Rant: That conversation with a retired Nikon tech still haunts me

Met an old guy at a camera swap meet in Portland who told me he stopped repairing digital cameras after 2010 because the ribbon cables got too fragile to handle more than a few disassemblies. He said he's seen entire shutter assemblies bricked just from a single bend in the wrong spot. Has anyone else noticed newer cameras feel more like disposable electronics than the old gear?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_thomas1mo ago

Not really the ribbon cables, it was the flex print boards that got brittle around 2012.

corap211mo ago

Think it's just how planned obsolescence creeps into everything now. Even stuff you're supposed to keep for years, the materials just fail before they should, like nobody tests for real aging anymore. It's wild how we just accept that new things will fall apart faster than old ones did.

davidkim1mo ago

Yeah "flex print boards that got brittle" really hit home for me. I had an old laptop from that era and one day I opened the lid and heard a crack like a potato chip. Turns out the whole hinge assembly basically turned to dust in my hands. I swear I was more careful with that thing than a newborn baby but the plastic just gave up on life. Pretty sure my anxious tech support calls are still echoing in some call center in Manila. Maybe I should have just welded the lid shut and called it a desktop.