My company doesn't really like it when I turn in expense reports with film supplies and processing on 'em. Add to that the added time for developing and the hassle for the Art Directors to send 'em out for scanning and it's little wonder why they issued us these little Canon G3 digital cameras back in '03 or so. Problem is I've dun worn mine out - a few times.
Cappa and Trasborg got newer Canon D20 (or something impressive like that) SLRs. There wasn't the budget to get me a new SLR camera and at the time I was perfectly happy with my industrial-indesctructable Nikon F4s dinosaurs. When I did finally get an older used D10 it wound up needing hundreds in repair work, so it's sat on the shelf. Then, my original G3 finally bit the big one a few months ago and was told it wasn't economicaly smart to have it fixed.
I borrowed a G3 from a staffer on another magazine for a while until he needed it back. Then, I bought one on eBay with a busted LCD screen for $50. This one would snap a photo, but without the instant review of the LCD screen it was sorta hard to use the camera in out-of-position tech shots like I was accustomed to. Then, finally our Group Operations Director scrounged me up a nice, new-looking G3 and I was happier than a pig in slop. That it, 'till I got it home and tried to use it for a tech install.
For starters, the flash wouldn't work - ever. Then I discovered for some reason the camera would drain a newly-recharged battery dead-flat in under 30 minutes. Apparently there's a short in the circuitry of the one I just got. So, there I was with one broken company-issued camera; another company-issued one with a good LCD screen, no flash, and a short-circuit; and the eBay one I bought, which worked well, but didn't have a functioning LCD.
Fed up, I finally pulled 'em apart to make one good one out of three. I pulled the memory card door off the broken #1 camera and the microphone and LCD out camera #2 and put it all in my eBay camera. Now I'm back in business and I can shoot those tech stories you all love to call me out on. Best of all, I can stop using my personal little happy-snap digital camera as my work camera. Man, I miss the good 'ol days of film.