Olympus OM-707 / OM-77

The Olympus OM-707 was released by Olympus in 1986, and was the first attempt by Olympus to make a fully autofocus SLR body.

In 1985 the Minolta 7000 had shown the way to a useable AF SLR, after various unsuccessful attempts like the Pentax ME-F, the Olympus OM-30, the Canon T-80 and the more serious Nikon F3AF. The other makers would follow, with the Nikon F-501, the Canon EOS 650, the Olympus OM-707 and the Pentax SF-X. The OM-707 was the least succesful of all. It maintained the OM bayonet mount and could mount all the Olympus OM lenses, but the new lenses specially designed for the autofocus did not have any manual focusing ring. This was not acceptable because the first autofocus systems were not so satisfying and there were many cases when manual override was necessary. Also, the OM-707 dropped the compatibility with nearly all the accessories that made so much for the success of the OM system.

The market failure led Olympus to find other ways, and they began to develop the IS series bridge cameras. Today Olympus continues this strategy of making cameras different from the other makers with the E-1 system.