Noll
Well-known
Hey everyone, I've been away for a year or so, but I figured I'd drop back in with a word of caution for anyone with an Olympus E-M5 Mk II. Turns out I'm not the only one, but I found out the hard way over the weekend that they badly under-engineered the hardware holding the articulated screen.
I was outside, trying to get some low-angle shots of my dog when my neck strap got caught under the folded-out lcd screen. A bit of jostling and the weight of the camera was enough to pop the screen off so it was dangling by the ribbon cable! The two tiny screws holding the screen disappeared into the grass. These screws and about 1-1.5 mm of metal with about two thread rotations are all that's holding the LCD in place! Given the torque created from regular opening/closing of the screen or from the odd strap getting hung up, it's not hard to see how this could be a problem.
Since my camera is well out of the 1-yr warranty, I decided to try the repair myself before dropping another $200 on Olympus' repair service (had the shutter replaced last fall). 5 screws had to be taken out on the LCD housing & carefully opened (it is very thin plastic, adhered together with flexible glue). The ribbon cable had been dislodged and needed to be re-inserted (gold contact side down, pushed up into the slot). They don't give you more than a few millimeters of spare cable to work with. This means that after you re-attach the cable and put the housing back together, you need to hold the screen very close to the metal mounting bracket while rotating the bracket perpendicular to access the screw holes. Tricky stuff... first go-around, I pulled the cable out again in the process.
Oh - I hope you all have a film canister or three full of tiny screws that you've saved from past camera "projects"! I lucked out and found two replacements that matched the fine threads of the original, but they were the only two.
Needless to say, I've not been too impressed with Oly m4/3 durability thus far. At least not compared to my E-510 of yesteryear. It would be one thing if they didn't advertise the E-M5 mk ii as "rugged", but they do. And in the process of trying to make these bodies so compact, they seem to have sacrificed durability, which is frustrating because it is a pretty spiffy cameras otherwise.
Oh well, at least it's back to working without a repair bill. Treat yours with kid gloves, or at least be very careful with the screen! If yours is also out of warranty, a dab of loctite around the screws and maybe even a piece of electrical tape over the screw heads might be a good idea to prevent an expensive repair should your screen pop off. I might put protective padding on mine... happy shooting!
Edit - Upon further thought, it would not surprise me if the simple bumping-bobbing motion of walking around with this camera on ones body might be enough to loosen these screws. Also on further inspection, my repair does not seem to be holding securely - I may have stripped out the thread on one side. Out of caution, this mk ii is getting downgraded to "fixed LCD" mode.
I was outside, trying to get some low-angle shots of my dog when my neck strap got caught under the folded-out lcd screen. A bit of jostling and the weight of the camera was enough to pop the screen off so it was dangling by the ribbon cable! The two tiny screws holding the screen disappeared into the grass. These screws and about 1-1.5 mm of metal with about two thread rotations are all that's holding the LCD in place! Given the torque created from regular opening/closing of the screen or from the odd strap getting hung up, it's not hard to see how this could be a problem.
Since my camera is well out of the 1-yr warranty, I decided to try the repair myself before dropping another $200 on Olympus' repair service (had the shutter replaced last fall). 5 screws had to be taken out on the LCD housing & carefully opened (it is very thin plastic, adhered together with flexible glue). The ribbon cable had been dislodged and needed to be re-inserted (gold contact side down, pushed up into the slot). They don't give you more than a few millimeters of spare cable to work with. This means that after you re-attach the cable and put the housing back together, you need to hold the screen very close to the metal mounting bracket while rotating the bracket perpendicular to access the screw holes. Tricky stuff... first go-around, I pulled the cable out again in the process.
Oh - I hope you all have a film canister or three full of tiny screws that you've saved from past camera "projects"! I lucked out and found two replacements that matched the fine threads of the original, but they were the only two.
Needless to say, I've not been too impressed with Oly m4/3 durability thus far. At least not compared to my E-510 of yesteryear. It would be one thing if they didn't advertise the E-M5 mk ii as "rugged", but they do. And in the process of trying to make these bodies so compact, they seem to have sacrificed durability, which is frustrating because it is a pretty spiffy cameras otherwise.
Oh well, at least it's back to working without a repair bill. Treat yours with kid gloves, or at least be very careful with the screen! If yours is also out of warranty, a dab of loctite around the screws and maybe even a piece of electrical tape over the screw heads might be a good idea to prevent an expensive repair should your screen pop off. I might put protective padding on mine... happy shooting!
Edit - Upon further thought, it would not surprise me if the simple bumping-bobbing motion of walking around with this camera on ones body might be enough to loosen these screws. Also on further inspection, my repair does not seem to be holding securely - I may have stripped out the thread on one side. Out of caution, this mk ii is getting downgraded to "fixed LCD" mode.
fireblade
Vincenzo.
This was an issue not long after being released onto the market and was given as a warning on a M43rds site. It was one of the things that made me keep the original EM5. Glad it worked out well for you.
R
rick oleson
Guest
Another nice thing to have around is a set of small drills and taps so that you can drill little holes out and tap them for a larger screw.
maggieo
More Deadly
Wow. Good thing I rarely have the screen out.