Movie Friday: A tribute to the Olympus OM-1 on its fiftieth anniversary: Digital Pictures Evaluate
| The Olympus OM-1 modified the way in which photographers seen SLRs – small is also critical (Photograph by Jim Gray) |
In honor of the 50-year anniversary of the Olympus OM-1, Kosmo Foto founder Stephen Dowling has written up a complete tribute to the digital camera that redefined what an SLR digital camera could possibly be by retaining the design easy and compact with out sacrificing an excessive amount of performance.
As we’ve lined earlier than, the Olympus OM-1 wasn’t the unique plan. Olympus designer Yoshihisa Maitani had initially conceptualized and finally developed a prototype for a digital camera that we now know was known as the Olympus OM-X. This digital camera was comparable in type to Hasselblad cameras, however used 35mm movie as an alternative of the 120 rolls its medium format counterpart used.
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| Maitaini’s unique idea was for a modular digital camera very similar to the 120-format Hasselblad (Picture by Olympus Japan) |
Sadly, that design proved too difficult to supply at scale, so it stopped on the prototype stage. Ultimately, Maitani settled on making the OM-1, a digital camera he had envisioned as an extremely compact 35mm digital camera from the get-go. So small, in actual fact, that he used the Nikon F because the measuring stick and instructed his engineers that he needed the OM-1 to be 20-percent smaller in all dimensions and weigh simply half of what the Nikon F did.
Though not straightforward, the Olympus workforce finally pulled by with Maitani on the helm, delivering a digital camera that measured solely marginally bigger than his unique idea. To realize this, Maitani and his workforce used new applied sciences and supplies to profit from each element. Whereas the digital camera was initially named the M-1, Leica took problem with that on account of its personal M1 digital camera, so it was finally named the OM-1 to attenuate confusion.
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| A Seventies advert which emphasises the OM-1’s quiet shutter (Picture by Nesster/Flickr) |
Ultimately, the digital camera was revealed on the Photokina photographic honest in Cologne, West Germany, in Might 1972. The primary models began arriving at shops slightly below a 12 months later in February 1973 and began what Dowling refers to as an ‘arms race’ amongst the opposite main digital camera producers, paving the way in which for the likes of the Canon A-1 and others.
Dowling concludes the article saying the OM-1 is ‘a testomony to Maitani’s ability at discovering new instructions in digital camera design.’ To learn Dowlings full tribute, which incorporates in depth quantities of particulars and pictures not featured right here, head on over to Kosmo Foto:
Olympus OM-1: The small, quiet revolution in SLR design
About Movie Fridays: We have launched an analog discussion board and in a seamless effort to advertise the enjoyable of the medium, we’ll be sharing film-related content material on Fridays, together with articles from our pals at 35mmc and KosmoFoto.
