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

Yxa wrote:

Pete_W wrote:

EcoPix wrote:

The technician couldn't clean the GX85's sensor. The dirt had impregnated onto the actual sensor photosites, and they had to quote me nearly AU$500 for a new sensor. Given the camera had also developed a faulty viewfinder module, I had to say no. Another Lumix in the bin.

The take home message I think is to consider dirt behind the sensor glass like fungus on a lens - best to clean it off without delay, lest it write off your camera.

How does this problem happen?

Sloppy quality control.

I have the same problem on one of my GX7.

Is it dirt or rather fungus?

I just bought a used, early G7 with 20+K on the meter with the kit lens and the 50/1.7, everything had lots of dirt everywhere.  Had to disassemble the lenses' rear elements which were full of dust on their inner surface, also the camera's mount ring which had so much rust on the inside it was de-centering the lenses.  Sensor was also filthy.  I was able to clean everything up nicely by myself, and everything lined up back perfectly square, but darn was the previous owner a pig with his equipment.

During disassembly of the lenses, I noticed that it would be very hard to disassemble deeper than the rearmost element of both lenses, also, since both of them use linear stepper motors, it is also an absolute no no to go down there, as those motors need specialized calibration rigs.  Certainly not repair-friendly; I guess that's the reason why Panasonic service centers will usually replace rather than repair.  The outer lens coating, on the other hand, is very slippery to the tissue paper I usually use for lens cleaning, and it feels very tough, which makes it a real peach to clean, compared to all the other lenses I've owned, and I've pretty much owned all of the Japanese camera brands, plus a Zeiss or two.