> It was also explained to me that it (the FTL) was intended as a "trial
> baloon" to see if an Olympus SLR had "legs" in the American/World market
> (terminology mine). It did - they sold enough, it was felt, to proceed
> with a "full court press". Hence the OM System - and the rest, as they
> say, is history.
According to a book published in Japan, the development of the OM
series started in 1968. (Development of OM-2 started even earlier
than the OM-1) But they estimated that they need more than 3 years
to complete the design of the OM items.
However, the sales department desired a new consumer's class 35 mm
full format SLR especially for export to be developed within a year
because the sales of the Pen series was decreasing. So Olympus
decided in 1969 to force a small team (they established a subsidiary
company) to make a new SLR (code "453", the FTL) in a very short
time. The team wasn't informed about the "main" OM project.
"453" means March 1970 (their target release date) but the export of
FTL actually started in 1971. (O)M-1 was released in 1972 so the FTL
was discontinued in a short time. Sad story ...
kazuya matsumoto
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