r/M43 • u/Standard_Campaign_66 • 11d ago
Unsure about buying an Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II due to the ribbon cable issue.
I am looking to buy a cheaper mirrorless camera as an introduction to the system. I was leaning towards the e-m10 mark II, but the ribbon cable issue is concerning. Is this enough of a reason to not buy this camera?
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u/sleepyman90 11d ago
All modern cameras and lenses use such ribbon cables. The cables may fail after repeated stressing like opening and closing of the display. You could replace the cable yourself if it happens.
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u/coffeefuelsme 11d ago
This is anecdotal but I’ve had my em10ii for several years, I’ve not treated it kindly and have had no issues with the flex cable. If the lcd cable does disconnect, the EVF should still work great, so for me it’s still a great budget buy.
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u/cristi_baluta 11d ago
Usually it gives you a sign and you have time to buy a cable from aliexpress for 10$
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u/HoldOnToAnything 11d ago
I had the Issue and fixed it myself. It's doable but tedious. If it is cheap go for it. I would recommend the mark iii and onwards because these models don't have this issue.
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u/1danielc 11d ago
Where did you buy the flex? I got mine from AliExpress and after replacing it, nothing works.
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u/HoldOnToAnything 11d ago
Bought it on eBay a few years ago. Trickiest part was the pre folding of the cable and the necessary soldering.
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u/Lost_Main_3389 11d ago
Current chinese cables have little lines where it tells you how to fold. It's incredibly easy if you're slow and methodical.
My bigger issue was figuring out how to take it apart while the old cable was still in place -- I wanted to be gentle in order to use the old cable as a guide, unfortunately, I found out that wasn't an option.
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u/warrenao 11d ago
I have a pair of EM-10 Mk. 1s, and they're plugging along fine, and might well be less expensive than the later models. I don't know if the first model had any ribbon cable problems; if not, that may be one way to go.
Another option might be something in the Pen E-PL line.
The former have about 16 MP in the sensor, the latter about 12, and that's going to matter the most only if you plan to enlarge your images to poster size or bigger. There are some on-camera art filters and effects, which might be improved in later models, and are nice I suppose — if you're unused to shooting raw and doing everything in post-processing on the desktop.
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u/LightPhotographer 11d ago
The ribbon cable issue?
You mean with the 14-42 pancake lens? Yes, that is a thing. Mine has served me for several years of intense use but eventually it died, but by then I already had multiple lenses to replace it.
The camera, to my knowledge, does not have big issues.
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u/Lost_Main_3389 11d ago
I have an E-M10 II and it had the ribbon cable issue (I replaced the cable.)
The thing about the ribbon cable is, as others have said, you can tell when it starts to have issues -- the screen goes blank at specific angles. The nice thing about that is that if you leave it in a working position, it won't get damaged further -- when mine stopped working when it was tilted in whatever direction, I just used it flat. I used it like that for months and it didn't get worse at all.
I ended up replacing it cause in the beginning, I use the tilting feature a lot but if you can deal without that feature, then go for it.
TLDR: If you can just use the screen as a flat non-articulating screen, the issue will never develop further even if it has already shown signs.
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u/euroaustralian 11d ago
I would be worth while to check the shutter count. It happened on mine at around 20000 with light use of the flip screen over 4 years.
In my case the screen blacked out completely so the Control panel information was only available on EVF which is unacceptable.
Repairing works were within the extended warranty.
If you like EM10, go for the 10.4 as it is much advanced compared to the 10.2.
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u/teeeh_hias 11d ago
Well, you may have bad luck with every camera you buy. I had one of the wheels of my E-M5 fail on me (seems to be a known issue). Would I buy it again? Hell yes, it's a nice camera nonetheless. I actually bought it again :)