Something interesting happened last night.
I bought a used Olympus PEN E-P5 Silver body.
Firstly, I sold off the Panasonic GM1, to fund my purchase of the Olympus E-P5. I loved the GM1 to bits and it was difficult parting with it, but I shall save this story on why I decided to get E-P5 on my coming blog entry. The main reason I got the E-P5 body used, was that it was dirt cheap - after selling off my old GM1, I only had to top up RM100 (less than USD25) to purchase the E-P5.
Now here are the observations I have made on the spot:
1) No Box, No Warranty Card, No Receipt
The seller just sold the camera to me, basically stripped naked. Not a big problem for me as the box served me no purpose.
2) No Front Body Cap
The front body cap was missing, but the seller was kind enough to substitute with a Panasonic body cap (hence I knew the original Olympus cap was missing). The seller told me, at this point that he bought this E-P5 with M.Zuiko 17mm F1.8 lens together from another seller. I further asked if the rear lens cap was included when he made the purchase, and as suspected, the rear lens cap was missing.
3) No Original Battery Charger
The original battery charger was also missing, and was replaced with a third party charger. I did get an original BLM-1 battery.
4) Serial Number plate was ripped off
I checked the shutter count of the camera, it was only about 1.1k shutter actuations. There was completely no scratch or dent, and camera appeared in near perfect condition, like new. Yet, the serial number plate at the bottom of the camera came off. It could not have been wear and tear, and it must have been ripped off intentionally, to prevent tracking. Luckily I work for Olympus, I can still trace the serial number of the camera.
5) SIRIM Certification Logo almost ripped off
For newer cameras wth Wifi in Malaysia, SIRIM certification is compulsory, and the certified logo sticker will be seen somewhere on the camera (usually hidden behind the tilt screen). The corner of the rectangular logo was seen peeled off, but the sticker was still pretty much intact. Why would someone want to tear the sticker off?
So lets do a quick round up. E-P5 in super pristine condition, only 1.1k shutter count, came with no box, no charger, no caps, and serial number plate ripped off.
I don't need to be a Civil Engineer to figure out something was wrong. but there is a high possibility it was a stolen unit.
So here is the thing.
I have checked with the Olympus Malaysia database and came up with no match. I have searched the camera serial number (I managed to find out the number, I work for Olympus) online, but returned with no results. My last effort to reach out to the original owner, is to post this here.
If you were in Malaysia (SIRIM Sticker confirms this is a local Malaysian unit) and have lost an Olympus PEN E-P5 Silver Body (I assume not many people did), this could be your body.
All you have to do, is email me directly at hamish7ian@gmail.com with the following details:
1) Full Name
2) SERIAL NUMBER of the E-P5
3) Scans or images of your original receipts/proof of purchase, and the warranty card
4) And whatever evidence you can supply to show you are the original owner.
I need to be darn sure you are the owner of this E-P5. I am willing to return the camera to you for a small fee.
Part of me wanted this camera so badly, and wanted to believe it was so cheap. But I know, I know how painful it was to have a camera stolen from you. Keeping the camera without trying to locate the original owner would be selfish.
For those of you readers in Malaysia, please help share this post. At the mean time, I am going to take the E-P5 out for a spin this coming weekend.
