Olympic Camera

The Olympic Camera Works is the only known but probably not the true name of a certain camera maker in Japan. The company made the sophisticated Olympic and Super Olympic bakelite viewfinder cameras, and it probably made the Olympic Enlarger and Olympic tripods. Its cameras were distributed by Asahi Bussan in Japan and the UK. In 1937 it was bought by Riken Kankōshi which renamed it to Asahi Kōgaku Kōgyō (Asahi Optical Industries Co., Ltd.) and continued the Olympic series, and even released new Olympics like the Semi Olympic. In 1938 the Riken group gave itself the new name Riken Kōgaku Kōgyō, but the subsidiary firm's name "Asahi Kōgaku Kōgyō" was continued until 1942, as long as the Olympic series was made.

The existence of the Olympic Camera Works might not be believable for somebody who knows about Japanese habits to hide the name of original manufacturing places behind a generic Camera Works name. But the Camera series which is badged as made by "Olympic Camera Works", i.e. the slightly advanced bakelite viewfinder cameras Olympic, Super Olympic and Semi Olympic, have a significant design handwriting which must be from one certain manufacturer, the one that was transformed somehow to the company Asahi Kōgaku Kōgyō by Riken from 1937 to 1938. And this one truly existed.