Japan · 7 lenses

Olympus (OM Zuiko)

Olympus started in 1919 as Takachiho Seisakusho, and its first Zuiko lens went on the Semi-Olympus I in 1936. Zuiko means holy light, a name built from characters of the Mizuho lab where the lens was developed and of Takachiho itself. The OM system launched in 1972 under designer Yoshihisa Maitani, whose team set out to make the SLR smaller, lighter and quieter. Zuiko lenses for it run from 8mm to 1000mm, with the aperture ring at the front of the barrel and a depth-of-field preview button on the lens. Early single-coated lenses carry a letter before Zuiko that counts the elements, G for seven, as in G.Zuiko Auto-S 50mm f/1.4. Multi-coated lenses were marked MC at first, then simply Zuiko. The OM system ran until 2002.