flashbang

A couple of days ago I was out shooting with my OM-D E-M1 (with battery grip and 2 freshly charged batteries). It was a cold day, in the mid 30's F. I had the camera out for less than 30 minutes when I noticed the auto focus did not seem to work. Within a couple of minutes of that, the camera froze up completely: none of the controls worked. I tried turning it off and on, but that did not work. So I unscrewed the grip and tried again: the camera came on, worked for a few minutes and then froze complete. I mean completely: I could not even turn it off! Removed the battery, waited a few more minutes, replaced the battery and it was fine for the rest of the day.

Now here is the additional kicker: I had purchased this camera on October 28th of 2016. Yeah, it was now a year and 2 weeks and my 1 year warranty was history! Fortunately I did buy an extended warranty from my dealer (the nice folks at Adorama), so all was not as grim as could be. Nevertheless, I am a full time pro and dread the thought of this happening again. On a job.

Anyway, this was on Sunday. The next day I called Olympus. After a bit of back and forth with a couple of techs - and the advice that the camera was 'cold proof' whatever that means - one suggested that it might be a firmware problem; I went to their site and up dated firmware. Camera is still working fine. Even carried it around for a few days just to see if anything 'shakes loose.' So far, the freeze has not happened again and all seems to be working correctly.

My question is: has this sort of total freeze up happened to anyone out there using this camera? Ay idea as to cause? Did it happen more than once?

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

Depends on how flakey your battery has become. Cold just zaps the charge out of Li batteries. Try with a fresh, OEM, battery.

flashbang

Don't think it was the battery: both charged that morning and the camera really was not out in the cold that long. Also, after I went through the above, same batteries worked the rest of the day.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

I was on the beach in Oregon, the camera was a Nikon, and the camera froze up. I thought to myself, "good thing I brought that second camera along," when my friend, who was photographing maybe 50' from me with her Nikon, in a fairly straight line away, came walking toward me saying, "I might need that second camera you brought along." A very weird moment. We took the batteries out and re-inserted them and both cameras worked again and have never done that same thing again. We could only guess that there was some sort of, perhaps, magnetic field that came over us. No one else we were with, and they were all further down the beach, had the same problem. Who knows, weird things happen.

BebuLamar

I think the Chinese factory which made your camera had the gremlin but they did something to scare it away. It hided in your lucky camera.

tdekany Loc: Oregon

Things happen. It is unfortunate that it happened to you. I’ve had my EM1 for 3 years and it froze up once after about a year or so. Happened in a warm home. Removed the battery and worked fine ever since. These are sophisticated electronic devices. How many times do you see people suggesting to have back up cameras? Why do you think that is? It will happen to every brand. Btw, here is a truly frozen EM1. Had to break the ice few times in order to be able to zoom. No issues what so ever.

(Download)

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

It looks like the firmware update solved the problem. That shows another reason to have a spare available.

JerseyT

I have had this happen both with an E-M5 and an E-M1.2. The fix was to remove the battery, then reinsert after a short delay. Cameras are now computers, so this was probably a computer crash. The newer firmware may have solved the problem, but only time will tell.

LensWork

It can happen to any camera, regardless of brand or model, and it will happen at the most inopportune time. Take solace that when it does, you will simply grab your backup body. What are the odds that both your primary and backup bodies would fail at the same time? (It does happen, don’t ask me how I know, hence why I carry three bodies) You do have a backup, right? You did state that you are a full-time pro.

efleck Loc: Vancouver, WA State

Hi,

I owned a Oly EM1 for two years and an EM1.2 for the past year. In those three years my Olys have locked up as you described perhaps three times. Once, it was in cold, but not extremely cold, weather and the other two times when the temperature was warm. I can not link the problem to any particular set of conditions. However, in each case removing the battery completely and reinserting it after a few moments solved the problem.

Earl

TheShoe Loc: Lacey, WA

I had similar problems with a new E3 a few years ago on a trip to Kodiak, my camera froze and thawed out when I replaced the battery. In trying to figure out what was going on I noticed that several of my options had been changed by the gremlin. I reset to factory specs and then crawled through the menus, readjusting to my preferences. Every now and then for the rest of the trip individual settings would change by themselves and I had to reset them. When I returned home, I connected to Oly Support and checked on firmware updates. There was a new update made available while I was on the boat in Alaska that, among other things, fixed my problem.

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

What lens is this with...one of their pro lenses?

flashbang

When I am working I do carry back-ups and in some cases back-ups for the back-ups. Back 'in the day' I had Hasselblads and Leicas jam on rare occasions --- even though they are not supposed to. Strobes failed and sync cords were my most replaced pieces of equipment. I am relatively new to the Olympus micro 4/3 system even though I have been using it for most of the past year. One of the most important reasons I did switch (from Canon) was the reduction of size and weight. I think the appeal has something to do with gray hair, but that is another topic.

Anyway, unlike film cameras, my experience with digital gear in general is that it either works or it doesn't. There is no 'middle ground' of say, slow shutter speeds being a bit off, but usable or a strobe that will only fire on full power. These were at worst, work arounds. I also pretty well knew what to expect from my film cameras and accessories in most conditions and when there was a problem that was fixable, I usually knew how. When this Olympus camera froze, my options were fairly limited. I posted the question to see if this was something I might expect again and most importantly, to see if there was a fix that might have worked for me. It seems pretty clear that it has happened to other folks here and that shutting the camera down, removing the battery and waiting was about the only practical way to deal with the problem. The feedback is most appreciated.