Tuonov2
Senior Member
I agree re the warranty but there's no reason for it to compromise the weather sealing unless Oly are using some sort of bonding agent for sealing rather than individual seals.
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E-M5iii tripod mount/bottom plate failure
- Thread starter Joe Lynch
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Messier Object
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D. Avoid taking any actions or making any statements which publicly acknowledge that there is a problem unless or until they are 'forced' to. To do otherwise will bring dishonour to Olympus Imaging, their President and the shareholders.
Peter
Peter 1745
Senior Member
Unfortunately it's not just the base plate that breaks. If you look at the pictures from this and the other reported cases the break in the base plate is a secondary failure caused by the primary failure of the plastic that lies underneath it. The base plate itself isn't the problem.
Englishman in France
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What a shame. Hope the sort it out for you.
BG454
Veteran Member
pannumon
Senior Member
You mean they will refuse to repair the cameras with broken tripod mount?
This is a very good point, and one which I wondered about a little earlier in this thread:Is the bottom plate screwed on and completely removable?This one goes back to Olympus for a new bottom plate. I guess a couple of days of 60mm macro lens on a tripod was too much for it. I've treated this camera exactly like I treated my E-M5ii. No large lenses, no bumps, some time on a belt strap, lots of time me manually focusing the 60 mm macro lens. The design is not robust enough for my normal usage.
No more tripod use unless Olympus goes to a redesigned bottom plate.
Might be an opening for aftermarket machined Aluminium ones if so.
E-M5iii tripod mount/bottom plate failure
Cheap plastic. where are all the die hards that argued tooth and nail that composite was stronger than metal ? LOL Don It's just poor design. I've had plastic bodies that could handle tripod use with largish lenses. That's because the tripod mount was attached to an internal steel chassis...
...though unlike you, I'm no engineer!
Here's something you will find very interesting if you haven't seen it before, as it is quite well-hidden in the middle of a follow-up thread about the first instance of this happening, back in January this year. It casts lots of light on the construction of several models in the OM-D range, including the E-M5 Mark III. The poster, like you, has an engineering background and is in Oz, and was presenting photos sent to him by an E-M5 III owner.
EM5.3 tripod mount broken - Follow up
Chris 222 wrote: FWIW I used to run a company that ranked #1 in the world for over 15 years. Our brand name got to this leadership position in great part because I insisted that we always place the customer first, not last - I always love grandiose internet claims. Might be true, might not be...
Some of the posts following up that sub-thread update and expand on the info a little bit. Very interesting reading. It directly answers your question - the E-M5 III baseplate IS completely removable.
glassoholic
Veteran Member
Nothing!?... I doubt it.. I think they have to repair, whether A or B... Imagine refusing to repair to add insult to injury! After 2 years is up, will they continue to repair free if they choose "A"? (Like they do EM1.1 control wheels, EM1.1/ 1.2 vinyl covering lifting off, 40-150 Pro lens hoods and 12-40 Pro lens caps)... pretty much they accepted those issues unofficially as design faults.
That seems rather unlikely - I'd imagine that in any real situation, B would equate closest to D, and might unfortunately be the likeliest outcome for now unless or until Olympus arrive at the conclusion that this is a design or manufacturing fault.
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DtBB
Forum Enthusiast
I feel for this issue, it does NOT feel nice to have a cam fail specially since SO MANY cases are being reported and we have RADIO silence from Olympus on this issue.This one goes back to Olympus for a new bottom plate. I guess a couple of days of 60mm macro lens on a tripod was too much for it. I've treated this camera exactly like I treated my E-M5ii. No large lenses, no bumps, some time on a belt strap, lots of time me manually focusing the 60 mm macro lens. The design is not robust enough for my normal usage.
No more tripod use unless Olympus goes to a redesigned bottom plate.
The USUALS in this forum continue doing a disservice in excusing this Olympus for a FAULTY product. This is NOT normal and NO other cam is experiencing this.
PERIOD.
If you FEEL so strongly this is normal and have the URGE to defend your favourite cam brand to the DETRIMENT of this user feel FREE to buy him a new body.
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See this excerpt from a very enlightening earlier thread (worth reading the follow-ups to this particular portion of the thread too, for various clarifications). The first image shows a removed E-M5 III (black) baseplate. It appears to be a very simple unit, straightforwardly attached, which itself contains the weatherproofing seals.
EM5.3 tripod mount broken - Follow up
Chris 222 wrote: FWIW I used to run a company that ranked #1 in the world for over 15 years. Our brand name got to this leadership position in great part because I insisted that we always place the customer first, not last - I always love grandiose internet claims. Might be true, might not be...
I know of three so far - are there some others posted elsewhere? Very worrying if there are more still - it's already worrying at this level.I feel for this issue, it does NOT feel nice to have a cam fail specially since SO MANY cases are being reported and we have RADIO silence from Olympus on this issue.This one goes back to Olympus for a new bottom plate. I guess a couple of days of 60mm macro lens on a tripod was too much for it. I've treated this camera exactly like I treated my E-M5ii. No large lenses, no bumps, some time on a belt strap, lots of time me manually focusing the 60 mm macro lens. The design is not robust enough for my normal usage.
No more tripod use unless Olympus goes to a redesigned bottom plate.
I haven't seen too much of that in this thread - people are trying to understand if there are any ways to avoid it or delay it happening without impacting too much on their normal use of the camera, and whether it affects all of them or a batch (all of which is quite reasonable to wonder, though it's not good to have to consider this in the first place as clearly the issue should not be happening and something in the design or manufacture is resulting in this failure in certain usage conditions). It's not quite the case that no other camera experiences this - the Canon EOS M5 has had a small number of similar cases, though not quite as "deep" as this, as it appears to only affect the baseplate cover itself.
