Problems with current batch of Olympus cameras

[aryanto]

Hi, I have read somewhere about some oly 50mm not being able to be detected by Olympus Master Software.
How was it "not being able to be detected"?
I use olympus master 2.04 and from main menu -> camera -> camera version information.
However, it does not mention which component of the camera, it just show me the number 1, 2, 3 and the firmwire version so I do not know which one is which.
This is confusing.

Update..
To me this is serious enough warranting a visit to Oly Support. So I went and visit them. Their Olympus Master is version 2.03 and it is not having this problem, the list goes first row: Camera, v1.x, next row: Lense v1.x etc.
They tried updating to v2.0.4 but it was so slow, and there are no technician working on saturday. I left my name and number, and left.

 

[sulhan]

Current known issues with the E-3:

- HLD-4 grip works well with BLM-1s, but NOT with the AA battery adapter. Even fresh alkaline batteries are not powering up the camera. This is definitely a hardware bug that needs to be fixed. In the worse case, a factory recall *(unlikely). ......[/I]

I guess, its just due to the drain rate of the batteries. Probably batteries with higher drain rate would not cause the problem. But this means thats standard AA rechargeables may not even be usable. Maybe need the lithium type.

 

[aryanto]

About the recharable batteries, I can actually use them for FL50, and it works, but that is 4 x 1.2v = 4.8v -v.s.- 4 x 1.5 = 6v (diff by 1.2v)
But HLD-4, it is 6 x 1.2v = 7.2v -v.s.- 6 x 1.5v = 9v (diff by 1.8v, I think this difference is a bit too high).
.. Hm..
does that mean HLD4 will work with that 9volts squarish batteries?

 

[vendeta]

ok another crazy thing happen to my e3 *why the hell is this happening* i was shooting in a party, i was able to click the shutter then boom! it just died, it never flipped back, i lost control of the camera, I have to turn it off and on again, for me to use it, first I thought its due to my battery is low coz I was shooting in the zoo in the morning, and it alerted me that i'm low batt, but the weird thing is when I on and off again the battery status is still full?? I know the status is not that accurate, but from a red low batt status to full battery status, I don't think that is normal, plus the fact I was able to shoot another 50 shots after the camera showed me a red low batt status. Given the battery is low or its just giving me a wrong battery status, is it normal to just die on you? I mean while clicking the shutter? would this cause damage to my camera? because it happen twice tonight... sigh I can't bring it to olympus because I cannot recreate the problem, any idea what's happening here.

Oh by the way another thing, while I was shooting on the zoo, after a couple of shots, the camera suddenly told me "Card Error" and I wasnt able to use the card anymore, I have to replace it with a new one, I didnt format the card because I want to salvage some of my files, then back home when I access the cf using my card reader, I saw a strange file "Olyerr" something, I tried to delete it but my vista keep on saying the file is not there *stupid vista I can see the file*, anyway after downloading all the files I needed, I formmated the cf card using the camera and it fixed the cf card, I'm guessing all of this is related to the HLD4, coz when I was just using the body w/o the grip none of this ever happend well except for the freezing of cam while switching from the live view. Are there others here experience the same problem as mine?

 

[cjtune]

Hmm, Vendeta, your E-3 is probably developing some sort electronics malfunction deep inside... the "Olyerr" (sounds like someone's forum nick though) file might be a sort of 'coredump' file that the Oly support engineers could decipher and analyse to diagnose your E-3's issues.

I have never ever encountered something so serious yet intermittent with any of my 3 E-series DSLRs before, noise banding not withstanding. My E-3 has clocked up 6k shots since mid Nov without a hitch. But I have nearly never used it with the HLD-4 grip.

 

[dorts]

ok another crazy thing happen to my e3 *why the hell is this happening* i was shooting in a party, i was able to click the shutter then boom! it just died, it never flipped back, i lost control of the camera, I have to turn it off and on again, for me to use it, first I thought its due to my battery is low coz I was shooting in the zoo in the morning, and it alerted me that i'm low batt, but the weird thing is when I on and off again the battery status is still full?? I know the status is not that accurate, but from a red low batt status to full battery status, I don't think that is normal, plus the fact I was able to shoot another 50 shots after the camera showed me a red low batt status. Given the battery is low or its just giving me a wrong battery status, is it normal to just die on you? I mean while clicking the shutter? would this cause damage to my camera? because it happen twice tonight... sigh I can't bring it to olympus because I cannot recreate the problem, any idea what's happening here.

