Olympus E-P5 dial malfunction and warranty questions

Acadie4Me wrote:

Hi --
(Yesterday, I posted my E-P5 experiences in an earlier thread, not realizing this thread is the current thread for E-P5 dial problems. )

My E-P5 story is very, very similar to yours.

I bought my E-P5 in January, 2015. Fortunately, I bought an extended warranty (from the camera store) that included "Lemon Protection".

One week after the purchase, the rear dial got intermittent and rapidly progressed to unusable. This was an OMG moment for me, because my last camera (Canon G-11) died when the wheel became unusable. At that time, I swore I would never buy another Canon camera! Yet there I was with a one-week-old camera that had died for similar reasons.

The camera store policy was to give me a new camera. Camera #2 seemed to have the "shutter shock" problem pretty badly, which Camera #1 did not. But I switched on the anti-shock protection and the camera was OK if I was careful.

Three months later, the front dial on Camera #2 became flaky. At that point I began doing Internet research on "E-P5 Dial" and eventually I came across a thread on DPReview. I realized that maybe the E-P5 had a real dial problem. I insisted on talking to a Senior Support specialist at Olympus, and he was confident that repairing the camera would solve the problem.

I sent Camera #2 to Olympus. It took almost a month to get the camera back. Olympus replaced the camera top cover. Interestingly, the "shutter shock" had disappeared. The repaired camera was actually a much, much better camera. Go figure.

Unfortunately, one week later, the rear dial became intermittent. ARGHH! With no other option, really, I sent it back for repair again.

Another one month wait. This time Olympus replaced the camera top cover and the main board. Unfortunately, this second repair on the second camera lasted FIVE days! The rear dial rapidly deteriorated to the point of being unusable.

So - two E-P5's, seven months, four repairable events on dials. The camera has been usable approximately half the time I've owned it.

I contacted Olympus Customer Care again. The Olympus Senior Customer Care agent took down all my details and said he would have to do some checking. Five days later, he called me back and started verbal tap dancing. Lots of hemming and hawing. After a while he said, "I talked to some people about your problem, including the head of our repairs facility, and we've come to the conclusion that if we give you another new E-P5, you aren't going to be happy with that camera either."

I leave the interpretation of that up to you. But -- no admission of guilt.

Anyway, that began a negotiation about what camera I should get instead. Of course, they weren't going to offer to buy me a Panasonic! The problem is, there is really no other Olympus camera that suits my needs. The E-P5 suited me perfectly. Olympus wanted me to take an E-M10.2. In other words, even after all my trouble, they had the unrealistic expectation that I would somehow quietly accept a camera that was less expensive than the E-P5. Negotiations continue....

I am not in a hopeless situation here. I have now surpassed the requirements for the "Lemon Protection" clause in my extended warranty. Either Olympus or my camera store will rescue me. Meanwhile, the camera and $2500 of lenses, etc. that I bought at the same time are sitting idle.

Talk about being snake bitten. That is an awful tale, I feel for you. And you are not the only person out there who seems to be unable to shake 'dial illness', even after having the camera repaired. Obviously there is some sort of design flaw at work. I must say that I have bought a good deal of Olympus equipment in the past ten years and this is the only item that has ever caused me any trouble.

I've had the camera for a year and thus far the problem has not prevented me from enjoying the it. If it gets worse (and everyone says it will), I have already set the Fn button to give control of aperture and EV through the d-pad. I've used it that way a couple of times and it's o.k. Other parameters I've always accessed through the SCP anyway. So i can live without the dials, if i can't convince Olympus to fix it.

In regards to your situation, I just happened to purchase a E-M10 (the first model) for my wife's birthday. She's thrilled, it is exactly the kind of camera she wants, but you would miss the quality feel and sleek design of the E-P5.