WARNING: E-M1 Camera body eyelet has come away from camera body!

[MikeOxon]

Re: WARNING: E-M1 Camera body eyelet has come away from camera body!

It just happened to me. Luckily I had the the camera fitted to my refractor scope, in turn mounted on a tripod, setup carried on shoulder. I remember taking the last photo and then walking some 100 meters back to the car and much to my surprise the camera strap was now dangling.

I suppose I should seal the holes to avoid dust/dirt/water to enter the body? Is there a risk having two screws lose inside the body, causing short circuit or damaging the sensor or shutter?

(No, I am not going to pay Olympus for a repair).

It happened to me a few years ago. I taped over the holes and then connected both ends of the strap to the remaining strap lug with a split ring (I was in New Zealand at the time)

I expect the screws are inside somewhere and are a potential source of mayhem, if they short-circuit something.

On my return home, I contacted Olympus making clear that I regarded it as a design fault and they replaced the lug free of charge, even though the camera was out of warranty.

[RobEW]

Re: WARNING: E-M1 Camera body eyelet has come away from camera body!

Yes - mine was done free of charge earlier this year too, despite being old, having been acquired second- (or more-) hand and being well out of any warranty.

[MJ224]

Re: WARNING: E-M1 Camera body eyelet has come away from camera body!

Yes - mine was done free of charge earlier this year too, despite being old, having been acquired second- (or more-) hand and being well out of any warranty.

[Phill D]

Re: WARNING: E-M1 Camera body eyelet has come away from camera body!

Hope Olympus get it sorted for you Tord.

[Otto]

Re: WARNING: E-M1 Camera body eyelet has come away from camera body!

Does this happen suddenly with no warning or does it work loose un-noticed I wonder, and is it the same side for all of you? I check mine periodically.

[Tordan58]

Re: WARNING: E-M1 Camera body eyelet has come away from camera body!

In my case the body eyelets had not been subject to any mechanical stress since January 2019. I clearly remember I carried the body coupled to the 12-40 lens with the strap then, for some street and general purpose photography, so a very moderate stress. There were no signs of camera eyelet about to break. Between January and yesterday the camera had been used and carried at a 2-3 occasions using a Black Rapid strap connected to the camera tripod collar. When the incident occurred the setup was mounted on tripod, carried over shoulder. I would claim that the stress on the eyelet was negligeable. One minute the strap was connected to both eyelets. Next minute one eyelet was broke, without any stress applied.

Not sure if that is a clear answer, but essentially I would say there were no warning signs.

[Olybirder]

Re: WARNING: E-M1 Camera body eyelet has come away from camera body!

Just checking Tord. Was this on a Mk 1 camera? I haven't heard reports of any similar failures on the Mk 2.

Ron

[Tordan58]

Re: WARNING: E-M1 Camera body eyelet has come away from camera body!

Confirmed it is a Mark 1, not Mark 2.

[Mark_R2]

Re: WARNING: E-M1 Camera body eyelet has come away from camera body!

My second EM1 Mk1 body went to Portugal last year to have the part of the rubber grip that had fallen off replaced under warranty. When it came back, the service report said the lugs had been replaced ( or maybe repaired). As far as I was aware there was nothing wrong with them. I actually (almost) never used that body with a strap anyway. This says to me that Olympus acknowledge the lug failure as a manufacturing flaw and may well fix them out of warranty if you push them.

As to what they did to the lugs I cannot say. My guess is they removed the screws and glued them in with better thread lock. Maybe inadequate thread lock was the original problem. in fact, it is hard to see what else could be the problem since it seems the failure is the screws unscrewing rather than stripping ( based on reports earlier in this thread). Given that, it should be possible to tell if failure is imminent by checking if the lugs are getting a bit wobbly.

[Tordan58]

Re: WARNING: E-M1 Camera body eyelet has come away from camera body!

I have now contacted Olympus Sweden, requesting them to fix the issue at no charge as a gesture of goodwill to a loyal customer having purchased quite a few products over the course of time.