Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Olympus Pen W

Olympus · Fixed lens · 18×24 mm on 35mm film · 1964

Also known as: Olympus Pen-W · Olympus Pen Wide · オリンパス ペンW · オリンパス ペンワイド

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Pen W Half-frame 1964–1965 — About 23,000 (Japan Camera Hunter); no maker figure published
  1. The 23,000 figure is Japan Camera Hunter's and no Olympus document confirms it; it is carried here as the only number anyone gives.
  2. The lens is the reason the camera is expensive and also the thing reviewers are hardest on: Analog.Cafe found the corners swirly and soft wide open and the whole frame only sharp from f/8, and still shot it for months.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • A Pen S body in black with a wider lens and a shoe: the two-year run and the black finish make it the collectors' Pen

Pen W:

  • E.Zuiko W 25mm f/2.8 — a 35mm-equivalent view on the half frame, the widest lens on any viewfinder Pen
  • Black finish only, with a cold accessory shoe; no chrome version was made
  • Shutter 1/8–1/250 and B, as the Pen S
  • The black paint reacts with skin and flakes to brass at the touch points (Japan Camera Hunter)

Specifications

Format
18×24 mm on 35mm film · 72 exposures
Finder
Direct-vision optical finder with frame lines · no rangefinder image
Shutter
Copal leaf, between the lens · 1/8–1/250 and B
Film advance
Thumbwheel on the back
Meter
None
Designed by
Maitani Yoshihisa (米谷美久) — designer of the Pen series
Country
Japan

What reviewers say

History

The Pen W is a Pen S painted black with a wider lens. The E.Zuiko W 25mm f/2.8 gives the half frame the view a 35mm gives a full one, the shutter runs 1/8 to 1/250 as on the S, there is a cold shoe on top and no meter anywhere. Olympus made it for two years, 1964 and 1965, and only in black. Japan Camera Hunter puts the run at about 23,000; Olympus has never published a figure.

That combination — the only wide Pen, the only black viewfinder Pen, the shortest run — is why it is the collectors’ Pen and why it costs several times what a Pen S does. The lens itself does not entirely earn the premium. Analog.Cafe, having expected a sharp lens from the small pictures online, found the corners swirly and soft wide open and the frame only properly sharp from f/8, and kept shooting it anyway for the rendering and the handling. Japan Camera Hunter’s complaint is the 1/250 top speed on a camera whose size begs for the street, and the black paint that flakes to brass wherever a hand rests.

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This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Olympus Pen W? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $420 across 3 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-06 (middle half $250–$420). First day tracked.

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

eBay links are affiliate links. If you buy through one, Glass Bodies earns a small commission from eBay at no cost to you. It does not change which listings appear, their prices or their order — those come from the search and the sort described above.

Listings updated 2026-09-05. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Olympus Pen · Olympus Pen D · Olympus Pen EE

Sources (4)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this camera, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.