Who's more reliable/less prone to malfunction? - Olympus vs Panasonic

MJohns wrote:

Martin Ocando wrote:

Of all the stories that I've heard, indeed Panasonic seems to have less reports of failures than Olympus, but in my case, both have failed or malfunctioned.

My E-M1 have been suffering the rear dial issue for quite a while, although I learned to live with it. I work it out for a couple minutes when I'm going to shoot, and it works for the duration of the shoot. So, not so bad for me.

Although, my Panasonic 45-200mm failed completely, to the point that it no longer focuses. It moves the elements, but never achieves focus. And I haven't dropped it. It has been in a dry box for quite a while, though, so maybe the oils have dried up. Although, other lenses have also been on the same dry box, and they are working flawlessly.

So, I would have selected Option 3: Both manufacturers are equally reliable/un-reliable

As noted by the Moderator, do not tolerate a failing rear dial on the E-M1. It will just get worse. I had mine replaced twice. After the second replacement, the dial action appeared far "crisper" and has has not "skipped" even once that I have noticed. Not sure if there was a minor re-manufacture of replacements or not, but it felt like a significant quality upgrade after the second swap.

Well, Tom and I are both moderators here

I'd love to service my camera, but I'll have to wait until someone travels to the US to have it serviced, or I go. There is no local support here in Panama, and the closest official Olympus rep is in Costa Rica, so is not like It'll take a couple days to fix.

I have a friend coming over in a few days, and I might give the camera to him. What I need is to arrange who's going to bring it back to me.

(I also bounced the FT (not mFT) 7-14 zoom off concrete from something just short of 3 feet. The lens continued to work, but had a bit of a "hitch" when focusing. I had the lens reconditioned by the Olympus factory, and the lens has been just fine since, although the lens cap has a small ding in it to remind me to be more careful.)

As far as contrasting the two camera manufacturers quality, I can only say that I have been very satisfied with Olympus gear, but have not used Panasonic gear.