"When we first started conceptualizing the successor to the E-1, the first question we asked ourselves was 'what level of performance does the interchangeable lens have to achieve in order to be suitable for the E-1's successor?'"
Kunio Yokoyama, a soft-spoken man who led the team responsible for designing the lens barrel of the E-1's successor, answers his own question quietly.
"One of the answers to this question is the SWD-driven zoom lens that boasts the world's highest AF speed and will soon be added to the lineup.
This lens was made possible by Olympus's supersonic wave technology.
None of our competitors can offer anything that comes close.
"This technology has been applied in a number of areas. For example, there is the 'SSWF (Supersonic Wave Filter)', which is used in the E-series' famous Dust Reduction System, which has solved the problem of dust in any interchangeable-lens digital SLR camera. There's also, the 'IS (Image Stabilization)' built into the camera body. Already incorporated in the E-510, this achieves a high correction effect corresponding to up to 5 shutter speed steps.
And, there is the 'SWD (Supersonic Wave Drive)', a compact but powerful device that drives the ZUIKO DIGITAL lens by means of supersonic vibrations, enabling high-quality, high-speed performance and giving the E-1's successor the world's fastest AF operation.
"Together, the SWD device that drives the lens by means of supersonic vibrations and the AF sensor that accurately detects the lens frame movement make possible the high-accuracy control of the world's fastest autofocusing.
"What is unique about the Olympus SWD drive is that the SWD moves the lens directly. Compared to other SWD lenses that are driven through an intermediate device, our system is a very rational one, contributing to a reduced lens weight as well as increasing the AF speed.
"To tell the truth, how fast an AF system moves to the focusing point is not the most important thing.
"What is most important is that the AF stops moving exactly where it's supposed to.
To achieve this, we independently developed a new, ultra-compact encoder to accurately detect the focus position using the direct rotation detection method.
This makes it possible to move the lens through all the autofocus stages - startup, acceleration, control and stopping - at a high speed, and to stop it at the focusing point accurately and smoothly.
"The SWD not only makes focusing fast, it's so smooth and quiet, you'll hardly notice it.
"In addition, we are also planning to incorporate 'full-time manual focusing' capability to make switching to MF possible at any time. The manual focusing mechanism is mechanically linked to enable smooth, accurate focusing even immediately after switching to MF and to improve the response and comfort of manual focusing operation."