Compact Camera

The Pen series is a family of half-frame cameras made by Olympus from 1959 to the beginning of the 1980s. Aside from the Pen F series of half-frame SLRs, they are fixed-lens viewfinder cameras.

In 2009, Olympus introduced the PEN E-P1,a Micro Four Thirds system digital camera which the company touts as the next-generation Pen camera. All Olympus PEN digital camera series have built-in sensor-shift image stabilisation and (except for the E-P1) can use optional electronic viewfinder which should be slid into its hotshoe.

The Pen EE was introduced in 1961 and was the amateur model, with fully automatic exposure and fixed focusing. It is a true point and shoot camera, and has a 28mm f/3.5 lens. The Pen EE family is easily recognized by the selenium meter window around the lens.

The Pen EE.S, launched in 1962, is the same model with a 30mm f/2.8 and a focusing ring, made necessary by the wider aperture.

In 1966 the two cameras were slightly modified and became the Pen EE (EL) and Pen EE.S (EL) with a modification of the take-up spool to make film loading easier. EL stands for Easy Loading. You can only recognize them by a small label marked EL stuck on the front, or you can open them and look at the take-up spool.

The Pen EE.2, produced from 1968 to 1977, is nearly the same as the Pen EE with the addition of a hot shoe.

In the case of EE-2 , the cell controls the shutter (1/40 to 1/200 sec). If the lighting is insufficient, the shutter release is locked. The lens is a Zuiko 3.5 / 28. Unlike the EE , the EE2 has an accessory shoe.

The Mamiya Ruby Standard is a leaf-shutter fixed-lens rangefinder introduced by Mamiya in August 1961. It features a coupled selenium match-needle lightmeter. The lens is a Mamiya-Kominor 48mm f/2.0 and the shutter is a Copal SVK. This camera was sold in the Unites States by Sears as the Tower 18B.

From 1948 the Mamiya range became more diversified, with the introduction of the Mamiyaflex series of 6×6 TLRs in 1948, the Mamiya 35 series of 35mm fixed lens rangefinder in 1949 and the Mamiya 16 series of 16mm film subminiature cameras in the same year. Together with the Mamiya Six, these four series were the basis of the Mamiya range throughout the 1950s. In 1950, the company name was changed to Mamiya Kōki Kabushiki Kaisha (マミヤ光機㈱, Mamiya Optical Co., Ltd.). The last Mamiya Six version appeared in 1958.

The Vitoret D was introduced circa 1962 as an inexpensive viewfinder camera from Voigtländer, and was replaced in 1966 with a restyled version featuring squarer body corners. This was discontinued in 1971.

A built-in uncoupled selenium meter is included, with a top-plate display. The scale focusing lens offers only three distance settings: 4.5 feet (portrait), 10 feet (group), and 30 feet (landscape), with each setting displayed in the viewfinder. The Vitoret D was offered with two lens options: the Lanthar f/2.8 50mm or the Vaskar f/2.8 50mm, until 1965 when a Color Lanthar f/2.8 50mm became the only version.

The Digna is a rollfilm camera for 120 film made by Dacora, with a pop-out lens tube.

Versions exist with an Achromat Digna 80mm f/8 lens and only one shutter speed (1/50 sec.), and with a Dacora Dignar 75mm f/4.5 lens. The top model has an Enna Correlar 80mm f/2.9. The latter two have a Pronto leaf shutter with speeds 1/25 - 1/200 second, plus 'B'.