Great service by Olympus after firmware update failure.

[Grumps1974]

This may be of interest to some members.

Three weeks ago I was updating the firmware on my Olympus 40-150 Pro when I had a power cut, lost internet connection and the lens was bricked. I contacted Olympus and I had to pay a fixed price repair charge on the basis that if the only problem with the lens was firmware and nothing else was found I would get my money back.

So I paid the money and booked the repair. Two weeks ago I send the lens off to their service centre and they in due course sent it on to Portugal. I then got an email to say the work was being done for free and that I would get a refund. On Wednesday I got an email to say the lens was on its way back from Portugal. Yesterday the lens arrived. It had had the system restored, the latest firmware installed and had been cleaned.

Total length of time the lens was out of my possession was just two weeks.

I cannot praise Olympus highly enough for their service.

[jima]

+1 - I also had a very pleasant experience with the repair of a broken (dropped) lens carried out quickly and professionally at reasonable cost. Glad you got your lens sorted, I also have the 40-150 Pro but the 1X has been wearing the 12-100 mostly in the few times I have been able to get out so I'm really looking forward to trying it out.

[pdk42]

Nothing but praise for me regarding Olympus service in Portugal. My EM1 (original) had the dial problem. Fixed in a little over a week under warranty.

[DavidB]

This may be of interest to some members.

Three weeks ago I was updating the firmware on my Olympus 40-150 Pro when I had a power cut, lost internet connection and the lens was bricked

I often get power cuts, but assume that if my router is is swopped over from mains to being powered from my battery pack with inbuilt inverter, that should eliminate that potential problem?

[Grumps1974]

Unless you have an uninterrupted power supply to both router and laptop/PC there is always a slight risk with the Olympus procedure. The Canon procedure however is far more robust. You download the firmware onto a PC and then copy this to a memory card. You then install the firmware by putting the memory card into the camera. Much safer!

I wish Olympus would adopt this approach.

[Olybirder]

As I understand it the Olympus system completely downloads the firmware update before it installs it, so the internet connection shouldn't be a factor. I suppose a power failure could interrupt the installation process and cause the bricking. Is this correct?

Ron

[Grumps1974]

All the installation is controlled by the Olympus software. I cannot honestly say that I was paying a lot of intention so I am not sure if all the firmware update was downloaded before the installation or not.

You may be right.

[Point and Shoot]

I managed to crash my EM1-X doing the firmware upgrade. Took it to Ffordes and got it back from Portugal in about 3 weeks too. Superb service as usual from Ffordes and Olympus.

[pdk42]

Olympus cameras do also support update via the card, but you need to find the binary image to download first. You can find details here => https://lightsnowdev.com/Olympus/

[OM USer]

I'd forgotten about this. Thanks. Presumably doing an update from a laptop with a full charged battery should reduce the risk of a power outage causing a problem.