Death of a Camera

[Mike Farley]

When I was speaking to the Olympus European Service Centre yesterday, I was informed that the scheduled life of my E-M10 is just two and a half years. This does not mean that it will aotomatically expire after 30 months*, but it will be obsolete after that time and any repair would be uneconomic.

* For those following the saga, the camera has managed less than a quarter of that.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1162

[Mike Farley]

It turns out that what was said by the Olympus rep was maybe not quite what he intended to say. What he was actually referring to was the two and a half year warranted life of the camera, which consists of two years standard european warranty and a further six months upon registration. This the link to register:

https://myolympus.olympus-consumer.com/ ... /Register1

Given the exceptional length of the warranty, it is clear that Olympus has built it for a long life.

[davidc]

The two year warranty is not that uncommon, even canon and Nikon offer 18 months on theirs. I suspect the warranty ties into the expected life of the camera as you say - for example the 6d is now a couple of years old and being flagged as discontinued by some retailers with a theorised new model on the way.

It's just the way of things with cameras

Tamron offers a six year warranty on its lenses though, that's fab!

[davidb]

It's not just cameras. Computers have an even shorter life.

[Mike Farley]

The two year warranty is not that uncommon, even canon and Nikon offer 18 months on theirs. I suspect the warranty ties into the expected life of the camera as you say - for example the 6d is now a couple of years old and being flagged as discontinued by some retailers with a theorised new model on the way.

It's just the way of things with cameras

Tamron offers a six year warranty on its lenses though, that's fab!

Canon has claimed that the announvement of the discontinuation of the 6D by Amazon was a mistake.

http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/la ... anon-37833

In marketing terms Canon's high end models usually have more longevity than its competitors, especially Nikon. Much of Nikon's current range has been announced in the past year or so, but Canon has a smaller line-up of premium models most of which has been around for well over a year, with the exception of the 7DII which replaced a camera which was on sale for nearly five years.

The service life of an electronic product is not comparable to the period in which it is marketed, which can be as short as just a few months. For example, I am typing this on a three year old laptop which is more than sufficient performance to meet my current and future needs The components most likely to fail are the hard drive and the battery. Similarly, I do not expect my E-M10 to expire after 30 months, but if it does go wrong outside of the warranty period then it is unlikely to be an economic repair and I will be better off replacing it with a new one. I would expect that camera to offer some improvements such as more megapixels, but unless there is a radical change in technology, not be substantially better than its predecessor. Certainly not enough to justify a purchase otherwise and therein lies the problem facing the manufacturers and the primary reason for falling camera sales.

Lenses are a different matter and tend to be one-off purchases which carry over from the camera for which they were originally purchased and the way that camera manufacturers lock their customers in. You will buy your next camera from them because of your investment in lenses. So credit to Tamron for warranting their products for six years, which is probably a much longer period than most people manage to hang on to the receipt.

[Mike Farley]

The two year warranty is not that uncommon, even canon and Nikon offer 18 months on theirs.

I have just checked the terms for Canon's and Nikon's UK warranties, which are both for a single year. Nikon extends this to a second year upon registration of the product, but states it is a promotion so it could be withdrawn without notice if Nikon decides to change its policies.

http://www.canon.co.uk/Support/Consumer ... /warranty/

http://www.europe-nikon.com/en_GB/servi ... ranty.page

Both are European warranties, presumably as part of each manufacturer's efforts to dissuade customers from purchasing cheaper grey imports.

Olympus used to have the first year as a global warranty, with the second being Europe wide, but it too has now opted for a Europe only guarantee as of September 2014.

http://www.olympus.co.uk/site/en/C/came ... index.html

All in all, the two and a half year Olympus camera warranty compares favourably with other manufacturers.