I have owned and/or used quite a few of Olympus digital cameras, and never had any need to use manufacturer's technical support (except for sending my E-10 for a firmware upgrade back in 2001). The cameras just keep working (and all of them are still being used, including the C-3000Z of the year 2000).

Update of 2008: A do-it-yourself procedure for dial replacement, see here.

Here comes trouble: the symptoms

It was therefore quite surprising when one day late July, 2004 my '5060 (purchased at the end of November, 2003) just stopped responding to controls, including the mode dial and arrow buttons, from time to time some others. For example, I could turn the dial as much as I wanted, ant the camera would stubbornly stay in the program mode.

As if to compensate for that, the camera would sometimes activate a feature without any buttons being pressed, e.g., switching the exposure lock on.

Resetting the camera to manufacturer's settings (the two-finger salute, pressing both top buttons) would not help. Neither would removing batteries for a week or so. (I have spent a three weeks trying that; some experiments resulted in camera behaving normally for a few minutes, only to go bad again.)

I am running the 756-81 version of camera's firmware, installed about five months ago and working just fine until now. Interestingly, the symptoms I'm experiencing were somewhat similar to those addressed, according to Olympus, in the recent C-8080Z firmware upgrade. Could that be that both cameras share the same flaw, but only the '8080 got a face lift?

By coincidence(?), in August I started receiving emails from other users, experiencing exactly the same problem, and it almost became clear that it was hardware-caused. The subject also surfaced on the Internet. Looks like my camera was not alone.

Trying to work around

If you are desperate (i.e., the failure caught you on a photo trip or session, without a spare camera on hand), you may benefit from an observation submitted by a Reader whose '5060, bought in November, 2003, developed the symptoms just a few days after the warranty expired. Here is what he wrote:

It may be the on-off switch that's the culprit. In the 'on' position the problem occurs about 70-80% or more of the time. When I exert slight pressure to the 'on' button to the left, the problem occurs only 10-20% of the time, a useful workaround. On the other hand, when I put a very slight pressure (with my fingernail) to the 'on' switch to the right (i.e., toward 'off' without actually turning it off), it truly goes haywire. Hence my conclusion that it's a problem in the switch, either with transient currents or dirt on the contacts (mine has been very well protected from weather and dust, and has had no drops or abuse).

As my '5060 has been fixed, I wasn't able to verify this on another camera, but it you have the dial problem and try this, let me know.

Olympus warranty repair

Well, at least I had an opportunity to see how Olympus handles warranty repairs. On the morning of August 20, 2004, I shipped the camera via FedEx, carefully packed, to the Olympus Service Center in Hauppage, NY (another one is located in Cypress, CA; both addresses are listed in the Olympus camera repair page). I included a copy of the store receipt, and a short note explaining the problem.

Olympus offers an online database where you can check the repair progress by typing in the camera serial number and your name. Neat.

Using that, I was able to see that on August 26 Olympus approved the repair. Calling a company representative before sending the camera in might have shaved three days or so off that delay, as it takes them a few days to review the case and assign it a repair number. The estimated repair time: 10-15 working days (which means: 2-3 weeks) from that date. Not a lightning speed, I would say.

The camera was shipped back via UPS on September 9th (which I was also able to check on the Web), arriving to my home in Maryland the next day. Just in time for my Yosemite and Death Valley vacation starting September 18th. The repair slip stated "dial replacement", and the camera is working just fine so far (January, 2008: still OK). As it was under warranty, I incurred no cost (except for shipping it out).

Overall, a no-nonsense, no-hassle, straightforward experience, although I wish they were a bit faster.

On the Web

As I already mentioned, the problem is (was?) quite common. A number of online reviews or discussion group threads mentioned first-hand experiences with it. Unfortunately, most, perhaps all, links I've included in the original posting of this article are no longer valid. In particular, the Yahoo discussion group dedicated to the mode dial problem was closed in 2004.

(As of September 15, 2004, just before it was closed, the original group had 92 postings, among which I counted 46 mode dial problem reports with exactly the same symptoms as those described above. Interestingly, six postings report the same failure in two different cameras!)

Olympus caught with pants down

Most of the affected users report good handling of their repairs by Olympus, although some had the same problem to reappear later, and that's quite worrisome. I remember a user who has two C-5060WZ cameras, and both went wrong at approximately the same time. Some people report having a camera exchanged at the store, only to discover that the next one was not better at all.

What worries me, however, is the way Olympus is handling the cases with expired warranties. This seems to be a major design flaw, and if it is not handled right, it may cost Olympus much more than just the parts and labor: a loss of face.

There was no official statement, admitting the problem and outlining how off-warranty cases will be handled. I'm not thrilled with the option to pay $160 to repair a camera just a year after I bought it. An organized and well-publicized recall/repair program may be more efficient in gaining (or retaining) user loyalty than 2-page spreads in Popular Photography.

