[Obituary] Yoshihisa Maitani, Designer of the PEN, XA and OM system as passed on

[headfonz]

http://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/20090730_306011.html

Yoshihisa Maitani, the visionary designer that created the Olympus PEN, PEN-F, XA and OM series of cameras has died. He was 76.

Profile of Yoshihisa Maitani

Since boyhood, Yoshihisa Maitani felt an affinity toward cameras and photography. After studying mechanical engineering at university, he joined Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. (now Olympus Corporation) in 1956. As a camera designer, he was involved in the development of many cameras that triggered major booms and became milestones in world camera history, including the Olympus Pen (1959), the Olympus Pen F (1963), the Olympus OM-1 (1973) and the Olympus XA (1979).

excerpt from http://www.olympus-global.com/en/corc/history/

Maitani has a special lecture series on the design of PEN, XA and OM series of cameras that has influenced camera design right to the cameras that we are using today. The web lectures can be found here:

http://www.olympus-global.com/en/corc/history/lecture/
http://www.olympus-global.com/en/corc/history/lecture2/

Thank you Maitani-san

 

[elgkh]

Thanks for posting this. He was a true visionary, and an engineering genius. We need more like him.

 

[bousozoku]

If not for him, we'd be using huge cameras for everything.

He missed the worldwide success of the E-P1. :cry:

 

[headfonz]

If not for him, we'd be using huge cameras for everything.

He missed the worldwide success of the E-P1. :cry:

I guess at least he lived to see the essence of his PEN-F camera to be the reference design of a entirely new camera segment in the digital photography age.

 

[phan_vinh_nguyen]

May him RIP. His design phylosophy certainly let photography more affordable to everybody.

 

[Oly5050]

Thanks for posting his seminars. I read thru the entire thing. It is really awesome.

If he did just pass away, he would have at least been alive when the EP-1 was launched.

 

[microcosm]

He was around at the London launch of the E-P1.
Me must have passed on with a smile on his face.
Seeing the Pen moved from film to digital and bearing
the legacy of his labor of love. Pen F to E. (P1).

Not many product designers can live a life like him.
And bearing a legacy like he did. Amazing fella.
The other I know is the family that runs Sarome.
They made cigarette lighters the way they are today.

These are all Japanese legends of our time.

Rest in peace, old man.
You have done a great job in your time on earth
as one of the greatest product designers.

 

[Lomographer]

he was a great man,

and created a great system and revolutionize photography with it.

rip

 

[schon]

amazing cameras, and an even more amazing person.

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