Olympus Flex

The Olympus Flex was a series of 6x6 TLRs made by Olympus, during the great TLR vogue in Japan in the 1950s.

The typology of the Olympus Flex variants usually reproduced in Western reference books is the one in the book by Francesch. A webpage by E. Suzuki at the Olympus Photo Club website gives additional info about the original Olympus Flex I model. It is reproduced in English at the tlr-cameras website. (See links below.)

The Olympus Flex I was first released in 1952. It had two Zuiko 75/2.8 lenses, advance knob and focusing knob both on the right side, two filter bayonets and two wheels for the speed and aperture settings, imitating the Rolleiflex controls. The shutter was a Seikosha-Rapid B-1-400 (#0 size).

The following model is called Olympus Flex BI by Francesch and Olympus Flex B by E.Suzuki and Olympus corporate site. It was released in 1953, with minor changes in the viewing hood.

At some point, there were minor changes in the advance and focus knobs and in the sync post.

There is some confusion around the Olympus Flex BII, released the same year. Francesch (and also John Foster at this page) says it was a variant with a 75/3.5 taking lens. Other sources, including E.Suzuki's page and the chronology at Olympus corporate site, say that it was just a variant of the B with flash sync changed from F to X, and a new type of sync plug. In the pictures shown as a BII, the lens is f:3.5, so the version by Francesch is the most probable. There are other doubtful points in the Olympus chronology, concerning the Olympus folders.

The Olympus Flex A3.5 was released in 1954. It was a simplified model: the setting wheels were replaced by ordinary speed and aperture controls (speed on the left and aperture on the right). The filter bayonets were replaced by screw threads. The A3.5 had two Zuiko 75/3.5 lenses and a Seikosha-Rapid B-1-500 shutter (#00 size).

In 1955, the Olympus Flex A2.8 had wider 75/2.8 viewing and taking lenses, and reintroduced the filter bayonets. The shutter was the same Seikosha-Rapid #0 with 1/400 top speed as the Olympus Flex B, to accomodate the bigger lens. The speed and aperture controls were inverted: speed on the left and aperture on the right.

The last variant, in 1956, was the Olympus Flex A3.5 II, the same as the A3.5 with filter bayonets and a Seikosha-MX #00 B-1-500 shutter with M/X synchro.

Bibliography

• Francesch, Dominique and Jean-Paul. Histoire de l'appareil photographique Olympus de 1936 à 1983. Paris: Dessain et Tolra, 1985. ISBN 2-249-27679-X.
• Watakushi no ni-gan-refu kamera-ten (私の二眼レフカメラ展, Exhibition of twin lens reflex cameras). Tokyo: JCII Camera Museum, 1992. (Exhibition catalogue, no ISBN number.) P. 30.

Links

In English:

• Olympus Flex page at the tlr-cameras.com website
• Olympus TLR page at the Biofos site by John Foster
• Olympus Flex page at medfmt

In Japanese:

• Olympus Flex page by E. Suzuki at the Olympus Photo Club website
• The Olympus corporate history site, with:
  • the medium format camera page
  • the chronology
• Olympus Flex A3.5 and Olympus Flex specifications at Japan Family Camera
• Olympus Flex A3.5 repair page at the Takasaki Motohiro's camera site
• Olympus Flex I at the TLR milestone site
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