MarkBarbieri
Semi-retired
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2006
- Messages
- 6,172
The recent thread on worn out shutters got me to thinking about what tends to break or wear out on a camera. For newbies under the mistaken impression that their camera will never wear out, it's probably good to list some of the things that will eventually go wrong or are at least risky.
1) Batteries - All batteries wear out. The new Lithium Ion batteries used in many new cameras are very good, but they eventually hold less and less of a charge. When you find that your camera doesn't stay charged for as long, consider getting new batteries.
2) Shutters - They all eventually wear out. This wasn't a problem in the film days because few people took more than a few hundred (or maybe a few thousands) of shots in a year. Now it isn't uncommon to see people shooting more than 10,000 per year. As a general rule, shutters on cheaper cameras wear out sooner than those on more expensive cameras. P&S cameras don't have a mechanical shutter, so this isn't a problem for them.
3) Hot Shoe - I've had the hot shoe start to come loose on two cameras. It's an easy fix. On Canon's, you pop off a little metal cover and tighten down four little screws, then you pop the little metal cover back on.
4) Flash footing - Most flashes mount to the camera with a relatively fragile plastic footing. That's not just because the manufacturer wants to keep the price down. The footing is designed to snap off it the flash is pushed too hard (like when you drop camera with the flash on it. That's much preferable to having it wrench your pentaprism out of alignment. New flash footings are about $10 and are easy to replace.
5) Eye cup - The eye cup for many SLRs is removeable. That's mainly so that you can replace it with an angled eyepiece. I've accidentally popped mine off and lost the original. That's another $10 part that's easy to replace.
6) UV Filters - Some people consider UV filters to be semi-disposable lens protectors. The idea is that you shoot with it on for years while it takes all the abuse and scratching that the front element would otherwise take. When it gets nasty, you replace it with a new one. The downside is that it is another piece of glass between your sensor and your subject, which increases chances of flare and other problems.
7) Memory cards - In theory, they wear out. They are only good for so many writes. That number, however is really, really big. I've never had one go bad on me, but I've heard of others that weren't so lucky. Memory cards are so cheap now, that I'd just trash one that so much as looked at me funny.
What else is a camera user likely to replace because it failed or wore out?
1) Batteries - All batteries wear out. The new Lithium Ion batteries used in many new cameras are very good, but they eventually hold less and less of a charge. When you find that your camera doesn't stay charged for as long, consider getting new batteries.
2) Shutters - They all eventually wear out. This wasn't a problem in the film days because few people took more than a few hundred (or maybe a few thousands) of shots in a year. Now it isn't uncommon to see people shooting more than 10,000 per year. As a general rule, shutters on cheaper cameras wear out sooner than those on more expensive cameras. P&S cameras don't have a mechanical shutter, so this isn't a problem for them.
3) Hot Shoe - I've had the hot shoe start to come loose on two cameras. It's an easy fix. On Canon's, you pop off a little metal cover and tighten down four little screws, then you pop the little metal cover back on.
4) Flash footing - Most flashes mount to the camera with a relatively fragile plastic footing. That's not just because the manufacturer wants to keep the price down. The footing is designed to snap off it the flash is pushed too hard (like when you drop camera with the flash on it. That's much preferable to having it wrench your pentaprism out of alignment. New flash footings are about $10 and are easy to replace.
5) Eye cup - The eye cup for many SLRs is removeable. That's mainly so that you can replace it with an angled eyepiece. I've accidentally popped mine off and lost the original. That's another $10 part that's easy to replace.
6) UV Filters - Some people consider UV filters to be semi-disposable lens protectors. The idea is that you shoot with it on for years while it takes all the abuse and scratching that the front element would otherwise take. When it gets nasty, you replace it with a new one. The downside is that it is another piece of glass between your sensor and your subject, which increases chances of flare and other problems.
7) Memory cards - In theory, they wear out. They are only good for so many writes. That number, however is really, really big. I've never had one go bad on me, but I've heard of others that weren't so lucky. Memory cards are so cheap now, that I'd just trash one that so much as looked at me funny.
What else is a camera user likely to replace because it failed or wore out?
to 
)
One of them had a very colorful user name as well. 
