The design concept of Olympus OM- 1

At the Photokina exhibition in 1972, Olympus released the first prototype OM- 1 of the OM system. The original name of this machine is M- 1, and the system name is M system. However, Leica is not happy because it already has the M system. Olympus also thinks that this will cause confusion (especially after the O system is developed, the number of fuselage models will be close to the current products, such as OM-4 will be called M-4). Finally, Olympus decided to name the system OM system (Olympus M) and change the camera from M- 1 to OM- 1. However, the already produced M- 1 fuselage, M system lens and accessories cannot be changed. Now this part of things is very collectible, and the price is several times that of the same OM system. ...

(O)M- 1 caused a sensation at the Photokina exhibition. Compared with the competitor's fuselage, it is surprisingly small and light, and it is an all-mechanical professional system camera. Olympus not only reduces the weight and volume of the fuselage, but also makes its system lens and accessories as small and light as possible, which has always been the basic design concept of OM system. This concept attracted a large number of photographers, and after a period of time, other camera manufacturers began to develop small 135 SLR cameras. Olympus leads the development trend of cameras. (O)M- 1 has achieved great success because of its quiet shutter sound and large and bright focusing screen.

OM- 1 One of the secrets of being so compact is that it sinks the pentaprism into the mirror box.

Professional system camera is a key word of O-machine, which means it can bear heavy load-connecting the motor to take dozens of pictures every day without making mistakes. It also means a complete photographic system, including a large number of lenses and accessories. In this way, the camera can cope with all kinds of photography in different photography fields-portrait photography, news photography, sports photography, scientific photography (medical photography, micrography, macro photography, celestial photography) and so on. This means that a large number of necessary interchangeable lenses, interchangeable focus screens, high-speed motors, interchangeable camera backs and a large number of accessories connecting various parts of the system must be manufactured. These O-Notes are all OM- 1 and OM systems. In order to make the fuselage as small as possible, the O-record professional machine does not have a replaceable viewfinder, while its competitors Nikon F2 and Canon F 1 do. O-Note's OM system is one of the largest SLR systems in the world.

The development of OM system took at least 5 years. As early as 1960s, Maitani developed another SLR system for O-record: half-width PEN F system. This system already has many characteristics of OM system: a large number of lenses and accessories, including macro photography and macro photography accessories. You can learn more in Stephen Gandy's Netscape CAMERAQUEST. Even before 1963 released the PEN F system, O Ji had gained a good reputation for its compact PEN series cameras (1959). This is a Quan Huafu 35MM camera with a fixed focus lens. Subsequently, a large number of small 35MM and half-length cameras were born, including the historical PEN W, PEN EE3, PEN EF, XA, TRIP, 35RD and 35RC, and the recent mini autofocus cameras, such as Trip AF and Mju series.

After the OM system was released, the PEN F system was discontinued, and the same situation occurred in Olympus FTL 1973 (this machine is a full-frame camera released by 1970, with no system support and only a few lenses).

Twenty-eight years later, OM- 1 is still regarded as a working camera rather than a collection. Its design is direct, compact and light, and it is regarded as the representative of the all-robot camera that is on the verge of extinction. It can still work without 1.35V mercury battery. Of course, the exposure can also be provided by hand-held exposure meter or exposure reference table. In addition, OM- 1 is praised by microscopists, macro photographers and astrophotographers as a mirror pre-lifting function to reduce vibration. OM- 1 also attracts beginners of photography. They are usually advised to learn the basic rules of photography from the mechanical camera. A camera without automatic exposure function can help beginners understand the meaning of aperture and shutter speed more deeply. In addition, second-hand OM- 1 fuselage and ZUIKO lens are everywhere, and the price is reasonable.

Changing from M- 1 to OM- 1 is just a different name. After that, OM- 1 was improved twice: 1973 added the motor drive function, and the existing OM- 1 can also be converted into a motor. This version is usually called OM- 1 MD because there is a small label "MD" on the front of the fuselage. 1979 OM- 1 upgrade to om-1n. Mainly to improve the communication between the fuselage and the O-record T series flash (the READY/OK signal of the flash is added to the mirror extractor). 1987 OM- 1N was discontinued, leaving a blank for O's mechanical camera, because OM-3 released by 1983 was discontinued at 1986, while OM-3TI only appeared at 1995.