David Younger’s ebook, A Transient Historical past of Images.
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Check out the greatest movie cameras you should purchase right this moment, together with the greatest Olympus and OM System cameras. You can even learn different articles in David Younger’s Basic Cameras collection.