Est. 1919 · Tokyo, Japan · 7 lenses
Takachiho Seisakusho — the company that would become Olympus — was founded in 1919 in Tokyo to manufacture microscopes, making it one of Japan's oldest precision optical firms. The company renamed itself Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. in 1949, drawing the name from the Greek mythological mountain of the gods. The Zuiko brand name, applied to all Olympus photographic lenses, derives from the Japanese "zuikō" (瑞光) meaning auspicious or sacred light — a poetic description of the image-forming beam.
Olympus entered 35mm photography with the Pen series (1959), a line of half-frame compact cameras designed by Yoshihisa Maitani, whose miniaturization philosophy shaped the company's photographic identity for decades. The Pen F (1963) extended the concept into a half-frame SLR with a distinctive rotary metal shutter — the first half-frame SLR with a focal-plane shutter — and an interchangeable F.Zuiko lens system that demonstrated Olympus's ability to produce optically excellent glass in an unconventionally small package.
Maitani's most consequential contribution was the OM system, introduced with the OM-1 in 1972. Smaller and lighter than any professional SLR then available, the OM-1 matched or exceeded the handling and optical performance of German and Japanese competitors while setting a new standard for compact SLR ergonomics. The OM body diameter was defined by the minimum housing the shutter and mirror required, not by convention — an engineering-first approach that produced a camera noticeably smaller than the Nikon F or Canon F-1 of the same era.
The Zuiko Auto-S and Auto-T prime lens lineup for the OM system covered focal lengths from 8mm fisheye to 1000mm supertele, with particular strength in fast standard lenses. Olympus produced several 50mm designs at maximum apertures of f/1.2 and f/1.4, using modified double-Gauss optical formulas with high-index lanthanum glass to control aberrations at wide apertures without resorting to aspherical surfaces. The G.Zuiko Auto-S 55mm f/1.2 (c. 1971) predates the OM system and belongs to the earlier OM-style half-thread-mount generation, representing Olympus's large-aperture capability before the OM body was finalised. The 90mm f/2 Macro and 180mm f/2 telephoto are among the most technically ambitious Zuiko designs.
In the digital era, Olympus co-developed the Four Thirds System standard (2003) with Kodak — an open-specification digital SLR format using a 17.3 × 13 mm sensor and a new short-flange-distance mount designed from the outset for digital rather than adapted from film. Four Thirds allowed smaller bodies and lenses than APS-C SLR designs, at the cost of smaller sensors. The follow-on Micro Four Thirds standard (2008), co-developed with Panasonic, removed the mirror box entirely, shortening the flange to 19.25 mm and enabling a new generation of compact mirrorless cameras and M.Zuiko Digital lenses.
In 2021 Olympus Corporation divested its camera and imaging business, which was transferred to OM Digital Solutions Corporation (OMDS). OMDS continues developing and selling cameras under the OM System brand and produces the M.Zuiko Digital lens lineup for Micro Four Thirds — maintaining continuity with the Zuiko optical heritage while operating as an independent imaging company.
Notable designs: G.Zuiko Auto-S 55mm f/1.2, Zuiko Auto-S 50mm f/1.2, G.Zuiko Auto-S 50mm f/1.4, Zuiko Auto-Macro 90mm f/2, Zuiko Auto-T 180mm f/2, M.Zuiko Digital ED 75mm f/1.8