Another trouble with Olympus EM5 :(

[Bhupinder2002]

Dear friends:smile:
We all love Olympus OMD EM5 , its a fantastic machine but there are some quality issues which Olympus must address during next upgrade. I was in Singapore and strap lug came off suddenly . I was lucky not to drop the camera and had a bag to carry it later on . To make the matter worse , this one is an Elite limited edition from Olymous .Here is a pic of new trouble with EM5.Luckily its still under warranty .
Cheers
Bhupinder

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

DP3M1105 by bhupinder2002, on Flickr

 

[Yoda]

I've read about this fault a few times too, thing is most of the lenses are relatively light weight, what's going to happen when you start putting some of the new bigger zooms on ?

 

[Bhupinder2002]

Thats the root cause I suppose . I was using 12-40 mm with it . But having said that , I have used 14-54 with previous bodies and never had any issues . This is my third EM5 in the last 3 years .
Cheers

 

[Ricoh]

Looking at the end view of the lug, does it have a thread form, ie Is the lug screwed in place internally?

This type of failure has been mentioned quite a few times already. You were lucky in a way, it could have wrecked a good lens, and lenses are generally valued higher than a camera that is, or about to be, out of production.

PS Just read your last post, "...third EM5 in three years", what happened to the first two?

 

[Deleted member 20897]

I'd recommend looking at alternative carry options. I've left neck straps long ago and use Black Rapid straps exclusively.

That might be an option to mitigate this in the future.

 

[drd1135]

Yikes. I wonder what Olympus would have done if the lug had pulled out and your had dropped the camera. I doubt they would have covered lens damage.

 

[Deleted member 20897]

Yikes. I wonder what Olympus would have done if the lug had pulled out and your had dropped the camera. I doubt they would have covered lens damage.

I bet you could have made a pretty strong case for it to have the lens repaired as well.

They do seem pretty reasonable, at least my dealings with Only service anyway.

 

[drd1135]

That would certainly be the best way to keep a customer.

 

[Paul80]

I wonder what it is with the M5, there are far more reports of bits falling of the M5 than the M1 & M10 put together, is it made in a different factory or even country to the others or do they just sell far more M5's compared to the others.

Paul

 

[ahinesdesign]

Was there any indication of it being loose before failing? I also have an "Elite" edition EM5 and so far the lugs are fine, but I don't want to have it fall to the ground unexpectedly! (I don't typically carry on a neck strap though...)

Dear friends:smile:
We all love Olympus OMD EM5 , its a fantastic machine but there are some quality issues which Olympus must address during next upgrade. I was in Singapore and strap lug came off suddenly . I was lucky not to drop the camera and had a bag to carry it later on . To make the matter worse , this one is an Elite limited edition from Olymous .Here is a pic of new trouble with EM5.Luckily its still under warranty .

 

[Deleted member 20897]

I wonder what it is with the M5, there are far more reports of bits falling of the M5 than the M1 & M10 put together, is it made in a different factory or even country to the others or do they just sell far more M5's compared to the others.

Paul

Well, the EM5 was the first OM-D style body, and generally there are a lot of learning curve issues with these camera bodies that don't trickle down to other subsequent models. That is most likely the case, at least IMHO.

 

[shutterduster]

I would think there are probably ten times as many E-M5's out there than E-M1 and E-M10's in total. This may account for a larger than number of problems.

Dave T

I wonder what it is with the M5, there are far more reports of bits falling of the M5 than the M1 & M10 put together, is it made in a different factory or even country to the others or do they just sell far more M5's compared to the others.

Paul

 

[Bhupinder2002]

Yikes. I wonder what Olympus would have done if the lug had pulled out and your had dropped the camera. I doubt they would have covered lens damage.

I am going to talk to Olympus Australia today and I have no doubts they will dispute this . If my camera or lens would have been damaged , I would imagine they shall
cover it.
:smile:

 

[Bhupinder2002]

Was there any indication of it being loose before failing? I also have an "Elite" edition EM5 and so far the lugs are fine, but I don't want to have it fall to the ground unexpectedly! (I don't typically carry on a neck strap though...)

No Indiction and all I could see was that my camera was flying ))

 

[zathras]

That's pretty shocking that the strap lugs are not rock solid, there is no excuse for a design flaw like that in my book

 

[Ricoh]

That's pretty shocking that the strap lugs are not rock solid, there is no excuse for a design flaw like that in my book

It wouldn't need a 'rocket scientist' to make it fail safe. Totally agree, no excuse for such a design flaw?
It makes you wonder whether they go to the trouble of writing requirement specs, reviewing for compliance and holding design reviews where the designer's peers can tear it to shreads before being released for production.

 

[slau]

The Panasonic GH2 has similar problem. It makes you wonder what went wrong in their design process to have such a simple and basic feature fail.

 

[LowriderS10]

Yikes. I wonder what Olympus would have done if the lug had pulled out and your had dropped the camera. I doubt they would have covered lens damage.

This is the company that refuses to cover other well-known faults (dials falling off, LCD bezel cracking, etc, etc)...I have zero faith that Olympus would have done anything other than say "Tough luck!"

 

[Luckypenguin]

When I came back from overseas last year the lugs on my E-M5 were both loose (possibly at least partly self-inflicted after carrying the camera during some very bumpy mountain biking) but Olympus repaired them both under warranty. Before the repair I was concerned that one of them would eventually let go like Bhupinder's did. The Panasonic GH1 was also known to have this issue but thankfully the lugs on mine have been rock solid.

 

[Bhupinder2002]

When I came back from overseas last year the lugs on my E-M5 were both loose (possibly at least partly self-inflicted after carrying the camera during some very bumpy mountain biking) but Olympus repaired them both under warranty. Before the repair I was concerned that one of them would eventually let go like Bhupinder's did. The Panasonic GH1 was also known to have this issue but thankfully the lugs on mine have been rock solid.

I have spoken to them and they will fix it . None of my previous EM5s had this trouble, I also agree that Olympus should fx this flaw .
Cheers