2875 - Look At That

2014-09-01

I’m the first to say that the Olympus OM-D E-M1 is a killer camera, but as so many top cameras it seems to have a quality control problem. The most notorious case in recent times was the oil-splattering mirror of the Nikon D600. Olympus also had problems with display frames cracking under too much pressure of the mounting screws. You see it everywhere. It’s part of the business of building ever more complex systems. Frequently it’s software that fails, but hardware definitely has its share.

The E-M1’s weak point seems to be its rear dial. Many people report it to be not (always) responsive. There’s a thread about that on Flickr, but I’ve read about it long before.

I’ve always been mildly afflicted, but recently it got progressive. It’s not that the rear dial does not respond sometimes, it is the rare occasion that it responds at all!

The interesting thing is, that the dial feels just as it ever did: solid, precise, not in the slightest way different from the front dial. The problem does not seem to be mechanical. Maybe it’s some kind of corrosion, at least that would explain the progressiveness.

In any case it seems that I’ll have to send in my camera for service. If that is so, I’ll be reduced to my old Panasonic LX5 for a few weeks. I suppose I’ll get over it. That camera didn’t get enough love in recent times anyway 🙂

And then: there is always my old D300. I still have the Sigma 20/1.8 and the Sigma 28/1.8 as lenses and, if I think of it, there is also a Nikon 24/2.8 AI-S. And a Lensbaby. Oh my 😄

The Song of the Day is “Look At That” by Paul Simon. Hear it on YouTube.

There are 2 comments

Mark Hobson   (2014-09-03)

Did I read correctly .... "send in my camera"? It's probably a throw back to my professional days, but the idea of having just one camera is beyond my comprehension. I always buy cameras in 2s (at a minimum). Life without a backup or 2 seems unimaginable to me. That's why I have 3 E-P2s sitting around together with my 2 new E-P5s. The other advantage of 2 cameras is that I carry them both (ain't small lightweight cameras grand?), one with my 20mm lens (used for 90% of my picture making), the other with my 45mm lens. Haven't had to change a lens in weeks, maybe months.

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andreas   (2014-09-03)

Mark, as much as I can appreciate why you do it, for me it would be complete overkill. Fact is, I'd never carry two cameras. Much of my time I don't use a car and two cameras in a bag are twice the weight, regardless of actual numbers. Doesn't work for me. When it comes to backups, well, I can always use the Panasonic LX5 (kept in Vienna) or the Nikon D300 (kept in Villach). I still have a Sigma 28/1.8, a 20/1.8 and a Lensbaby for my Nikon, and that's perfectly fine for bridging a gap. Should I really need a MFT camera, I can always get a cheap one from a shop in Villach, and there'd also be a few shops in Vienna selling used Olympus and Panasonic bodies. But really, I don't see the need. Switching to the small compact or my old big DSLR would even be inspiring 🙂 Thanks for visiting!

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