Chronology 1997 to Now

2009	30 July Yoshihisa Maitani passed away on 30 July 2009 at the age of 76. Email us your thought or share it in the guest book.


	16 June Revival of OLYMPUS PEN! Digital camera OLYMPUS PEN E-P1 announced.


	May Olympus Pen 50th Anniversay special web page opened on 19 May 2009. http://olympus-imaging.jp/pen50th/


	March To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the birth of Pen camera. "Pen 50th Anniversary" exhibition will be held in Olympus Plaza in Tokyo and Osaka for three months, starting from 6 April 2009. Report by Olympus Japan, DC Watch

2008	July Maitani gave a speech titled The Visible and Invisible Barrier on 8 July 2008. Reports by Olympus Japan.

	May Maitani gave a speech titled Creation of value in camera design on 23 May 2008. Reports by Olympus Japan.

2005	November Maitani gave a speech titled The History of Olympus Cameras - From Olympus OM-1 to Olympus XA series - at the JCII Camera Museum on 26 November. - report by Olympus Japan (in Japanese)


	October Maitani gave a speech titled The History of Olympus Cameras - From Semi Olympus I To Olympus Pen, Pen-F - at the JCII Camera Museum on 29 October. - report by Olympus Japan (in Japanese) Olympus presented a special E-500 experience event. At the event, a talk session with Maitani was held. Date and place : 8th and 9th October in Tokyo 15th and 16th October in Nagoya 22th and 23th October in Osaka Report by DC Watch (in Japanese) > talk with Maitani


	February - "SLR War and the Challenge of OM" - a collection of the serial articles in CR-CCS is published. Information from amazon.co.jp


	Titles of the Maitani's serial article in CR-CCS* (No. 75 - 76) 28 - Towards the Concept of Olympus XA 27 - Strategy of OM 2- digits series such as OM-10

2004	Titles of the Maitani's serial article in CR-CCS* (No. 71 - 74) 26 - Evolution to OM-3, OM-4 25 - Popularization and deployment of OM cameras 24 - Commercialization of OM-2 23 - Move to Olympus OM-2

	April - Maitani started a new serial article The adventure of camera development in the Spring 2004 issue of Olympus Photography magazine. The article features Dream of camera development, Early days of Olympus cameras and Olympus cameras after the WW II.

2003	Titles of the Maitani's serial article in CR-CCS* (No. 67 - 70) 22 - Release of M-1, and its impact 21 - Production start of M-1 20 - Viewfinder of M-1 19 - Shutter of M-1

2002	Titles of the Maitani's serial article in CR-CCS* (No. 63 - 66) 18 - Layout of M-1 17 - The Road to M-1 16 - The First Phase of M-System 15 - Requirements for a System Camera

	February - Maitani was interviewed by the March issue of Asahi Camera magazine. He comments on the discontinuance of the OM System and his ultimate plan called OM-X. He deeply regrets that the OM-X plan cannot be realized.

	17 January - Olympus Optical Co. Ltd. announced the discontinuance of the OM System.

2001	Titles of the Maitani's serial article in CR-CCS* (No. 58 - 62) 14 - Planning conference of Olympus M-1 13 - The development of 35mm SLR 12 - System and the development of the Pen-FT 11 - Commercializing of the Pen-F

	June - Maitani was interviewed by the magazine Classic Camera No. 12.

	February Maitani comments on the OM-5 in the book Manual Camera Series 7 - All of Olympus. "At the present time, please don't have great expectation of the OM-5. You know Olympus is now being devoted to digital cameras. However, all things are in a state of flux. The OM-5 will surely appear when the trend of times necessitates it in the future." January Maitani comments on the development of the Olympus Pen in the article Diary of Unique Finds-Olympus Pen from Axis magazine January-February issue.

2000	Titles of the Maitani's serial article in CR-CCS* (No. 54 - 57) 10 - Starting the Pen-F 9 - The road to the Pen-F 8 - The half-frame boom 7 - Exposure automation of the Pen camera


	The time capsule buried during the EXPO '70 in Osaka, Japan was unearthed. Pen FT is the only camera contained in the capsule. The camera was examined by its designers at the Olympus Utsugi Technology Research Institute on 30 July 2000. It is the cover story of Olympus Pursuit Vol. 19 No. 4 2000.

1999	Titles of the Maitani's serial article in CR-CCS* (No. 50 - 53) 6 - Same destination but different ways - the development of automatic exposure 5 - The development and influence of the Pen camera 4 - Commercializing of the Olympus Pen 3 - The design of the Olympus Pen

	December Maitani was interviewed by Asahi Camera magazine on the development of the OM System.

1998

December - "The design concept of the Olympus Pen", the 2nd part of The Story of Camera Design was published in CR-CCS* No. 49.

September - The Story of Camera Design, a serial article written by Maitani, was published in the Japanese camera magazine Camera Review - Classic Camera Senka (CR-CCS) No. 48. The title is "The night before the Olympus Pen".

Maitani gave the following speeches at the Japan Camera Museum :

15 March - a speech on the development of Pen-F
12 April - a speech on the birth of Pen series cameras
12 July - a speech on the development of XA

Sales of [mju:] cameras reached 10 million.

1997

Maitani gave a speech on the development of M-1 camera in October at the Japan Camera Museum.

OM2000 Spot Metering was released.