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Olympus PEN E-PM2 power on/off noise/vibration.

Started Jan 25, 2015 | Questions
yjaquinas New Member • Posts: 8
Olympus PEN E-PM2 power on/off noise/vibration.

I have been experiencing some noise issues (that were not there before) with my E-PM2 lately: (1) when powering on and (2) when powering down.

(1) On power on.

When I power on the body, I hear a short "chakak" noise (Not loud, but audible in a room).

When a lens (M.Zuiko 45mm f1.8 to be specific) is mounted, I hear additional noise from the lens, which sound like a metal spring being flicked. Similar to this sound, but quieter and mostly the "ding~" vibration sound after the plucking.

I am not sure if this clicking sound from the body was there from the beginning, but the lens noise was not there.

(2) On power off.

This one is more irritating for me.

When I turn off the camera, I hear a (louder than (1), but quieter than shutter sound) rather long, maybe 1/2 s, grinding noise from the body along with vibration. With no lens mounted on the body, I was able to spot the sensor moving on the power down. I have searched online, and I figured this is to reset the sensor to its original position when I.S. is on.

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Here is where I got the information from -----

Sometimes when I turn the camera off I feel a slight vibration. Why is that?

"If both Image Stabilizer and Reset Lens are set to Off, the camera will power down in silence."

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I have turned off I.S. option both for "Still Picture" and "Movie" in [MENU - SETUP - Shooting Menu 2 - Image Stablizer] and it shows [S-I.S. Off] and [M-I.S. Off] when I re-enter the menu. I also have turned off the Reset Lens option [MENU - SETUP - Custom Menu - A. AF/MF].

The noise was still there.

What I have recently done to the camera is the firmware upgrade to version 1.3 (I don't know what the factory setup was 1.1 or 1.2.) after getting the email from Olympus for the new firmware release.

I have tried the "Full Reset" from [MENU - SETUP - Shooting Menu 1 - Reset/Myset - Reset - Full], for I thought there might have been a glitch/bug when I was upgrading the firmware. This didn't help the noise problem. I have confirmed that I.S. is turned off when the system software says it is off, by taking few photos on a tripod.

Is there a known way to fix this issue?

Thank you very much for your help in advance.

ANSWER:
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Olympus PEN E-PM2
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OP yjaquinas New Member • Posts: 8
Re: Olympus PEN E-PM2 power on/off noise/vibration.
2

Well, I have contacted Olympus Support, and here is what I got:

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Thank you for contacting Olympus Technical Support.

When you power down any Pen or O-MD model camera the sensor assemble will move momentarily. It is completely normal, it is parking the floating Image Stabilization assembly. This will occur even if the IS system is disabled in the menu.

Best Regards,

Olympus Technical Support

Olympus America Inc.

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(http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/cpg_support_faqs.asp?id=1629#16)

When Image Stabilizer is set to Off, the sensor does not move during shooting and so does not need to be reset. However, if shooting with a zoom lens, some noise may still be heard when the camera is powered off as the lens resets its focus to infinity.

If both Image Stabilizer and Reset Lens are set to Off, the camera will power down in silence.

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^ This is just plain misleading information.

It clearly says "does not need to be reset...power down in silence" which is contradicting to what the Tech Support told me.

update from Olympus Tech Support:

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Yes that FAQis incorrect I will work to get that corrected .

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So the FAQ has been incorrect all along.

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