Also an old an respectable camera company, founded in 1919 as TAKACHIHO SEISAKUSHO. Originally the company made all sorts of optical equipment, especially microscopes, but no cameras. It was not until 1936 that the first Olympus camera, with the famous Zuiko lens, was released.
The name
Olympus started being used as a
brand name in
1921 and by
1949 it was so well-known that the
company was
renamed in order to
benefit from it. In
1948 the
Olympus 35, Japan´s first
35mm camera with a
lens shutter system was
introduced.
In more recent history, the Olympus group were early in the pioneering and commercialization of magneto-optic drives and ion disposition printing. They are also very prominent in the market for high-end digital cameras, notably the C3030-ZOOM.