I agree with everyting you say, with the exception of the following
Originally posted by RioRico
....... And nearly all will be junk in just a few years. The longevity of modern plastics (and optical resins) and electronics is questionable. Some of us use photo gear that's a century old. Will that 5D Mk II still be functioning in ten years? Will it be laughably obsolete then?.....
I own a PZ-1 as do many other forum members, which is a plastic /polycarbonate over metal camera with 4 microprocessors.
This camera is almost 20 years old and aside from the normal scrapes and scratches is cosmetically better than my Kx (OK the KX is older still) but it is in better shape than my KX was 20 years ago.
The unfortunate the difference between 20 year old gear (or todays dslrs for that matter) is that 100 year old gear was simple and made with machine tools that are still available to hand produce parts. Spares for electronics are not as readily available, when these cameras fail,, they fail for good, unless there is a supply of scrappers to steal parts from