Fall and rise of an Olympus OM-D E-M1

I live in Angola and this year I spent my Easter vacations in Porto - Portugal.

1 - one day I decided to take some photos of Douro river at night. It was about 10 PM and I was taking photos of Ribeira pier from the other side of the river. I found myself in a place where there was barely any light and it was getting cold. I was using a scarf and I didn't realize that one of the scarf end was under the tripod feet. I took some photos and when I stood up, the scarf end unbalanced the tripod and the ensemble fell down to the river.

Above the river wall I could see my Olympus EM-1 lighting in the dark, below the water surface. The water level was shallow, about half a meter and I decided to go down to pick up the camera. I found stairs near me and went down to pick up the EM-1. When I finally grabbed it the screen was still lit. I quickly removed the battery and returned home very disappointed. At home I cleaned the camera and the lens, as much as I could, with a cloth and also I blew it with an air dryer.


Before the fall

2 - the following day I check the gear again. The lens (m.zuiko PRO 12/40mm) was all fogged and I also could see some big drops of water in the bottom.

I sent the EM-1 with the lens to the Olympus service center and I waited for a diagnose and a budget for one month. I asked for that information a few times without any answer. After several attempts I finally received the answer. The repair budget was too high and it wasn't economically advisable to repair the camera. I asked them to send me back the camera and the lens and in the mean time I ordered a new gear without lens. I already had several m4/3 lens and I also planned to use my old 4/3 lens with an adapter.

3 - After several days I received the faulty equipment and I was very displeased with what had happened. I opened the bags with the label "not repaired" and I took the gear in my hands thinking what I could do with it. I turned on the camera but the battery was discharged. I put the battery to charge and expected to try again later. When the battery was charged I put it in the camera and for my astonishment and delight the camera it was working. I checked the menus and buttons and all of them seemed to be working properly. I tried to auto-focus and it was not working, but when I tried with another lens AF was working. So the AF in the zuiko 12-40mm lens was faulty (it is possibly that the motor is out of shape, I thought), but the manual focus was working correctly, so I can use it in MF mode. I didn't found any issue with the camera (unless the lack of the eye rubber in the view finder and a little scratch in the display, due to the fall) and the pictures I took seemed to be good. After a few days I received the new E-M1, but I decided to keep it in the box as the old one was still working. From that date on, I used the old E-M1 with the lens I have. The m.zuiko 12/40mm only worked in MF mode but pictures were good.


Return Without Repair


Olympus OM-D E-M1

4 - This summer I went to Portugal again and I spent some days up in the north of Portugal - taking some pictures in the small villages. The weather was very dry and hot. One night I was taking photos in a camp fair party and "hellas", auto focus with 12/40mm was working again, and is still working until now.

[ATTACH alt=""Hellas" AF it's working"]665535[/ATTACH]
"Hellas" AF it's working


Autofocus is working.


And now autofocus is working

And this is the story I found interesting to share with you.

In conclusion:

I give A+ for the OLYMPUS OM-D E-M1. It has recovered by itself, without any aid.

I give a C for the Olympus Service Center, someone there threw the towel without adequate evaluation of the fault.

P.S. I apologize for my bad english, but this is not my first language.

JSá

I'd expect there is water damage, but it's not consequential at this moment. The effects of this I'd expect will show themselves in due time, but it's pretty amazing you have this time to use it as if nothing ever happened. May that time last longer than one ever could anticipate.

Quite the testimonial.

Yes I am a litle afraid about the future of the e-m1 but now the only thing I can do is keep it in a dry place an wait.

I once dropped a Canon FT-QL into the water on a beach of the East China Sea in . . . 1970, I think. I thoroughly dried the thing out, and it worked perfectly for me until 1992 or so when the shutter froze on me. Cameras are far more rugged than people give them credit for.

Given that you're now walking on thin ice, I'd certainly have a back-up body if I were travelling.

Manufacture's repair services routinely do not attempt water damaged repairs. Not so much because it could be minor or they might succeed, but because of the nightmare that the repair warranty could turn into.

I did a few water job repairs on mechanical cameras and usually they stayed working. Usually though, the estimate was about 50% too low and I had to eat the extra parts and labor.

Once cameras were mostly electronic, I quit even attempting it. I didn't want the customer coming back in 5 months (6 month warranty) and need a new main circuit that cost more than the camera was worth. With surface mount components, you can not really "Clean" a circuit and be sure it will not develop corrosion down the road.

Colin Franks said:

Given that you're now walking on thin ice, I'd certainly have a back-up body if I were travelling.

Click to expand...

Thanks Colin, i will remember that next time I were travelling.

JSá

KCK14 said:

Manufacture's repair services routinely do not attempt water damaged repairs. Not so much because it could be minor or they might succeed, but because of the nightmare that the repair warranty could turn into.

I did a few water job repairs on mechanical cameras and usually they stayed working. Usually though, the estimate was about 50% too low and I had to eat the extra parts and labor.

Once cameras were mostly electronic, I quit even attempting it. I didn't want the customer coming back in 5 months (6 month warranty) and need a new main circuit that cost more than the camera was worth. With surface mount components, you can not really "Clean" a circuit and be sure it will not develop corrosion down the road.

Click to expand...

Ya, i think you are right. But Olympus Service Center can explain the same way you did.

regards JSá

You did the right thing - and in the future, if any portable electronic device is exposed to water, remove the battery ASAP! This will prevent electro-chemical corrosion.

Then, dry it quickly on the outside with a towel, and place in approx. 80 Celsius / 180 Fahrenheit (but not much hotter!) dry environment for 24 hrs. or longer, with a bag of silica gel.

There is an excellent chance that, after drying, your electronics will work as good as new.

Some optical surfaces may require cleaning, and shutter assembly may need replacement or service, but it is much cheaper than a new camera.

Excellent story!

jsa1952 said:

In conclusion:

I give A+ for the OLYMPUS OM-D E-M1. It has recovered by itself, without any aid.

I give a C for the Olympus Service Center, someone there threw the towel without adequate evaluation of the fault.

P.S. I apologize for my bad english, but this is not my first language.

JSá

Click to expand...

Cool story bro!

Thanks for sharing.

S

Do not try this at home...

A few years ago I was backpacking around South America with a Nikon D40. It got destroyed on the Bolivian salt plains while I was trying to clean dust off the sensor.

To replace it for my hike up to Macchu Pichu, I bought a cheap point-and-shoot. Unfortunately, on the first day hiking, I dropped it onto a stone step and it stopped working.

Instead of throwing it away (i.e. littering) I kept it in my pocket until the next day when I found somewhere to dispose of it cleanly. I thought I would try it one last time before tossing it. Of course, it didn't work. With nothing to lose, I banged it repeatedly against the rocky side of a cliff-face and tried again.

It worked.







S

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You don't understand. Oly can't possible predict every single thing that the water could have done. Did you expect them to do a full failure analysis of what could have happened, and what was OK?

Once more, Oly has to stand by their repairs. I'll bet if they dried it out and charged you $100, you'd complain if someone didn't work, or failed 5-months later.

When a company fixes something, it has to be reliable and workable. How much "value" does your camera have to someone who knows the full story? Very little, because to anyone who knows anything about electrics, it could fail any time. Connections could go bad, corrision can continue. It's a walking time bomb. Maybe it will last a week, maybe 5 years. No one knows.

9 out of 10 cameras in this situation wouldn't have come back. To expect Oly to know that yours would is silly.