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This is extremely rare - an almost unheard-of accessory for the Olympus Pen half-frame camera range designed by the legendary Yoshihisa Maitani from 1959. It's an Olympus Pen Film Inspection Viewer for negative film and possibly for positive proof strips - the image from its original Japanese instruction manual (borrowed from one of the only other listings on the internet) shows how it was used. It's in excellent condition, some minor scuff marks on the metal case but the lens is clean and sharp. The black mount is possibly Bakelite, and it screws in and out smoothly. The original logo is bright and unscratched. The base is stamped JAPAN.

The Pen was Maitani's first major success, and what a success it was - within months of its release Olympus was selling 5000 cameras a month and was struggling to meet demand. Maitani - whose introductory direction on joining Olympus was "Try designing something" was called in and given a new brief: "Make new cameras, more quickly." He did, and by the time the Pen completed its run it had sold over 17 million units, which was unprecedented. Pen cameras are ubiquitous and reliable: apparently you can pick one up and the vast majority will still work 50 or 60 years later. There are a lot of Pen cameras and some wide-ranging Pen collections, but you won't see too many of these little film inspection viewers with the Pen sharp lens and logo. In fact, this might be the only one you ever see. If you enjoy 35mm film photography you'll enjoy it even more when you have one of these magnifying the brilliance of each frame!