It's not normal for this to happen and I very much hope it doesn't become normal for this model.
pannumon
Senior Member
Yes.
Actually, in some regions, such as Europe, they might be forced to repair/compensate for this. In practice this would require that the authorities would conclude that this is unacceptable (there are standards for how long a device should last in normal operation; the normal operation here is the key). This might get pretty expensive for Olympus if they simply wait until that.
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A
AllFlawed
Guest
If you think the USUALS are going too far in one direction you seem to matching things by whizzing off in a similar extreme fashion in the opposite direction with a lot more yelling in our faces in speech equivalents. Imagine you are standing face to face with someone and re-enact this speech yelling all your upper cases words in their face as that is how it works in virtual land.I feel for this issue, it does NOT feel nice to have a cam fail specially since SO MANY cases are being reported and we have RADIO silence from Olympus on this issue.This one goes back to Olympus for a new bottom plate. I guess a couple of days of 60mm macro lens on a tripod was too much for it. I've treated this camera exactly like I treated my E-M5ii. No large lenses, no bumps, some time on a belt strap, lots of time me manually focusing the 60 mm macro lens. The design is not robust enough for my normal usage.
No more tripod use unless Olympus goes to a redesigned bottom plate.
The USUALS in this forum continue doing a disservice in excusing this Olympus for a FAULTY product. This is NOT normal and NO other cam is experiencing this.
PERIOD.
If you FEEL so strongly this is normal and have the URGE to defend your favourite cam brand to the DETRIMENT of this user feel FREE to buy him a new body.
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BG454
Veteran Member
No, I mean't they will do nothing to fix the basic problem, but they could easily say the broken part was caused by misuse, rather than by poor design.
buratino
Leading Member
Judged by the picture in OP, it's an absence of any engineering at all. at least to my non-technical eye. This mistake is unforgivable in the current circumstances.
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dr jim
Veteran Member
Agreed! The thing that strikes me, is what would have happened if the OP had had this happen with say, the 12-100/4 mounted. He could have been looking at a lot more damage than just a baseplate. What would Olympus' response have been to repairing a lens mount and possible replacing a $1200 lens? No doubt they would try to shift the blame. Very disappointing. I was saving up to purchase one this spring.
A
AllFlawed
Guest
Olympus below the EM1 range seem in a right mucking fuddle at the moment in their base and middle sections in more ways than one.
Whatever the reasons for these base plate failures and their prevalence they do unfortunately provide a very convincing photogenic demonstration of slung together plastic tat falling to bits.
The base level E-PL10 is now in many ways more sophisticated than the supposedly next step up E-M10 III having reversed the latter's bracketing and silent shutter being bizarrely locked away in a scene mode with all its limitations.
It does not affect me directly but that special 5 year warranty on my EM10 II is not something I am exactly regarding as a rock solid asset at the moment. I hope they can sort all this out.
Whatever the reasons for these base plate failures and their prevalence they do unfortunately provide a very convincing photogenic demonstration of slung together plastic tat falling to bits.
The base level E-PL10 is now in many ways more sophisticated than the supposedly next step up E-M10 III having reversed the latter's bracketing and silent shutter being bizarrely locked away in a scene mode with all its limitations.
It does not affect me directly but that special 5 year warranty on my EM10 II is not something I am exactly regarding as a rock solid asset at the moment. I hope they can sort all this out.
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Joe - Maybe I should not have, but I did send Olympus Support the following:This one goes back to Olympus for a new bottom plate. I guess a couple of days of 60mm macro lens on a tripod was too much for it. I've treated this camera exactly like I treated my E-M5ii. No large lenses, no bumps, some time on a belt strap, lots of time me manually focusing the 60 mm macro lens. The design is not robust enough for my normal usage.
No more tripod use unless Olympus goes to a redesigned bottom plate.
"Just to let you know - Your camera OMD EM5 III is getting a continued bad rap over failed tripod mount. On DP Review, (see E-M5iii tripod mount/bottom plate failure). This is the third one that has been reported with pictures. Unless you (Olympus) takes some action on this, it will impact sales of this camera adversely. Do something! Just trying to be helpful. If no action nor acknowledgement by Olympus I may have to sell mine."
They replied today"
Thank you for contacting Olympus Technical Support.
"And thank you for your inquiry. Olympus Service and Support addresses every inquiry with great attention and care. Many variables come into play while addressing product concerns, so each case is unique. The concern you are bringing to our attention includes 3rd party products, which is challenging since we are unable to test products in a multitude of conditions, so these few cases have been individually handled. That said, if you ever have a product in need of repair, know that Olympus will work with you towards an appropriate solution.
Also I encourage you to call me at the number below if you need further information or have an issue we can help you resolve."
Phone: (484) 896-5174
[email protected]
www.olympusamerica.com
Sorry if I'm out of bounds here. It looks like they need to hear from you (1st person) rather than me (3rd person). They also said in the email that the contents were intended for my use only, but this is a significant problem so I'm posting it here to you.
Peace.
John
EZGritz
Veteran Member
Third party product issue is no good excuse. They know customers will use third party products. They know the base plate is not as strong as the one on their other models. They know it isn't strong enough for the way people use the camera. If three failures were posted on DPR must be more of them OLY knows about them because they are warranty repairs.
With enough pain they will do something about it. They messed up. If its a universal problem they will have to fix it.
With enough pain they will do something about it. They messed up. If its a universal problem they will have to fix it.
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