Reading mode: Light Dark

C-2100uz sudden death and beyond

Go to last post
C

Charles Rettner

Leading Member
Messages
941
Reaction score
0
Location
San Jose, US
I see from much earlier postings that sudden death syndrom, or SDS, was a familiar topic some time back. Well, I have a 15-month old C-2100uz and it died last weekend. Not so much a bang as a wimper. I might have put the batteries in with the power on, or messed with the card at the wrong time. Whatever, it seemed confused at first. Strange errors. Then it just went dead, doing an excellent impression of a camera that is off, but when it was surposed to be on.

I called Olympus and a tech told me to take the batteries and card out and wait 24 hours, that the system would reset and all wouild be well. Nice try. But no cigar.
So here I am with a dead camera, wondering what to do.

Oh yes, I'll get this one fixed, no matter. But I can't possibly exist without a camera for the next month or so. (I take pictures of Spring flowers, see

http://users2.ev1.net/~rettner/quicksilverflowers/ ) and have to get something else.

So whats it to be? I see that the E-10's are close to $1k these days, so thats a real possibility. Anyone have experience taking flower pics with the E-10? How good is the macro? Should I get a spare UZi?
Any input would be appreciated.
CharlieR
 
My brother in law's uzi died right after the warranty expired and it cost him almost 300 bucks for a repair. I would make them give me some type of ballpark price if you decide to repair it.

Good luck.

Tommy
charlie rettner said:
I see from much earlier postings that sudden death syndrom, or SDS,
was a familiar topic some time back. Well, I have a 15-month old
C-2100uz and it died last weekend. Not so much a bang as a wimper.
I might have put the batteries in with the power on, or messed with
the card at the wrong time. Whatever, it seemed confused at first.
Strange errors. Then it just went dead, doing an excellent
impression of a camera that is off, but when it was surposed to be
on.
I called Olympus and a tech told me to take the batteries and card
out and wait 24 hours, that the system would reset and all wouild
be well. Nice try. But no cigar.
So here I am with a dead camera, wondering what to do.
Oh yes, I'll get this one fixed, no matter. But I can't possibly
exist without a camera for the next month or so. (I take pictures
of Spring flowers, see
http://users2.ev1.net/~rettner/quicksilverflowers/ ) and have to get
something else.
So whats it to be? I see that the E-10's are close to $1k these
days, so thats a real possibility. Anyone have experience taking
flower pics with the E-10? How good is the macro? Should I get a
spare UZi?
Any input would be appreciated.
CharlieR
Click to expand...
--Tommy
 
Tommy Martin said:
My brother in law's uzi died right after the warranty expired and
it cost him almost 300 bucks for a repair. I would make them give
me some type of ballpark price if you decide to repair it.
Click to expand...
Tommy, they told me that it would be $286, but maybe less if they took the age and condition into accout, whateve that means. Interestingly, San Jose Camer will fix it for $238, yet they send it to Olympus.

Either way, its painful.--CharlieR
 
Go to Wal Mart and go to the film processing counter and buy a new one for $499. This time go and buy the Olympus Gold warranty that you can find on several sites for $90 or under and get an addition 2 years of coverage. Problem solved.

Jason
charlie rettner said:
I see from much earlier postings that sudden death syndrom, or SDS,
was a familiar topic some time back. Well, I have a 15-month old
C-2100uz and it died last weekend. Not so much a bang as a wimper.
I might have put the batteries in with the power on, or messed with
the card at the wrong time. Whatever, it seemed confused at first.
Strange errors. Then it just went dead, doing an excellent
impression of a camera that is off, but when it was surposed to be
on.
I called Olympus and a tech told me to take the batteries and card
out and wait 24 hours, that the system would reset and all wouild
be well. Nice try. But no cigar.
So here I am with a dead camera, wondering what to do.
Oh yes, I'll get this one fixed, no matter. But I can't possibly
exist without a camera for the next month or so. (I take pictures
of Spring flowers, see
http://users2.ev1.net/~rettner/quicksilverflowers/ ) and have to get
something else.
So whats it to be? I see that the E-10's are close to $1k these
days, so thats a real possibility. Anyone have experience taking
flower pics with the E-10? How good is the macro? Should I get a
spare UZi?
Any input would be appreciated.
CharlieR
Click to expand...
--Jason Stoller [email protected] that special moment with a great camera
 
