New old camera dilemna

Michael Meissner wrote:

rambling robin wrote:

In 10 years time will it be worth more than I paid for it?

In 10 years time who but a few saddos like me who enjoy old cameras will be interested?

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if you are thinking about using cameras long term, there are things you probably should consider.

In ten years time you might be searching for a usable battery. Lithium-Ion batteries tend to start degrading a couple of years after they were made (whether or not you use them). If Panasonic no longer makes a camera that uses the same battery, they will stop making new batteries. If the world wide demand for that particular type of battery drops low enough, the battery clone makers will also stop making new clones. Then you will eventually just have a paperweight or you will need to use a dummy battery setup to connect to other batteries to provide power.

I used to shoot with Olympus E-1 (bought in 2004), E-3 (bought in 2008), and E-5 (bought in 2011), and I still shoot with them occasionally. While Olympus no longer makes the BLM-1/5 battery, I can still get clones. But I would anticipate that in the next 5 years, I might not be able to get a BLM-1/5 clones either. For awhile I used the E-1 battery grip, and it used a battery used nowhere else (BLL-1). Shortly after Olympus had their final firesale of E-1's, they stopped making the BLL-1 battery, after awhile, I noticed the clone BLL-1's were also disappearing.

In addition, there is a capacitor within the camera that keeps the settings when the battery is removed from the camera. I see reports off and on about 10 year old cameras that no longer remember the date or settings, when the battery is changed. Will your camera's capacitor last a long time? Maybe yes, maybe no. So far, on my oldest camera (C-2100UZ, bought in 2002) I haven't seen it, but I have seen others complain about it.

Cameras are mechanical things and subject to mechanical failure. It is likely that nobody will be able to repair your camera in ten years. For example, the top thread over in Olympus Compact Cameras has a user that sent in his camera for repair of the shutter mechanism. IIRC, he paid for the repairs, and Olympus no longer had any spares to replace that particular model. Now, Olympus offered him an E-m10 mark II and lens in return, but still assume down the road that the camera may be unable to be fixed if it breaks.

While it may not happen in 10 years time, but possibly longer term, it may be that SD cards will no longer be made, or possibly there will be a new version that isn't backwards compatible and the older cameras won't work with it. If SD cards stop being readily available, the SD card readers will go away eventually as well.

The C-2100UZ I mentioned previously used SmartMedia cards, and shortly after Olympus and Fuji stopped making SM cameras, the cards became harder to find. Of course, Olympus and Fuji decided to go to xD cards, and those also are now hard to find. Finally O/F decided to go with SD cards, and there was much rejoicing. Note in my C-2100UZ I had some pictures that I took last year had errors in them. I figure the SM card that I used may be starting have errors. I moved the card to the bottom of the pile, but I suspect others may also corrupt images.

In fact, talking about card readers going away, I took 1 picture with my C-2100UZ this year, and I couldn't find the SM card reader at the time. Fortunately, I had a SM->CF adapter, and I was able to use one of my CF readers to get the image off the camera (the C-2100UZ predates Olympus cameras acting as USB storage devices). When I realized SM card readers were going away, I tried to buy one a few years ago, but the reader the company sent me did not have a SM slot, even though it explicitly said so in the text.

In addition to SD cards, perhaps newer computers will no longer have the standard USB-A ports for unloading images via the USB cable that came with the camera. Maybe there will be an adapter back to USB-A, or maybe not. Of course this assumes the current operating systems will still support such things.

Enjoy your digital cameras while you have them, but eventually you may have to move on to a newer camera.

Some interesting points - certainly batteries are always a problem for older kit. A quick scoot around revealed that sources for the BLB13 are drying up fast.

Getting data off can also be a challenge with older media. My Sony S85 uses Sony's memory sticks which can be a pain - but no worries as I still have the floppy drive adapter for it.......:-)