Oh by the way another thing, while I was shooting on the zoo, after a couple of shots, the camera suddenly told me "Card Error" and I wasnt able to use the card anymore, I have to replace it with a new one, I didnt format the card because I want to salvage some of my files, then back home when I access the cf using my card reader, I saw a strange file "Olyerr" something, I tried to delete it but my vista keep on saying the file is not there *stupid vista I can see the file*, anyway after downloading all the files I needed, I formmated the cf card using the camera and it fixed the cf card, I'm guessing all of this is related to the HLD4, coz when I was just using the body w/o the grip none of this ever happend well except for the freezing of cam while switching from the live view. Are there others here experience the same problem as mine?

Seems quite serious. My E-3 has no problems till now, working flawlessly wherever, whenever. Except the HLD-4 grip, AA battery problem.

 

[burger]

BIG PROBLEM: Hit the shutter and the whole camera goes dead! To revive it I have to take out the battery and put it back again. Then when I hit the shutter again it died. BIG PROBLEM! Enough to ask for refund I think ....

ok another crazy thing happen to my e3 *why the hell is this happening* i was shooting in a party, i was able to click the shutter then boom! it just died, it never flipped back, i lost control of the camera, I have to turn it off and on again, for me to use it,

same thing happened to me a few times last week

when i release the shutter nothing happens and the camera just no longer works. sometimes after switching off and back on it continues to work and at other times it just continues to have the same problem...



have you guys spoken to Oly abt this?

 

[espion]

Some more problems detected today: The dials on the HLD4 sometimes don't work. Solution: à la Windows: turn off power and turn it on again.

The Card error problem have occurred to me when using the E500, but it was not a serious one: the camera just thought there was no card, and you can ignore it. However have not encountered it in E3 and dunno if it is more or less serious.

 

[wrx_sti_22b]

ok another crazy thing happen to my e3 *why the hell is this happening* i was shooting in a party, i was able to click the shutter then boom! it just died, it never flipped back, i lost control of the camera, I have to turn it off and on again, for me to use it, first I thought its due to my battery is low coz I was shooting in the zoo in the morning, and it alerted me that i'm low batt, but the weird thing is when I on and off again the battery status is still full?? I know the status is not that accurate, but from a red low batt status to full battery status, I don't think that is normal, plus the fact I was able to shoot another 50 shots after the camera showed me a red low batt status. Given the battery is low or its just giving me a wrong battery status, is it normal to just die on you? I mean while clicking the shutter? would this cause damage to my camera? because it happen twice tonight... sigh I can't bring it to olympus because I cannot recreate the problem, any idea what's happening here.

This happened to my ex-E330 before... but it came & went... i dunno why... i've not asked anybody, i thought is the battery... :think:

 

[sulhan]

ok another crazy thing happen to my e3 *why the hell is this happening* i was shooting in a party, i was able to click the shutter then boom! it just died, it never flipped back, i lost control of the camera, I have to turn it off and on again, for me to use it, first I thought its due to my battery is low coz I was shooting in the zoo in the morning, and it alerted me that i'm low batt, but the weird thing is when I on and off again the battery status is still full?? I know the status is not that accurate, but from a red low batt status to full battery status, I don't think that is normal, plus the fact I was able to shoot another 50 shots after the camera showed me a red low batt status. Given the battery is low or its just giving me a wrong battery status, is it normal to just die on you? I mean while clicking the shutter? would this cause damage to my camera? because it happen twice tonight... sigh I can't bring it to olympus because I cannot recreate the problem, any idea what's happening here.

Oh by the way another thing, while I was shooting on the zoo, after a couple of shots, the camera suddenly told me "Card Error" and I wasnt able to use the card anymore, I have to replace it with a new one, I didnt format the card because I want to salvage some of my files, then back home when I access the cf using my card reader, I saw a strange file "Olyerr" something, I tried to delete it but my vista keep on saying the file is not there *stupid vista I can see the file*, anyway after downloading all the files I needed, I formmated the cf card using the camera and it fixed the cf card, I'm guessing all of this is related to the HLD4, coz when I was just using the body w/o the grip none of this ever happend well except for the freezing of cam while switching from the live view. Are there others here experience the same problem as mine?

Hi there, your problem of battery shutting off and then recover as full battery may seem to point to calibration problem for the A2D converter for the voltage level sensing.

Normally battery level detection is done via A2D (analog to digital) converter sensing the voltage level. But in order for it to do it properly, a calibration needs ot be done a the factory i think. There are some cases where this calibraion steps may not have been done or may not have the values correctly embeded in ROM then the errornous detection usually happens.

As there are variations in contact resistance of batteries and camera battery contats, these variations may result in false voltage detections at times - geatly depending on how robust the system is. Usually manufacturers would stick to their proprietery batteries for the voltage/current shutdown characteristics.

 

[vendeta]

Hi there, your problem of battery shutting off and then recover as full battery may seem to point to calibration problem for the A2D converter for the voltage level sensing.

