Is Panasonic gear's reliability and durability levels comparable to Canon/Nikon gear?

CaMeRa QuEsT wrote:

In the fence here for a G7 kit and perhaps a 42.5 f/1.7. Have only ever bought gear from "traditional" camera manufacturers: Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Olympus, Fuji, Minolta, and had never had reliability or durability problems from any of them, even after a drop or two onto concrete ground. Sony and Panasonic are not traditional camera manufacturers: I saw that lack of experience in the Sony A7's wobbling lens mount and I have seen several old, used Lumix compact cameras that looked like gadgets ready to be thrown to the trash rather than the optical tools made to last decades that I am accustomed to see from the traditional camera manufacturers. Already I've seen that all silver G7s sold on ebay have their paint finish chipped in some way or another. So, I feel there is a big question mark hanging over Panasonic regarding reliability and durability. How has been your experience with your Panasonic gear in these regards?

Can't tell you about paint chipping, but I have never had a problem with one of the (many) Panasonic bodies I have had over the years.  As with most consumer electronics, I find that if they are going to be bad, they tend to have a problem out of the box (I had one GH2 that didn't focus right, and a GX8 that had wonky IBIS from the moment I took them out of the box.  Their replacements were perfect).  None of the bodies that were good from the start have developed a problem.

Contrast this with assorted Canon and Nikon gear; I had a Nikon D200 with shutter that went bad at 6 months old,  a D750 that couldn't focus correctly, and some higher end Canon compacts that had weird issues back in the day.  On the other hand, my D90 worked perfectly, and I have an aging Elph that still works fine (a little catchy in the lens gearing after all these years, but that's my fault).  Oh, and laptops....I figure I have over the years about a 50% defect out of the box rate on them, if you want to use a comparison.  So, Panasonic's rate of defect was very good (over the past seven years, 2 with out of box issues, out of 15).  I have not owned enough Olys to give a good perspective on them (only 3, and only one of them for more than a few months); they have a little more variability in terms of parts breaking on them over the long term than Panasonic does, but I think they have a similar out of box reliability as I have had with the Panasonics.  In other words, I think Panasonics are a bit more rugged overall, in use, but both Oly and Panasonic are pretty comparable in terms of initial defect rate.

Oh, and by the way, that wobbling lens mount on the A7?  I had one for two years.  It was a bit loose, but it never got worse, and it never caused any problems (no light leaks, they solved that bit early on).  I would not classify that as a significant defect, just an idiosyncrasy that didn't cause any ongoing issues.

On a reliability scale, I would put Panasonic as very good.  Just give whatever you get a good workout out of the box to make sure it's doing what you want, and don't worry about it after that.

-J