The original half-frame Olympus Pen was a huge success, because it was small, inexpensive and had a fast, razor-sharp lens – and the half-frame camera format was thrifty on film.
But even the mighty Olympus Pen died, as people discovered the difficulties in getting a good quality enlargement from the cropped negatives. Yet it still had an amazing 24-year run over various models, finally biting the dust in 1983 after 17 million had been sold.
