Who's more reliable/less prone to malfunction? - Olympus vs Panasonic

luisflorit wrote:

Tom Caldwell wrote:

Interesting.

I have one Olympus camera an E-M1 (hardly a good statistical sample) and have had two serious failures - rotating knob and evf. Repaired in one session it has been very reliable since and I like it a lot, but wonder why it should have needed repairing in the first place.

On the other hand I have serious multiples of Panasonic bodies (enough to be a truly good statistical sample) and they have all been rock solid reliable.

This gets me to the poll and its very obvious results.

The Olymous psyche is such that its reliability does not seem to worry confirmed Olympus users. A similar level of unreliability would have sunk Panasoinc without trace in a flurry of "I told you so's". Therefore the very determination to like overcomes all negative hurdles which are pretty real as any research of the posts to this forum will prove.

So kudos forOlympus owners who support a great company with their faith in what their products can do.

I also dispute that Olympus is nicer to use than (say) a Panasonic GX7. But this is a very personal thing and I suppose this is more of what you are used to. The E-M1 has a comforting allusion to a dslr in the way it is set up (and a big grip as that style of camera requires) but the GX7 to me is a much more intuitive camera to use. Just me I suppose and I hasten to say that the E-M1 is a fine camera and I am very pleased that I have it and have no regrets about that.

You can almost say that I have quit worrying if my E-M1 is going to break down again. But I doubt if I would ever buy another Olympus that didn't have a rock solid warranty to support the purchase decision.

Couldn't agree more.

IMO, the strong point of Oly vs Pany is that Oly is always innovating. IBIS is an obvious example, but also a stellar 300F4 vs a "very good" 100-400, or the two 7-14mm where Oly is 1 stop faster (although it came later), also shows, to me at least, that they try harder to be a more serious option for stills (not for video, though). In the meantime, Pany has relaunched many versions of the basically same zoom lenses (no, Pany, please, please, not another slowish 14-something!). The 100-300II is a nice upgrade, but just that, a "nice" upgrade, and not something COOL.

Come on, Pany, I DO REALLY REALLY WANT to buy Panasonic instead of Olympus, and only because you are more serious about quality control!! Be more committed to the system!!!

OTOH, after soooo many years of crappy quality control, I don't have hopes that Olympus will change its QC policy. Unfortunately.

L.

Can only express my regrets, Luis, as you use your cameras so well.  My experience with Olympus goes back to 1973, and has been very good.  Aside from a capacitor failure on the C5050Z and a problem with a 14-54 lens near the end of its warranty that they replaced and rushed to me, by overnight express, I've had no major problems with Olympus.

And, oh yes, a top Panasonic P&S (LX3) did totally fail on my wife (LCD went black).

Except the menu system driving me crazy 

Very contented Panny fan here!  Had several since FZ20 first purchased 10 years ago.  A couple of minor glitches, but nothing that broke, fell off or needed sending away for repair!

Nothing against Olympus, but ergonomics come before looks and familiarity with Panasonic menus means I am showing my age.....

MJohns wrote:

Martin Ocando wrote:

Of all the stories that I've heard, indeed Panasonic seems to have less reports of failures than Olympus, but in my case, both have failed or malfunctioned.

My E-M1 have been suffering the rear dial issue for quite a while, although I learned to live with it. I work it out for a couple minutes when I'm going to shoot, and it works for the duration of the shoot. So, not so bad for me.

Although, my Panasonic 45-200mm failed completely, to the point that it no longer focuses. It moves the elements, but never achieves focus. And I haven't dropped it. It has been in a dry box for quite a while, though, so maybe the oils have dried up. Although, other lenses have also been on the same dry box, and they are working flawlessly.

So, I would have selected Option 3: Both manufacturers are equally reliable/un-reliable

As noted by the Moderator, do not tolerate a failing rear dial on the E-M1. It will just get worse. I had mine replaced twice. After the second replacement, the dial action appeared far "crisper" and has has not "skipped" even once that I have noticed. Not sure if there was a minor re-manufacture of replacements or not, but it felt like a significant quality upgrade after the second swap.

Well, Tom and I are both moderators here

I'd love to service my camera, but I'll have to wait until someone travels to the US to have it serviced, or I go. There is no local support here in Panama, and the closest official Olympus rep is in Costa Rica, so is not like It'll take a couple days to fix.

I have a friend coming over in a few days, and I might give the camera to him. What I need is to arrange who's going to bring it back to me.

(I also bounced the FT (not mFT) 7-14 zoom off concrete from something just short of 3 feet. The lens continued to work, but had a bit of a "hitch" when focusing. I had the lens reconditioned by the Olympus factory, and the lens has been just fine since, although the lens cap has a small ding in it to remind me to be more careful.)

As far as contrasting the two camera manufacturers quality, I can only say that I have been very satisfied with Olympus gear, but have not used Panasonic gear.