Normally battery level detection is done via A2D (analog to digital) converter sensing the voltage level. But in order for it to do it properly, a calibration needs ot be done a the factory i think. There are some cases where this calibraion steps may not have been done or may not have the values correctly embeded in ROM then the errornous detection usually happens.

As there are variations in contact resistance of batteries and camera battery contats, these variations may result in false voltage detections at times - geatly depending on how robust the system is. Usually manufacturers would stick to their proprietery batteries for the voltage/current shutdown characteristics.

hmmm. thinking of sending back my e3 but I need my cam for the next 7 weeks, do they give service camera if you send yours for repair?

 

[diCam]

Hi there, your problem of battery shutting off and then recover as full battery may seem to point to calibration problem for the A2D converter for the voltage level sensing.

Normally battery level detection is done via A2D (analog to digital) converter sensing the voltage level. But in order for it to do it properly, a calibration needs ot be done a the factory i think. There are some cases where this calibraion steps may not have been done or may not have the values correctly embeded in ROM then the errornous detection usually happens.

As there are variations in contact resistance of batteries and camera battery contats, these variations may result in false voltage detections at times - geatly depending on how robust the system is. Usually manufacturers would stick to their proprietery batteries for the voltage/current shutdown characteristics.

Can firmware update resolve this issue then?

 

[cjtune]

hmmm. thinking of sending back my e3 but I need my cam for the next 7 weeks, do they give service camera if you send yours for repair?

Last time I had my E-330 serviced, they loaned me their demo set E-330... you might get one demo E-3 body I guess, if you send yours in before any others!

 

[troyjbon]

Anyway, I tried the E3 handgrip using AA batts, camera shuts off after 5-10shots, but when the same batts are used for my canon 40D grip, the same battery is in full and works fine.

I think something wrong with its voltage or whatever it is in the E3 grip....haven go to Oly sservice centre yet cause need to use the grip. .

 

[diCam]

Anyway, I tried the E3 handgrip using AA batts, camera shuts off after 5-10shots, but when the same batts are used for my canon 40D grip, the same battery is in full and works fine.

I think something wrong with its voltage or whatever it is in the E3 grip....haven go to Oly sservice centre yet cause need to use the grip. .

I think the problem does not lie with HLD-4. If that is the case BLM-1 in it would have face the same problem. It may be a case of wrong voltage reading from the camera when use with batteries. Let's just wait for the solution from Olympus, patiently. I think they are working hard on it.

 

[splim]

I think the problem does not lie with HLD-4. If that is the case BLM-1 in it would have face the same problem. It may be a case of wrong voltage reading from the camera when use with batteries. Let's just wait for the solution from Olympus, patiently. I think they are working hard on it.

Please do not think that way, because BLM-1 has 3 contact points while using AA's there's only 2, the HLD-4 has to emulate that 3rd contact point. So... there's mismatch somewhere, either on E-3 or the HLD-4.

 

[boopoo]

Encounter once is the battery exhausted :think: not very sure. Must monitor again. This happen to my eastgear battery.Yesterday:cry: hope it was battery exhausted..Maybe third party battery cant indicated the signal battery went off straight:dunno:.

 

[microcosm]

Encounter once is the battery exhausted :think: not very sure. Must monitor again. This happen to my eastgear battery.Yesterday:cry: hope it was battery exhausted..Maybe third party battery cant indicated the signal battery went off straight:dunno:.

How is the battery now?

 

[say123]

Hi, I have read somewhere about some oly 50mm not being able to be detected by Olympus Master Software.
How was it "not being able to be detected"?
I use olympus master 2.04 and from main menu -> camera -> camera version information.
However, it does not mention which component of the camera, it just show me the number 1, 2, 3 and the firmwire version so I do not know which one is which.
This is confusing.

Update..
To me this is serious enough warranting a visit to Oly Support. So I went and visit them. Their Olympus Master is version 2.03 and it is not having this problem, the list goes first row: Camera, v1.x, next row: Lense v1.x etc.
They tried updating to v2.0.4 but it was so slow, and there are no technician working on saturday. I left my name and number, and left.

There are some problem with the control circuits/board on the 50mmf2.
When you checked the firmware using camera, it can be shown properly.

Using Olympus Master/Studio, you should be able to see the LENS name detected when you are detecting for any firmware upgrades.
If you cant, there is something wrong with the copy of your 50mmf2 lens.
Not to panic though, coz it wont affect focusing etc at least from my own observation.

Get it fixed by taking to the oly centre. Explain the situation and leave the lens to them. They are very friendly and helpful.

 

[bernards]

I had an incident when a fully charged battery started blinking empty after fifty shots. I removed and reinserted the batt and it shows up as full. This was yesterday.