Olympus E-P5 dial malfunction and warranty questions

traveler_101 wrote:

Anders W wrote:

traveler_101 wrote:

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.

If you have a slip for global warranty, I am sure you'll have no issues. A considerable part of my own gear (Oly as well as Pany) was bought in the US rather than here in Sweden. In two cases (40-150/4-5.6 and 12-40/2.8), I have had them repaired under the Oly global warranty. No problems and no questions asked. And I am sure Oly's sad decision to let go of the global warranty doesn't apply to anything that had already left the factory with a global warranty slip. The warranty you get is the one that the warranty slip in the package says that you get. Anything else would be unreasonable and probably illegal as well.

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.

Just an update on this story. I wrote Olympus Europe and was referred to Olympus Norway Service. I do have a global warranty, but was informed that it doesn't matter:

"If you bought it in Europe, you have 2 years warranty. If you bought it outside Europe, the warranty cannot be applied in Europe."

I would take issue with Olympus Norway about that. I think you just happened to come across someone who does not know how this actually works. It was a while since I looked at the warranty slip of any of my Olympus lenses, but I am pretty sure that the one for the international warranty that you have says that it is valid for one year and entitles you to warranty repair at the closest available Olympus service station no matter where the gear was originally bought. Am I wrong about that?

Note: The warranty provided for cameras bought in Europe is and was a bit special in that EU consumer law gives the consumer some protection for at least two years no matter what the manufacturer thinks about it (although this protection may be somewhat weaker in some respects than that typically offered by the manufacturer). However, this does not mean that the one-year international warranty previously provided by Olympus for gear bought anywhere in the world is not valid for repair in Europe.

Looks like I will have to decide whether to live with a camera without effective dials or pay for the repair myself. If the latter, I think I will do it in the U.S. where costs are generally lower.