[none]

[mbergman@ies-energy.com]

Oddmund wrote:

>>Well, you can always bring some share batteries IF you are going far
away.  Batteries are light, small and easy to change. An electronic circuit
problem is as difficult to resolve as a mechanical breakdown IF you are in
the bush... In most bigger towns and cities you find repairmen who take
care of it.<<

I disagree completely.  I've owned Olympus cameras since the early '80s. 
 The OM-4 and the OM-2S, while great cameras, ate  batteries at a very fast 
rate,  anywhere from 1 to 3 months (regardless of film usage).   The way the 
Nikon 4S goes through AA batteries you better have a BIG supply if your 
going into the woods.

Electronic circuit boards are rarely repairable, just expendable.  Price is 
not an the issue here but availablity.  You can not replace the circuit 
boards in the Leica CL, Olympus, and a lot of other cameras because they are 
no longer available.  And the boards seems to fail at an alarmingly high 
rate with age.  Not to  mention the problem we are already having as once 
common batteries are discontinued.  No matter how good that electronic 
camera is it's just a door stop when they stop making the batteries for it.

Just about any good technician can repair a mechanical camera.  Leitz 
stopped supporting the LSM cameras in the early '80s yet you can still have 
the bodies repaired.  This is in contrast to the OM-2S that I bought around 
1990 which is now unrepairable because Olympus no longer makes the circuit 
boards.