Olympus
began by making microscopes in 1920
under the name of Takachiho Seisakusho. Olympus made its first camera
in 1936 (the "Semi-Olympus") and in 1949 changed it's name to Olympus
Optical Co. Ltd. (adopting the name of its cameras) and still makes
both cameras and microscopes today under that name.
Olympus has often managed to
squeeze the full functions of a quality
camera into a smaller and lighter body. In addition to their light and
compact full frame models, Olympus created a line of popular half frame
models in the 60's and 70's, the famous PEN cameras, so named because
they were as small and convenient as putting a pen in your pocket.