Even in the days when Japanese consumers thought
imported lenses were superior to those made domestically,
there were a number of brands whose outstanding resolution
was attracting attention in Europe and the United States.
Olympus ZUIKO was one such brand, and even now it is a name
that is synonymous with high performance.
In fact, ZUIKO interchangeable lenses for
the OM Series received the highest critical acclaim at home and
abroad for their light, compact design, sharpness,
and superb image definition. Then, in a culmination of
its long experience in lens development, Olympus introduced
its ZUIKO DIGITAL lenses to the world in 2003.
Complying with the revolutionary new Four Thirds System
standard, these advanced lenses opened the door to a new era in
SLR photography. Indeed, it was the beginning of
a new ZUIKO legend.

Hiroshi Takase, Assistant Manager of the
Optical Development Division, described the challenges his team
faced in developing the ZUIKO DIGITAL lineup.

“A 4/3 image sensor covers about 1/4 the area of
a 35mm film frame, and is about half the width and height.
Since this means that the focal length of the lens can also be
reduced by about half, it is possible to minimize the degree of
correction required for image sensor shake. Which means that,
theoretically, a smaller lens can be used with the image sensor.
However, as the image sensor becomes smaller,
higher lens resolution is needed, which requires twice
the precision in lens manufacturing.
Another problem is that when making a smaller lens,
the manufacturing processes needed to maintain high resolution
become increasingly complex. Faced with these challenges,
the only thing we could do was to improve optical characteristics
at the level of basic design.
“So we focused on the design of the lens,
but it wasn’t long before we realized that designing
a truly high-performance digital SLR lens was no simple matter.
For one thing, a twofold increase in lens precision meant
a twofold or even threefold increase in manufacturing precision.
What’s more, to meet the demands of future image sensors with
even higher pixel counts, it would be necessary to boost
interchangeable lens performance to the limit.
“To overcome these hurdles, in addition to applying
the latest design technology, it was also essential that
we employ advanced manufacturing technologies that enabled us
to double the precision of our lens processing.”