I may be asking for a blend of fact and opinion here, so…
What expectations are there currently for the usable life of digital cameras?
I have an Olympus C-2020 which is about six years old and working well. It is now getting difficult to find replacement storage media (SmartCards), which are being phased out. There have to have been lots of digital cameras made to use SmartCards - have these cameras mostly worn out or gotten pitched for new models - or is this simply an industry decision to phase out the storage media so that people will buy new cameras?
Time was (insert creaky old fart voice) when cameras would last for generations. My Kodak Signet 35mm, which belonged to my father and dates to the '40s, is still serviceable.
Are we being accustomed to semi-disposable digitals, to be used for a few years like personal computers? Does anyone expect to use a digital camera for decades (assuming one could bear the thought of having only 5 megapixels when the cameras of the future will have 150 and be capable of taking sharp photos blown up to the size of advertising billboards)?
(Note - I much prefer the photo quality, convenience and features of digital as compared to film cameras)
I had the same experience with a Toshiba camera that was about three years old. My SmartCard got corrupted (and I never went in a bar or strip club with that camera!) and from the look I got at Best Buy when I went to find one, you’d have thought I was looking for 8-tracks.
The camera itself, as far as I can tell, is still in good shape – despite having been dropped at least once. I would have happily used that camera for decades, but bit the bullet and bought a new camera.
(You can still get SmartCards on eBay, but they ain’t cheap.)
My Olympus camera is 4 years old and uses SmartMedia cards. Those got phased out as well. However, I can still find them online at least on E*Bay. Buy a few at a time and you should be able to use it as long as you want.
I think it’s just because technology is changing. SD cards are the big ones now, and they make smaller versions (Mini and Micro) used mainly in cell phones and mp3 players that I bet will take over eventually. Smaller the card, smaller the camera. I bought a little Canon a few years back that was pretty damn snazzy, 4 megapixels, no optical zoom but tiny as hell, now you can get a 10 megapixel Canon with image stablizier and 4x optical that’s the same size. Luckily mine uses SD, but I have a 256 in there and it holds plenty of pics. I have a 2gb in my other camera and it’s not always enough. But I don’t see SDs (except for using the smaller ones) or Compact Flash going anywhere soon - CF cards just keep getting bigger and bigger in storage size.
SmartMedia was a troublesome technology from the beginning. It had logic on the card, so new size cards weren’t recognized by the camera in many cases. And it was difficult to scale that technology up very far to the larger sizes now in use. My SM cards maxed out at 128M, the smallest SD card I use now is 1G, and it costs around $10 these days.
Film cameras were just vehicles to use film and printing. Digital cameras have a different relationship to the manufacturers and suppliers. I would expect that digital cameras will hit obsolescence earlier then film cameras. But the cameras are still advancing rapidly. Your C-2020 can’t compare to modern cameras in features, speed, or picture quality.
I’ve had my Nikon D70 (DSLR) for 3 years now, and I don’t expect to replace it for another year or two. On the other hand, I think I’ve gone through 3 compact/subcompact digital cameras in the past 3 years. I got a really nice one this time (Canon SD800) and I hope to get at least 2 years of use out of it.
If I needed 10 shots of something in 2 seconds, had to capture world land speed record attempts or ultra-sharp 10x14s, it wouldn’t be too great. On the other hand it churns out very good 4x6s of everyday subjects and adjusts beautifully to low-light conditions. Plus I can take it on trips and not have to worry too much about it being stolen, or dropped by TSA employees (I think it’s probably worth about $35 max now on Ebay).
The SmartMedia cards are troublesome though. I’ve had two go out on me in the past year, trapping photos in some neverland from which there is no escape. And unlike other cards, they’re expensive, assuming you can find them at Generic Bob’s House of Obsolete Media.
Unfortunately, I think digital cameras will be pretty much disposable. We still have our original, an Olympus from 2000, but I’m guessing that the next time we need any new media or any kind of repair, it will get trashcanned instead. Even for newer cameras, any kind of repair requires a good long look at it if it is actually cheaper to replace then to repair. Kind of like small household appliances. No one ever repairs a toaster or a telephone now. It’s just to much cheaper to replace it.