----- Original Message ----- From: "Nick Zentena"
> Well last year I was talking to a local repair guy while waiting to pickup my > camera. His feeling was it made no sense to fix modern cameras. That once > they are out of warranty the cost of the repair might just exceed the > replacement cost. Now he was basically talking about consumer models but the > general point I think is valid. Worst part his bias is towards fixing them. > He doesn't sell any new cameras. With digital cameras it'll be even worse. The industry has been running into this for the past 20 years since inexpensive point and shoot type cameras came onto the market. The cost effectiveness of repair has always been questionable in cheap products. Over the counter replacement is the norm if an inexpensive product breaks down during warranty, advising an agitated customer to replace is the norm if the product breaks outside of warranty. With digital cameras and their lack of moving parts, reliability should be improved, although I don't know if the jury is back regarding resistance to impact damage, which good quality mechanical cameras tend to be fairly good at. William Robb
