Olympus E-P5 dial malfunction and warranty questions

James Pilcher wrote:

I had two repairs for this problem: One to fix the original faulty dial, the second to repair the faulty repair after only two weeks use.

My experience is that the problem will only get worse; it will not stabilize or go away. The only solution is a proper fix or, in my case, a demand for a different body from Olympus. With your travels so close, the best advice right now might be:

• Live with the frustration until you get back and pray that you don't progress to total failure
• Immediately purchase another body while you arrange for repairs on the current one

I know, neither choice seems optimal, but I make these suggestions due to the short time frame you have to arrange for a repair/replacement.

Jim Pilcher
Summit County, Colorado, USA

Thanks Jim, Guy, Anders and everyone for your advice. Well, the first thing I have done is to adjust my use of the camera as per Guy's suggestion. I was vaguely aware of the back button access to exposure compensation and f-stop, but never used it. I located the button and find that the arrangement - where both f-stop and exposure compensation are accessed at the same time and controlled by pressing the dial, up/down or left/right - to be quite workable, actually. I have started to use the camera that way now. As for the dials, I simply set the dial function selector in the 2 position. Now the dials control ISO and white balance. As these settings are changed less frequently, the dials should last longer. And if the dials start to really fail then I can access these functions through the SCP as I generally have done anyway. So I think the camera will be useable even if the dials become completely unreliable.

After the vacation, I will investigate the repair issue. Anders, I do have a global warranty and my proof of purchase. We shall see if this is accepted by Olympus Norway or if Guy is correct and the warranty is "just a piece of worthless paper" outside the country of issue. If they won't pay for the repair, I will have to decide whether to pay for it myself or just limp along with this E-P5 for a while and then buy another camera in the near future.

The worst thing about repairing a camera is the time you are without it (not to speak of the ultimate nightmare of having a repair that does not solve the problem). Stupidly, I listened to a certain voice telling me "you have too many cameras in the house" and sold off a perfectly good E-PM2 recently. Now I wish I had it as backup. However, I also have film cameras and can simply shift 100% to film as needed.