Yesterday our 25 year old microwave oven went 'pop', literally. I duly replaced it with a shiny new model, and this morning it found the challenge of heating up my porridge (can't get enough of the stuff!) too much. Half way through the program, the buzzing noise from the microwave reached a peak and then all the lights went out, and, silence.

I had explained in the shop to the salesman that I'd bought my old microwave in 1984, and he was mightily impressed. I'm sure he will be less so when I turn up with the new dead one.

This whole experience made me think. I get dozens of cameras to play with every year and I must say that, in general, they are very reliable. I can only remember one camera going fundamentally wrong in the last 18 months. So I was wondering what is the experiene of others? Are your cameras reliable? If not, what has gone wrong? Is your experience of older cameras more positive in the sense of reliability? When I worked in a camera store in the late 70s and early 80s our camera repairer had a steady business putting right mechanical issues. We certainly had problems with early generation electronic cameras, too.

But most lasted for more than 24 hours, unlike my new microwave!