Olympus sells off its camera business, will provide medical imaging equipment

Olympus has been manufacturing cameras, lenses, audio recorders, and other accessories since 1936. Now, the Japanese company has decided to put a full stop to its camera business entirely. On Wednesday, Olympus confirmed that it is no longer working for its camera division and selling it to Japan Industrial Partners (JIP).

JIP is the same company which bought Sony's VAIO computer business, and is now eyeing Olympus imaging brands like Zuiko and OM-D. Olympus says that it implemented measures to cope with the extremely severe digital camera market. But their efforts were not enough "due to, amongst others, rapid market shrink caused by the evolution of smartphones."

As users went all praises for smartphone cameras in recent years, Olympus believes that it killed the demand for the traditional cameras gingerly. Despite producing several well-liked cameras, Olympus struggled along with industry rivals. Olympus said that it was bearing losses from its imaging division from last three years.

Now, the brand signed a memorandum of understanding to transfer its camera business to JIP. Thus, Olympus and JIP plan to sign an absolute agreement by the end of this year, probably in September.

Olympus has been one of the major brands to support Micro Four Thirds format. The brand has produced a classic range of half-frame cameras -the Pen series, and a mirrorless interchangeable lens camera -the Olympus OM-D camera. Olympus also produced the world's first micro-cassette tape recorder Zuiko Pearlcorder.

After quitting on the camera division, which was anyway a small part of Olympus' business, the brand will now largely focus on laying out medical equipment like endoscopes. Other camera brands such as Fujifilm and Canon are also involved in healthcare. These companies supply industrial and medical imaging equipment after seeing a decline in camera sales.