Here are a few E-10 macro "flower" shots that I though turned out ok. Used the Mcon-35. Davidk








charlie rettner said:
I see from much earlier postings that sudden death syndrom, or SDS,
was a familiar topic some time back. Well, I have a 15-month old
C-2100uz and it died last weekend. Not so much a bang as a wimper.
I might have put the batteries in with the power on, or messed with
the card at the wrong time. Whatever, it seemed confused at first.
Strange errors. Then it just went dead, doing an excellent
impression of a camera that is off, but when it was surposed to be
on.
I called Olympus and a tech told me to take the batteries and card
out and wait 24 hours, that the system would reset and all wouild
be well. Nice try. But no cigar.
So here I am with a dead camera, wondering what to do.
Oh yes, I'll get this one fixed, no matter. But I can't possibly
exist without a camera for the next month or so. (I take pictures
of Spring flowers, see
http://users2.ev1.net/~rettner/quicksilverflowers/ ) and have to get
something else.
So whats it to be? I see that the E-10's are close to $1k these
days, so thats a real possibility. Anyone have experience taking
flower pics with the E-10? How good is the macro? Should I get a
spare UZi?
Any input would be appreciated.
CharlieR
Click to expand...
 
Jason Stoller said:
Go to Wal Mart and go to the film processing counter and buy a new
one for $499. This time go and buy the Olympus Gold warranty that
you can find on several sites for $90 or under and get an addition
2 years of coverage. Problem solved.

Jason
Click to expand...
Jason:

I'm leaning that way. It IS a really wonderful camera. For web stuff, its about perfect. I didn't know about the $90 warrenty, I'll definately get it.

I was also wondering about moving up to an E-10. While I am sure the optics are somewhat better, the zoom is obviously less powerful, and more importantly, I am worried that the macro won't get me in close enough.
Cheers,--CharlieR
 
David:

Thanks for the input. I like your shots, but I'm still not sure that the E-10 gets in close enough. Here are a few shots to compare, none is bigger than an inch or so, and the pics are actually about half size.







Cheers,--CharlieR
 
I'll try some closer, comparitive shots and repost. Davidk
charlie rettner said:
David:
Thanks for the input. I like your shots, but I'm still not sure
that the E-10 gets in close enough. Here are a few shots to
compare, none is bigger than an inch or so, and the pics are
actually about half size.







Cheers,
--
CharlieR
Click to expand...
 
Charlie you are talking about two different animals here. I am former E-10 and I just sold my E-20 but I am not turning loose my E100rs. In the 2100Uzi you have an image stablized 10x optical lens. It is a piece of glass made by canon and its wonderful and gives you 38mm to 380mm but you know this. The E-10 is an absolute joy to use! The glass is it is sharper than what you have in the Uzi but you are correct you do not have as much zoom but what you have will give you fantastic results and if you loved the Uzi you will love and be amazed with the E-10. I personally dislike an EVF viewfinder and the optical viewfinder in the E-10 is wonderful. You can buy the Mcon 35 for the E-10 and get in close and with a step up ring you can also use it with the Uzi. If I can help you in any way just email me.

Jason
charlie rettner said:
Jason Stoller said:
Go to Wal Mart and go to the film processing counter and buy a new
one for $499. This time go and buy the Olympus Gold warranty that
you can find on several sites for $90 or under and get an addition
2 years of coverage. Problem solved.

Jason
Click to expand...
Jason:
I'm leaning that way. It IS a really wonderful camera. For web
stuff, its about perfect. I didn't know about the $90 warrenty,
I'll definately get it.
I was also wondering about moving up to an E-10. While I am sure
the optics are somewhat better, the zoom is obviously less
powerful, and more importantly, I am worried that the macro won't
get me in close enough.
Cheers,
--
CharlieR
Click to expand...
--Jason Stoller [email protected] that special moment with a great camera
 
I can only agree with you - the C-2100 is a wonderfull camera, but....
I bought one in january 2001. 1 week later the camera was dead so
i went back to the store to get another (i did buy a extra insurance for
the camera) This camera lastet for about 2 months, and suddenly died.
I got another C-2100 - the third. This one was better since it took 6 1/2
month to die. Then i went back to the store to return the olympus in
favor of a minolta dimage 5. At this time the store told me that there was
a production failure in alot of the first C-2100's, but that Olympus has
corrected the problem.

