Tag: G7X MarkII

Olympus E-P1 woes

I already talked about my Canon G7X Mk II giving up the ghost. Turns out that Canon repair policy is a flat rate USD650 and you get a replacement except there are none available and people in the Canon forums say they end up not having a camera… and the Mark III is unobtainium everywhere I looked. “Check with you re-sellers” Canon said. Aha. That doesn’t feel like good customer service. Rumors are that Canon is quietly discontinuing P&S, leading me think that I should get a Sony (ZV-1 II) as this is a camera I bought for video.

Anyway.

Olympus E-P1 camera

I pulled out of my bag my old Olympus E-P1. I bought this m4/3 camera back in 2010 to supplement my Canon 5D MkII, and mostly replaced using it with a Fujifilm X-Pro1. I used it a lot when we crossed the country on a train as it was the convenient camera suitable in that situation. I still had my 5D MkII in the bag though.

Turning it back on, the IS1 icon on the screen is red. Not good.

If the image stabilizer icon blinks in red on the monitor, it indicates a failure of the image
stabilizer function. If you take a picture as is, the composition may be off. Consult your
Olympus Authorized Service Center

It’s probably not worth it to take it in. I’ll have to live without IBIS, which should be fine. I can keep shooting with it. Like a lot of other cameras, I think what I dislike the most is the lack of viewfinder, and it’s probably my biggest regret.

RIP my Canon G7X Mark II

It was already a bit finicky last summer. But this time it really is: my Canon G7X Mark II is dead.

This is a camera I bought mostly for video vlogging and others. It was my work horse for the few videos I uploaded on YouTube, but I didn’t use it much for photography, even though it’s very capable as I always preferred my Fuji X or the phone as convenience.

The symptoms. I have a freshly charged battery.

– Press the power on button
– The lens extends as the Canon logo appear on the screen. So there is power and the screen works.
– At that point after the green activity led blinks, the screen shuts off, while the lens stay extended.
– The zoom control do nothing, nor do the shutter. The mode dial don’t seem to change anything.
– The power switch doesn’t do anything either so I can’t turn off and retract the lens.
– The only button that does anything is the playback button. Pressing it, retracts the lens and enables playback, showing the pictures on the card. I even got the clock setup as the battery was drained for long enough. Another confirmation the screen works. Including touch, as was as the control wheel.
– Pressing the video record button or the shutter triggers the lens extension. But then the screen turns black, like if nothing came from the camera sensor, and switches off.
– The only way to switch the camera off is to press playback and then the power button act normally to retract the lens.

Has anyone any idea?

Some samples I took with it (pardon Penny’s cuteness):

KVB Piusstraße U-Bahn station, Cologne, Germany
Penny posing.
Passenger reading a magazine, on a flight somewhere between Montréal and London.
Penny, as usual.

And one of the first pictures I took with it:

Penny is comfy as I try my new camera.

I might as well just replace it. Shall I get the G7X MkIII ? I’d like to avoid Sony.

I’m not excluding taking a crack at fixing it as it could be a benign problem. I don’t think it’s worth getting it serviced otherwise given the cost.