Martin Ocando wrote:

MJohns wrote:

Martin Ocando wrote:

Of all the stories that I've heard, indeed Panasonic seems to have less reports of failures than Olympus, but in my case, both have failed or malfunctioned.

My E-M1 have been suffering the rear dial issue for quite a while, although I learned to live with it. I work it out for a couple minutes when I'm going to shoot, and it works for the duration of the shoot. So, not so bad for me.

Although, my Panasonic 45-200mm failed completely, to the point that it no longer focuses. It moves the elements, but never achieves focus. And I haven't dropped it. It has been in a dry box for quite a while, though, so maybe the oils have dried up. Although, other lenses have also been on the same dry box, and they are working flawlessly.

So, I would have selected Option 3: Both manufacturers are equally reliable/un-reliable

As noted by the Moderator, do not tolerate a failing rear dial on the E-M1. It will just get worse. I had mine replaced twice. After the second replacement, the dial action appeared far "crisper" and has has not "skipped" even once that I have noticed. Not sure if there was a minor re-manufacture of replacements or not, but it felt like a significant quality upgrade after the second swap.

Well, Tom and I are both moderators here

I'd love to service my camera, but I'll have to wait until someone travels to the US to have it serviced, or I go. There is no local support here in Panama, and the closest official Olympus rep is in Costa Rica, so is not like It'll take a couple days to fix.

And don't think that's because Panama is a small country. Exactly the same problem here in Brazil with its 200 million people: took 3 months to replace a cable in the 12-60SWD, and after it broke again it is collecting dust somewhere at home. Oly service really sucks in here.

L.

Jorginho wrote:

Yesterday I changed from C1 to C2 and nothing. Tipped the AF. Nothing. Set it to C3...it just did not change a bit (while it is a vastly different setting). Turned the cam off, then on and started at C1 (while starting up). Fine. Than to C2...stalled...Okey..hmm. Didn't need it, just was checking.

Came home. Took out the battery...inserted it again. Switched from C1 to C2..and it worked fine. It has stalled on other occasions as well but somehow it rarely happens and taking out the battery always solved it

No C2 is set to do C-AF at autoISO with burst mode. Fine. But why is the batteryindicator now no longer 39% but instead 36 minutes?? It isn't set for video??? Did look in it too well, but will do whenever I have time.

Did my Panasonics ever stall on me (G1, GH2 and Gh4)....I have to say: no.

Is that worth something? No. 1 Oly and three Panny cams are meaningless. I would add however that I have the impression that for both cams I am not the only one, so may be indeed the lack of complaints about stalling Panny cams or other problems might be a sign of some better QC.

Had that once with the mk1 - a firmware update fixed it.

How much does it cost to repair once beyond the 1 year warranty?

Wow. The voting results look quite troubling for Olympus, I guess.

Midwest wrote:

I have owned many Panasonic items over 40+ years and just about every one of them has been rock solid. To me you can't get more reliable than Panasonic.

Same experience over 44 years with over a dozen Olympus bodies: nevera serious failure, two or three minor things that were repaired quickly and well.

Two major failures with the Panasonic top tier P&S (Lx3) stuff that I also use UW. One catastrophic.   Laws of random chance I guess.

Soulhand wrote:

luisflorit wrote:. A simple answer yes/no just gives an idea of the experience of some people in the forum

No, it doesn't because the question doesn't ask for the respondent's experience. It asked only whether Olympus or Panasonic "are" more reliable.

Actually this was the question at the end of the OP, immediately preceding the voting options:  "Which brand is more reliable in your experience? Please take part in the poll and share you experiences in the comments."

I suspect that the votes by some reflect personal experience with both brands, while many other votes simply reflect personal perception of reliability of the two brands.  I certainly wouldn't count on this to reveal which brand actually IS more reliable, but it does seem to indicate that Olympus has, at the very least, a perception problem.

This isn't anything close to a reliable source of information.

I think that panasonic is slightly better although the flagship gh3 and gh4 had the most awful viewfinders and would distort and scratch easily ,that said there lugs never failed and the paint never came off the bodys also the tolerances on the panasonic seem to be better the swivel screen is better on my gx8 than my omd em1.2 not the display but the hinge ,and in most instances a little less glitchy although my gh4 played up with recording 4k with my kingston card until firmware update my omd em1.2 does lock up occasionally and i have to pull the battery when changing custom menus it locks up happened at the olympus event at marwell zoo one of the olympus visionaries pulled the battery on my omd em1.2 ,think this happened whilst shooting pro capture i may have selected my custom modes whilst camera still writing images ?

if you look at the exploded view of a disassembled gh5 it looks pretty solidly built

https://www.ephotozine.com/article/see-inside-the-panasonic-lumix-gh5-30729

I think both are getting better built but are costing more ?

get the feeling the paint on my omd em1.2 will not rub off as easy as my omd em1

Hen3ry wrote:

that is a long wait to miss something should of set your camera to timelapse night before at least you where not like those people at mt etna last week standing next to a erupting volcano they got a bit of a shock .