I felt like this was a serious drawback of the camera, until 1) Olympus came out with Firmware Version 4.0 (which includes a full electronic shutter feature) and 2) that I had perhaps expected a little too much from the camera. I’ve since bought a neoprene soft case (the Hakuba PixGear SS cover) that still allows quick access and lets me carry the camera on a shoulder strap, but gives the camera much more protection from subzero winds. So far this extra protection seems to be helping to keep the shutter working.

Why not just use the electronic shutter all the time? The reason is that using the electronic shutter to capture moving subjects causes some distortion sometimes. This is called ‘rolling shutter’, like when you try to film outside a moving train’s window: vertical objects like power poles and trees appear as though they are bent. I don’t see nearly as much distortion on the OM-D E-M1’s electronic shutter, but when scrolling through consecutive images panning across a landscape, captured using the high speed continuous shot, you can see some distortion.

On one occasion at the top of Mt. Annupuri at 1300m (just after I took the picture below with the hiking skiers), with the ambient temperature at around -15 deg C and the wind howling at around 30km/h, the electronic viewfinder started to flicker a little. The camera had spent around 2 hours hanging around me on a shoulder strap, with no case. Pictures taken using the electronic shutter, however, came out fine.