Reliance on Li Ion batteries in Oly Pen series

alexisgreat wrote:

Lights wrote:

I've had original batteries fail, back to 2003. I've usually replaced them with aftermarket very cheap batteries and never had one out of maybe 20 I've purchased, ever swell, catch on fire, explode or do anything weird. Yeah they may be of slightly less output or take a few shots less per charge than the originals.but they've worked. I'm not saying that cheap aftermarket batteries can't have problems, maybe luck has something to do with things. If I have a battery that swells, or I can't get a replacement...then it gives me an excuse to get a new camera However I've thought about this and you do make a point now that the improvements in cameras seem more incremental and people may be hanging on to them longer..outlasting the batteries (even 3rd party) that they need to function.

What really made me think about it was I ran across this guy who was trying to sell his film camera he told me he'd used for 35 years. It made me wonder if film cameras ever had "shutter actuation limits" or any of these other things we worry about, like Li Ion batteries, that can make our digital cameras fail. I never actually had the pleasure of owning an SLR- my first complex camera was a Nikon Coolpix 990 back in 2000 (same year I joined this forum.) It used 4 AA's but it was the last one in that line to do so. I had owned a film camera before that but it was a point and shoot.

That's very true of some film cameras, however some that depended on (banned)mercury cells for metering are hard to find batteries for (B#H sells Wein replacements of the correct voltage). Some of the older cameras that had meters that used selenium cells don't works so well anymore either, and I've been lucky in that regard since I've got a little Zeiss Ikon 35mm where the 35 year old meter still works, and an accompanying selenium light meter for another Zeiss folder I've got also works, and that's got to be maybe 60 years old at least. So it's true, although shutters failed, parts broke on the older cameras, they were pretty dependable. Certain films are getting rare though. I guess in the end we are just pretty much at the mercy of technology and those who sell it. Like you, I started in digital with cameras that used AA cells...I don't worry so much about those becoming obsolete...but it does seem most of the point and shoots made today use Li-Ion. I wonder how many proprietary LI-Ion battery models there really are if a person counted them?