22/01-08   -   Press releases

Olympus has achieved the impossible

A farewell to technological challenges of the past. Meaning a great impact on present and future picture quality.

So many technologies exist today that it may be difficult for the consumer to find out which are the best and which are most important to ensure perfect pictures, pictures of moments that can´t be recaptured.

There is no doubt, however, that the most important part of a camera is the lens and the quality of it, since the picture is created through the lens. Olympus has the world´s most advanced lens plants, producing lenses for cameras as well as for medical equipment, endoscopes, and microscopes. Research here is an ongoing process to improve optical quality and to develop new methodologies – and a farewell to technological challenges of the past – in order to create the impossible.

Persistence and innovate thinking combined with high-technology precision has succeeded in the creation of three new types of lens elements, which will have a great impact on present and future optical construction and will provide new possibilities for camera design. The new DSA lens element (Dual Super Aspherical lens) has led to the creation of the impossible – a lens element which in spite of its curvature is thinner at the centre than at the edge. A lens element which is able to combine extremely high refraction of light with the ability to compensate for aberrations – an invention which would otherwise require several traditional lens elements to obtain the same effect that can now be obtained with just one DSA lens element.

EDA (Extra-low Dispersion Aspherical lens) is the second newly developed lens element. When light is refracted through a lens, it is dispersed into the colours of the rainbow where the colours do not have the same wavelengths and consequently will not be in focus on the same plane, thus impairing the sharpness and colours of the picture. ED glass is applied to resolve this problem. Combining ED glass with an aspherical surface has not previously been technically possible because the surface is extremely fragile and is easily broken during the production process. Olympus has now developed an ultra-precise cooling down control which during the gradual cooling down following manufacture prevents the lens from breaking caused by thermal shock. This technology is three times more accurate than previous methods and therefore ensures a more accurate surface and the non-breaking of the element.

The last new lens element SHR (Super High Refractive index lens) is an extremely thin highly refractive element, which ensures the same refraction across the entire surface. In spite of its curvature, it ensures a uniform transmission of light with a uniform picture surface to provide edge-to-edge sharpness.

These new lens elements will form part of the new Olympus product line to be launched on 22 January 2008. The significance of the new lens elements is that it is possible to produce slimmer camera bodies with powerful zooms and also that fewer lens elements are required to obtain a better quality, higher contrast, greater sharpness,and reduced aberrations.

In the past, Olympus has won several prizes for their quality lenses and innovative thinking. Olympus is extremely strong in the medical sector and has research centres all over the world, with continuous product development taking place to ensure the absolute best for the consumers and to meet the strict demands on precision and quality for equipment used in the medical sector. These amazing technologies are being transferred to the Olympus cameras – which always apply state-of-the-art technology. The greatest source of inspiration to product development is listening to the needs of the users and to transform their requirements into the finished product, with a wish to ensure the consumer the very best pictures. If you are considering buying a new camera, we invite you to have a look at these new cameras from Olympus.