[3] Maitani credits Eiichi Sakurai, a keen photographer, with shifting Olympus from microscopes to cameras starting in 1935.

[6] The low price also opened a new market for cameras: a month after it launched, Maitani watched a mother photographing her child using a Pen, but he realized that with the settings she had chosen, the picture would not be in focus, so he next designed a prototype with simplified controls, requiring just a single button press.

The head of the sales department argued with Maitani over this philosophy, believing that real photographers required many controls and fearing that such a simple camera would not sell.

After completing the prototype, the head of sales played with the camera for half an hour in silence, then enthusiastically encouraged production to start, resulting in the Pen EE.

[6] At the time the Pen launched, Maitani believed there would not be a market for a half-frame single-lens reflex camera,[6] but began developing some of the key technologies that would be required, including a mirror that swung sideways and a rotary focal plane shutter.

[7] Because Kodak refused to create half-frame slide mounts, the American market for the Pen F was limited, and the head of exports began pressuring Maitani to develop a full-frame SLR.

As a small company, Olympus could not afford to continue both the half-frame and full-frame programs, so initially the sales department began exploring the possibility of rebadging another manufacturer's products.

[11] After the OM-2, Olympus's market share for 35mm compact cameras began to fall and Maitani was enlisted to help design a new product.

[17] The man behind the Olympus OM camera: Yoshihisa Maitani This biographical article related to Japan is a stub.