[Leica] re: Electronic vs. Mechanical

[Robert Monaghan <rmonagha@post.cis.smu.edu>]

Lots of (missing) counter-arguments ;-)

for example, I have a number of electronic cameras, and I can't get mercury
batteries for them, and even the "recommended" replacement batteries for
silver batteries at Radio Shack don't have the high surge currents needed
and so gave bad exposure info when I've had to replace on field trips ;-(

I've seen Nikonos V cameras fail when a single drop of salty water dripped
from the user's forehead on a dive trip while loading the camera onto the
top mounted circuit board - shorted and fried the board. On the other
hand, I've heard of a number of cases where divers have washed their
mechanical cameras in fresh water, then alcohol, then heated the camera 
with a hair dryer, and it survived the flooding for years of use. 

As Roger Hicks points out, you can't get anybody in most of India to fix
your complex electronic cameras, even if they could get the parts in w/o
being stolen in the mails etc. The mechanical cameras are more easily fixed,
and many times, he suggests, a watch repairman can do many repairs on-site.
In fact, lots of us can work on mechanical cameras and do many modest fixes.
But even Nikon/USA has to send some cameras and modules back to the factory
as they are too difficult to repair or troubleshoot, hence long delays etc.
In addition, trend is to replace entire board(s) of electronics, which adds
a great deal to repair expenses, vs. lube or replace a spring in 
mechanical cameras. 

the LCD panels on some cameras are known to have modest lifespans; other
components are custom or proprietary devices (E.g., a nikon FE flex circuit-
which commonly fails, for which no parts are available except from donor 
FEs. Other parts are varied (e.g., chips in lenses, cameras) to create
problems for third party copycat lens makers, forcing you to stick with the
more costly OEM lenses and/or keep up with new lenses as the older ones 
become "obsolete". Nikon doesn't rechip their older lenses, but a user who
buys their chips can do so (see mf/nikon.html for links and details ;-)

the shutters on the low end electronic cameras and the rest are designed
to be "good enough" MTBF (see mf/mtbf.html); say 30,000 cycles on a low
end (EM etc.) camera. The F3 shutter is designed for 150k cycles because
that's about what a pro might use between annual CLAs, at worst, so it 
should last until the next CLA rather than fail. The older mechanical 
cameras which survive early failures are likely to last for a very long time

Mechanical cameras can have failures, yet still be usable. I have a 
Nikkormat with a bad film counter - no big deal, as I use it for slide duping
A meter may go bad, but you can still use SUNNY-16 rule to set exposures.
On the other hand, when electronic cameras die, they die, esp. digitals ;-)

Many electronic cameras are purposefully delivered brain damaged, to force
you to "upgrade" to the latest lens series (see Nikon's new G series lenses,
or the AF cameras that won't meter with older lenses AI/AIS that mount okay
etc.). The older mechanical cameras take a wider variety of third party and
T/T2 mount lenses, potentially saving some serious $$. Many AF cameras lack
even a DOF lever, and won't meter with non-auto lenses in any mode ;-( etc.

Personally, I agree that the prejudice against battery operated cameras 
is over-blown. But a lot of mechanical cameras will outlast the latest
generation of electronic (AF..) cameras because they weren't built with 
planned obsolescence in mind. In this sense, digital cameras are perfect
- - they're obsolete almost as soon as they come out of the box ;-) grins bobm

* Robert Monaghan POB752182 So. Methodist Univ., Dallas Tx 75275  *
* Third Party 35mm Lenses: http://medfmt.8k.com/third/index.html  *
* Medium Format Cameras: http://medfmt.8k.com/mf/index.html       *


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