Re: Sinking flagships

[Otis C. Wright, Jr.]

What little out-of-warrantee digital camera repair I've run into has 
been almost all due to damage of one sort or another or heavy use 
bordering on abuse.  In all cases repair has been quite expensive, which 
supports the suggestion that repair of low end devices will for the most 
part not be cost-effective.

Otis Wright

William Robb wrote:

----- 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