Dazed and confused. In the meantime, Ms. Smith-Clemons (U.S. & Canada Spokesperson for the Olympus Product Group) seems to be sadly left to her own devices by her corporate headquarters. In a recent July, 2004 discussion at the Yahoo group, the best of what she could say was (with my comments shown below the quoted paragraphs):

I think this is a fairly isolated problem, but it does appear as though there are issues with some bodies — the good news is they will be fixed at no charge. My 5060 has never malfunctioned in this way, so that is why I say isolated. [...]

"That is why I say isolated"? I am sorry, but this is the best joke I've heard in some time, and I'm going to use it (with due credits, of course) the next time I teach mathematical statistics and probability.

I guarantee you that if there was a production run issue it would have been corrected so not all units would be affected. Those with issues are fixed at no charge. [...]

Another gem. This is the first time I hear that correcting a problem means that not all units are affected. There was no problem on Titanic, either: not everybody died.

[...] no need for concern if your camera mode dial is acting up send it back to Olympus for a free repair. This appears to be a fairly isolated issue. It's an awesome camera... [...]

Every time my camera dies on me for no apparent reason (without being dropped, splashed, etc.), it is a matter of concern, especially if it happens in the middle of Yosemite. Even if I carry a backup. Minimizing the probability of such event would be most welcome.

[...] my guess would be that if there was a production issue Olympus would take care of it regardless of warranty — I would have to check with the repair facility to confirm this [...]

I am a lay person; it is my right to guess. A corporation spokesperson should be not guessing, but rather announcing the corporate policy.

Six weeks since July 3 should be enough to check with the repair facility (assuming that the facility sets the policy, and I doubt that). So, where do we stand?

Olympus hasn't stated that there officially IS a problem with the mode dial on the 5060, but if there was and it was a production run issue, it would be repaired at no cost. [...]

Judging from the number of postings in this forum (and the technical contents of these postings) I would say that there is a problem, whether "official" or not. Equally unimportant is whether we call it "production run" or not. Both terms are just arbitrary labels, and guess who assigns them. Therefore the statement means "we'll repair the cameras if we decide to". Not too specific.

A Norwegian participant of the same group reports (in a September 13, 2004 posting) a conversation with a local Olympus representative who said that (a) 0.5% of cameras had the problem, (b) it was software related, (c) it usually appears before six months after the camera is sold, and (d) cameras will be fixed for free during the guarantee period of two years.

This is difficult to comment upon, as it was just a phone conversation, not an official statement. Still, I find it a bit strange that a "software-related" problem is fixed by a mechanical part replacement, and there was no official word from Olympus about extending the warranty period.

I also find hard to believe is the 0.5% failure rate. Regardless of how we look at it, this is not consistent with 12% Yahoo group postings reporting the same failure in two different cameras. With all statistical selection bias which may be present in such a forum (happy customers usually sit quiet), this number indicates a failure rate in tens of percent: a really major problem.

The failure rate

What may be the failure rate? Assuming that a single failure is enough to prompt a user to post a note about his/her problem, and that all such users try another camera, we may use the second failure rate as a general failure estimate. This would give us a failure rate of 13±4% (with error margin estimated from the binomial distribution, if you have to know).

There are three possible bias sources in this estimate, and as a part-time statistician I owe you at least some explanation.

1. A user who experienced two failures may be more likely to post a report than a user who experienced only one. This would lead to rate overestimation. I don't think, though, that this is much of a problem, as usually one failure is enough to complain.
2. My calculations assumed that the failures are statistically independent. Actually, they may be correlated, with "bad" and "good" batches of cameras being made. Still, this would mean that while the general population has a failure rate lower than my 13%, the "bad" batches have a much higher value, not much of a consolation.
3. Many, if not most, affected users had their cameras repaired, not replaced. This means they've never tried another '5060. If they did, this would bring my estimate significantly higher; and that's why I may suspect that I'm actually underestimating the rate.

If someone more qualified may correct me on my failure rate estimation, I'll be more than happy to stand corrected. As of this time, this is the best I could come up with. This is why I suspect the 0.5% quoted above is just taken off the ceiling.

I'm basing this on the statistics collected in the aforementioned Yahoo forum, whose participants (especially the forum founder) have to be given full credit and our gratitude.

Houston, we've got a problem.

In addition to the technical problem, Olympus faces a major public relations issue here, and they are facing a tough crowd: a population of advanced amateurs (at whom the '5060 is mainly targeted).

Regardless of the relative frequency of the problem, there was enough exposure already for some damage control to be needed. If they don't have the wisdom and the guts to play it right, the losses may be severe — hard to make up by an increase of the advertising budget. The worst thing they can ever do is to antagonize their user base, and so far the situation seems to be sliding in that direction.