Anyways, i'm back in the Olympus fold with the E-10 and am happy about

it. Personally i find the Dimage 5 a really terrible camera. It's has a very poor
autofocus system, and the pictures looks awfull if you dont process them
with some kind of minolta software before you use them.

If you are going to buy yourself a new C-2100 then be sure to get one
from the later productions that don't commit suicide in an early age ;-)

Michael P
charlie rettner said:
I see from much earlier postings that sudden death syndrom, or SDS,
was a familiar topic some time back. Well, I have a 15-month old
C-2100uz and it died last weekend. Not so much a bang as a wimper.
I might have put the batteries in with the power on, or messed with
the card at the wrong time. Whatever, it seemed confused at first.
Strange errors. Then it just went dead, doing an excellent
impression of a camera that is off, but when it was surposed to be
on.
I called Olympus and a tech told me to take the batteries and card
out and wait 24 hours, that the system would reset and all wouild
be well. Nice try. But no cigar.
So here I am with a dead camera, wondering what to do.
Oh yes, I'll get this one fixed, no matter. But I can't possibly
exist without a camera for the next month or so. (I take pictures
of Spring flowers, see
http://users2.ev1.net/~rettner/quicksilverflowers/ ) and have to get
something else.
So whats it to be? I see that the E-10's are close to $1k these
days, so thats a real possibility. Anyone have experience taking
flower pics with the E-10? How good is the macro? Should I get a
spare UZi?
Any input would be appreciated.
CharlieR
Click to expand...
--M. Pedersen
 
Charlie,

I have taken lots of flower shots with the E10. I think it does quite nicely in the macro mode. Check out this page...from row 6 on, they all are E10 shots...rows before those were taken w/ C3000.

http://www.pbase.com/cokids/phipps_conservatory&page=2
charlie rettner said:
I see from much earlier postings that sudden death syndrom, or SDS,
was a familiar topic some time back. Well, I have a 15-month old
C-2100uz and it died last weekend. Not so much a bang as a wimper.
I might have put the batteries in with the power on, or messed with
the card at the wrong time. Whatever, it seemed confused at first.
Strange errors. Then it just went dead, doing an excellent
impression of a camera that is off, but when it was surposed to be
on.
I called Olympus and a tech told me to take the batteries and card
out and wait 24 hours, that the system would reset and all wouild
be well. Nice try. But no cigar.
So here I am with a dead camera, wondering what to do.
Oh yes, I'll get this one fixed, no matter. But I can't possibly
exist without a camera for the next month or so. (I take pictures
of Spring flowers, see
http://users2.ev1.net/~rettner/quicksilverflowers/ ) and have to get
something else.
So whats it to be? I see that the E-10's are close to $1k these
days, so thats a real possibility. Anyone have experience taking
flower pics with the E-10? How good is the macro? Should I get a
spare UZi?
Any input would be appreciated.
CharlieR
Click to expand...
--Olympus E-10, TCON, MCON, WCON and Fl-40Gallery: http://www.pbase.com/galleries/cokids
 
Michael Pedersen said:
I can only agree with you - the C-2100 is a wonderfull camera, but....
I bought one in january 2001. 1 week later the camera was dead so
i went back to the store to get another (i did buy a extra
insurance for
the camera) This camera lastet for about 2 months, and suddenly died.
I got another C-2100 - the third. This one was better since it took
6 1/2
month to die. Then i went back to the store to return the olympus in
favor of a minolta dimage 5. At this time the store told me that
there was
a production failure in alot of the first C-2100's, but that
Olympus has
corrected the problem.

Anyways, i'm back in the Olympus fold with the E-10 and am happy about
it. Personally i find the Dimage 5 a really terrible camera. It's
has a very poor
autofocus system, and the pictures looks awfull if you dont process
them
with some kind of minolta software before you use them.

If you are going to buy yourself a new C-2100 then be sure to get one
from the later productions that don't commit suicide in an early
age ;-)

Michael P
Click to expand...
Michael:

Thanks for the input. I feel better, in some strange way, knowing that I am not suffering alone. I will certainly get some kind of insurance and hope that I'm lucky with the lot #. I agree, I couldn't believe how bad the Dimage's are. In the store, The autofocus kept hunting for focus, then producing a blurry mess. I really wanted to buy it too, but it is just awful.

