do I have a defective E-PM2?

Updated the FW to 1.2, I'm still getting these artifacts ;-(

.Sam. wrote:

I use lightroom, and these images are exported from lightroom to a smaller JPG file that I've uploaded.

So far, my understanding is this behavior is NOT normal ?

But is it actually the camera?  It is very odd given that "shooting raw" is merely keeping the unprocessed file.  The JPG engine makes the JPG from that file.
...  as I understand the process, and and then (usually) discards it. Presumably this is because as it takes more space, takes far longer to write to a card and is useful to fewer people as JPGS are instantly viewable on any device that can display images.

Jim Salvas wrote:

photohounds wrote:

Intriguing ..
Changing/fixing the cam made a difference?
What was it, software?

My problem was not the same as the OP's. I was just relating that the warranty service was very fast.

I wish they'd say how this happened.

The rear display on cameras displays an embedded thumbnail to speed up chimping operations, I believe.

.Sam. wrote:

I use my MBP retina's built-in SD card reader.

Importing to lightroom, I normally convert RAWs to DNG during import. In this case, either the DNG or ORF files behave similarly, and both have/display the odd artifacts.

What does the OLY software do?

.Sam. wrote:

thanks. I'm gonna update the firmware and see what happens. I won't try other RAW converters, since they are not part of my workflow. If the RAW's are having issues with Lightroom, then the camera will be going back... ;-(

If OLY software works correctly, then it is NOT the camera.
It would mean that those 3rd party programs have bugs that are manufacturing what you're seeing.

I'm gonna try to get a replacement. We'll see how Egghead handles it.

EarthQuake wrote:

photohounds wrote:

.Sam. wrote:

I use lightroom, and these images are exported from lightroom to a smaller JPG file that I've uploaded.

So far, my understanding is this behavior is NOT normal ?

But is it actually the camera? It is very odd given that "shooting raw" is merely keeping the unprocessed file. The JPG engine makes the JPG from that file.
... as I understand the process, and and then (usually) discards it. Presumably this is because as it takes more space, takes far longer to write to a card and is useful to fewer people as JPGS are instantly viewable on any device that can display images.

I doubt the camera writes the raw to the card, then reads that raw to create the jpeg file, in all likelihood the camera stores the shot in the buffer (RAM) and then writes both the jpeg and raw file. If there is something is corrupt in the saving pipeline (RAM, drive controller, file system, etc) then it is more likely to show up in the RAW file as raw files are much larger and involve writing significantly more bits to the card. Its also possible that jpeg files can survive more data corruption than a RAW file, so the issue simply may not be apparent there. My best guess would be corrupt sectors in the ram/buffer, but I am not a camera engineer so its only a guess.

If the same problem happens with different cards, its almost certainly not the card (as that would mean all the cards are defective in the same way - highly unlikely) which would point to the camera as the culprit. At which point I would send it back ASAP.

I did not say the camera writes RAW to the card and the reprocesses it to make a JPG. Cameras have RAM.
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Here's how I see it happening:
As I understand it a RAW image (the relatively unprocessed sensor data) will be in RAM, and the JPG is created from this - with the camera settings applied.
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The RAW is only written to the card IF you are "shooting RAW".

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One other point, if this weirdness does not happen with The Oly software or other RAW processor, it is NOT the camera.  The fact that the JPG is OK, makes that even less likely.  A pity they didn't SAY what they "fixed".

I tried different cards, and the problem is still there. It can not be Lightroom either, since I've never seen this issue reported anywhere. I'm getting a couple of new cards to make sure it's not the SD cards.