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?

It is natural for people to have a weird eye on some non household name of the industry. However, wishing you to know that Panasonic indeed started its camera business since 2001. Same as other new players who took the advantage of the level playing ground on digital camera development, e.g. Sony took over Minolta/Konica, Samsung collaborated with Pentax, and Panasonic chose Leica and quickly teamed up with Olympus as well to start their new camera ventures.

All these originally electronic conglomerates has advantage having their own production of various electronic components that traditional camera manufacturers didn't have. From image sensor, CPU, IC board, drive motor, LCD and evf display unit to even battery and recently the application of mobile technologies etc... As long these new players can obtain/be licensed with the knowledge by their partners, they can get involved much quicker than before. During the early days of digital photographing when every players had to search for a way to success, there were all sort of strange/innovative/bold design appeared and basically IQ from most of the products are very similar to each other (indeed were not comparable to film, and were far from perfect as today). Because of the relatively weak electronic background of CaNikon, they finally realised that using the traditional slr design with electronic modification can give them the quickest, most efficient mean to withhold their long position of the industry that other new comers were hard to compete. Fuji, Samsung, Olympus and Panasonic, Sony with half hearted originally, moved to mirrorless and Canon/Nikon/Pentax remain their traditional dslr...

As long as any mirrorless can put their components inside a thick metal case, every brand can produce something as durable (in your sense) as the best from CaNikon. However, the major selling point of mirrorless is about size and weight. Having better material be invented (very often a plastic case might be more shock resistance, and easier to do WR than a metal case), and having size and weight in mind, those heavily armoured mirrorless would be limited to certain special class/flagship of cameras. BTW, don't look at a digital camera with the same eyes we saw a film slr, especially true for mirrorless. Mirrorless is technology driven products that improvement in sensor technology, in display unit, in CPU speed, in software etc would all make today's best mirrorless but so-so to-morrow, and be obsolete a few years later. IMHO it might be silly to put durability of a mirrorless very high on the list of requirement. Well before my gear failure I should have upgraded already. So I don't mind to use my Pany cameras in a much abusive way than I did for my film slrs. Use all non WR in all sort of climate (rain/snow) and change lenses just whenever I need to (dust/wet...). Except for the de-laminated issue of the LCD of GX1 (a common issue after long used), non of my Pany cameras has any problem/failure so far (use Pany exclusively from P&S, bridge to M43 since 2003).

Might be my extreme case would prove how durable a Pany camera can be. G1 + 7-14, non WR gear, dropped into a river. Picked up like water tank, dried it and can be shoot again 3 days later. Back home, Pany service Center inspected it and issued me a death certificate for insurance claim (because of very severe oxidation inside), but kept on shooting for 2~3 more years until its official retirement. Up to today It still refuses to R.I.P., looking 99% new outside, sensor surface has no evidence of its accident, shooting as normal as it is (but a few occasional crash need to remove battery) and indeed 7-14 is still one of my major lens today. I don't expect CaNikon can do much better than my G1 .

If I am you, I would better look at a camera of reasonable cost that I would upgrade it in 2~3 years... Longer than that would be a bonus. Unavoidably unfortunate might happen to electronic products. Under normal care we should have a peace of mind to have them alive during their usable life. A D70 might be a tough enough dslr. I introduced it to my friend in 2005. But who would still use such model nowadays?