Olympus Wide-S
The Olympus Wide-S is an uncommon and nicely made fixed-lens rangefinder camera with a remarkably fast and well-corrected 8-element 35mm f2 H.Zuiko-W lens. It has a parallax-corrected brightline viewfinder, an uncoupled EV exposure calculator, and focuses down to handy 2.2ft. It was also marketed under Sear's Tower brand in the US, though it retained Olympus badging on the lens face and top plate.
Olympus released the Wide-S in 1957, months before Leica introduced their iconic 35mm f2 Summicron v1 "8-Element." Pre-empting the Summicron's release doesn't seem to have led to sales success for Olympus, as very few of these cameras were produced. This is especially true of the black paint Olympus Wide-S shown here, which may be the rarest standard production Olympus camera ever made. While Olympus' production totals are unknown, black Wide-S cameras are hardly ever seen. Original black paint Wide-S cameras are fitted with some chrome hardware, including the advance and rewind, but have black-painted focusing rings.
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