I still hope Olympus will do the right thing, and soon. Over years I grew to expect Olympus digital models to be closest to my needs and taste among all competing makers. I like the way Olympus engineers make their design decisions. It is now the time for the corporate guys to stand up to the task. I'll keep you posted.

(2005: The last paragraph comes from the original posting of this article. I was wrong: Olympus, at least in the States, did not do anything right in addressing the problem. There was no public acknowledgment, no recall, and no warranty period extension.)

Access stats: a measure of interest

One can try to estimate how common is the problem by checking the amount of Web traffic this particular article is generating. In terms of "unique visitors" (not just hits) the numbers for 2005 are as follows:

While Visitors shows the number of page reads (the same visitor on the same day counts just once), Direct shows how many of those came to this article directly from outside (usually via Google, responsible for 90% of traffic here), and not via a link from another page at wrotniak.net. This may be a fair estimate of the number of people who came here because they have experienced (or heard of) the problem and wanted to learn more.

For comparison, my Infrared Photography article brings in about 7,000 readers a month, 90% of them direct.

(The table was updated in October, 2005. Unfortunately, I had statistics only starting from February 1, when wrotniak.net was moved to a new hosting service.)

Update of October, 2005

My fixed '5060 is still working OK, thank you, more than a year later, although I'm using the E-300 for most of my shooting needs. The problem reports still trickle in at a rate of one about every two weeks, but in the third week of September I got four on the same day. Three of these people wrote me later that they had to pay $175 each for out-of-warranty repairs; one was persistent enough to have fixed at no cost.

Obviously, this is still being handled on a case-by-case basis, which is another way to say "we still do not have a policy". About 30% of my respondents (most of whom are U.S.-based) report free out-of-warranty repairs, while the others had to pay, and I'm unable sto see a pattern here.

Looks like the extended, two-year warranty period is applicable only to European buyers; we Americans are a disposable society.

The '7070

In February of 2005 Olympus released a replacement for the '5060, the C-7070WZ. This is essentially the same camera, with seven megapixels, predictive AF (which I haven't tried) and some other minor improvements. From what I've seen, the image quality is at least as good as that of the '5060, i.e., outstanding, and the camera is now my number one recommendation in the advanced compact class.

I am sure the dial mode design problem has been fixed in the new model (actually, the dial is the only external part which looks different), but what if the camera suffers from something of similar nature? The maker's track record does not give the buyers much confidence in how that will be handled.

Homebrew remedies

Here is what a Reader from the U.K. wrote in April, 2007:

[My '5060] bought late 2003 suffered the dreaded mode dial problem [...] out of guarantee January 2006, after being used outdoors in damp conditions [...]. I tried all the obvious things (including a chat with Olympus UK) with no success, so I resorted to flushing out the switch using WD40 [...].

This worked partly for a period of about two months at which point I had to resort to a more thorough flushing. The camera has worked perfectly ever since. I wouldn't part with this camera for anything as I have yet to see better digital photos from a compact.

Final thoughts

Once again, a honest admission of the problem and its scale, plus a well-defined, generous repair policy would have been the only way out of this public relations disaster. Olympus missed this train and botched the issue in the worst possible way: silence or denial. Too bad, they make some great cameras. A stink like this stays in the air for a long time.

If my '5060 dies again (which I do not consider probable soon), I'll just get a '7070, if I can get one — I like that camera, and I still need a non-SLR model for a backup, traveling light, infrared, and tabletop photography.

October, 2005: There may be problems with that: barely seven months after introduction, the C-7070WZ seems to be no longer sold by most U.S. retailers, without having been replaced by a newer, similar model. I'm very puzzled.

Update of 2008: Dial replacement procedure

This is 2008, almost five years after the '5060 was introduced, a long time in the digital equipment field. Surprisingly, the camera is still competitive, if mostly due to the fact that the upscale compact field has been largely abandoned by manufacturers (possibly, to some extent, also users) in favor of SLRs. The camera is still being widely used, judging from emails I'm receiving. Mine (after repair) is still working, and while I'm using SLRs for most of my work, the '5060 remains quite busy in tabletop photography applications.

Because it is difficult to replace your trusty '5060 with something else, and the off-warranty cost of repair by Olympus is quite prohibitive, a do-it-yourself repair may become an option, at least for some of us. I've never done it myself, but I know someone who did. Klaus (a.k.a. Spindizzy) of Germany identified the part you can order, and documented the repair procedure as he was fixing his camera. It worked.

Here is his description, as a PDF document: in English or in his native German. I hope it may help some desperate C-5060WZ owners — but, please, do not ask me for details, as I haven't done the repair myself; I'm just providing a nice and cozy place on the Web for these documents, without supporting them technically in any way.

Good luck!