I may get an E-10 and a C-2100. The stabilized x10 is just too good to be without. But the E-10 is probably closer to true photo quality when printed.
Thanks again,--CharlieR
 
charlie rettner said:
Michael:
Thanks for the input. I feel better, in some strange way, knowing
that I am not suffering alone. I will certainly get some kind of
insurance and hope that I'm lucky with the lot #. I agree, I
couldn't believe how bad the Dimage's are. In the store, The
autofocus kept hunting for focus, then producing a blurry mess. I
really wanted to buy it too, but it is just awful.
I may get an E-10 and a C-2100. The stabilized x10 is just too good
to be without. But the E-10 is probably closer to true photo
quality when printed.
Thanks again,
--
CharlieR
Click to expand...
Hi Charlie,

I'm kinda in the same boat as you except that my 2100 is still alive and kicking butt. However, I have long adored the E-10 from afar and now I have one in my hot little hands. I like it BUT I don't know if I'll keep it. I haven't really hit upon a compelling reason to keep it other than it looks FINE. I am quite happy with my 2100 and it's TTL viewfinder has spoiled me somewhat so that I've been neglecting my ever-faithful C3040. It's made me shun the old rangefinder style viewfinder and seek a true SLR viewfinder in the hopes it'll improve my photographic life. As for the macro function compared between the 2100 and E-10. I don't see a heckuva lot of difference. The image is a little bigger in the E-10 but the 3040 kicks BOTH the E-10 and 2100's butts in that department. I have been a little disappointed in my inability to manually focus the E-10 with some consistency. I'm working on that though. Also, you'll really be shocked when you review your images on the E-10. It's MUCH slower than the 2100 you're used to. Like you, I'm spoiled by that 10x image stabilized zoom on the 2100. I find the zoom on the E-10 at maximum doesn't have much magnification. If I look through the viewfinder at full zoom and then look away from the viewfinder at the scene, it almost appears the same. Working the E-10 isn't as straightforward as what you're used to either. Many functions on the E-10 require two actions. To put the camera in macro mode, for example, you must press and hold the macro button and turn a knob on the back of the camera. I guess it's good to keep you from inadvertently engaging a function accidentally but I never really had a problem doing that with any of my other cameras. As for image quality, if you print the images yourself, you probably won't see much difference there either. I just don't think the current crop of inkjet printers can resolve enough to effectively differentiate anything above 2 MPs. At least that seems to be the case with my Epson 870 and HP 970Cse. The printouts are very impressive though from all three of my cameras. Still, I find myself very attracted to this black beauty. If it does nothing else, it's appearance alone will instill clients' confidence in your abilities. I almost hate to put the thing in a bag because it's truly a work of art. Like you, I do plan on keeping my 2100 no matter which way I plan to go. You just can't easily replace this camera with anything except perhaps an E-100RS. I knew I wouldn't be happy until I tried this camera out for myself but now it's kind of bittersweet. My head tells me that it doesn't really do anything for me that my current cameras don't already do but my heart just doesn't want to let it go. Decisions, decisions....
 
Charles Rettner said:
Michael:
Thanks for the input. I feel better, in some strange way, knowing
that I am not suffering alone. I will certainly get some kind of
insurance and hope that I'm lucky with the lot #. I agree, I
couldn't believe how bad the Dimage's are. In the store, The
autofocus kept hunting for focus, then producing a blurry mess. I
really wanted to buy it too, but it is just awful.
I may get an E-10 and a C-2100. The stabilized x10 is just too good
to be without. But the E-10 is probably closer to true photo
quality when printed.
Thanks again,
--
CharlieR
Click to expand...
I wish you the best, what ever your desicion will be. I dont think there's
any "old" C-2100 out in the stores with the "sudden death" problem any more.

As a matter of fact i have been thinking of getting myself a c-2100 again to complement my E-10 byt it's pretty hard to find these days. I live in denmark
and no one seems to carry the camera anymore.

Happy that i could make you feel a little better :-)

Michael
--M. Pedersen
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Keyboard shortcuts

f
Forum
m
My threads
Mobile site
About
Editorial content
Cameras & Lenses
Community
All content, design, and layout are Copyright © 1998–2025 Digital Photography Review All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction in whole or part in any form or medium without specific written permission is prohibited.
When you use DPReview links to buy products, the site may earn a commission.
©GPS Media - Guides, Products, Services.
Back
Top