The firm, which was hit by a massive accounting scandal in 2011, today also reported a 30% rise in unit sales of interchangeable lenses in the last quarter of 2013.

Olympus managed to shrink the operating loss at its imaging division to 1.7 billion yen (£10.2m) – from 4.3 billion yen in the same period a year earlier.

The group turned a previous year loss of 400m yen into an overall net profit of 13.8 billion yen over the three months.

Meanwhile, the company pledged to ‘strengthen its lens business’ over coming months – focusing on its OM-D series cameras which, it says, are often purchased with lenses.

As part of a strategy to enhance its OM-D line-up, Olympus last month unveiled a new ‘entry-level’ model, the E-M10.

Olympus’s overall operating income trebled on the back of higher income in its three core businesses that include its profitable medical equipment division.

The results are contained in financial information released today.