Never had them. Always hear or read from people who heard or read from people who had issues with their gear. Okay, maybe had some sometime, but that must’ve been long ago. Maybe it’s because I don’t play as much with my gear as I did when I was younger (like in my teens). Or maybe it’s because today I gather as much information as possible before I make a decision on buying gear? I don’t know exactly. But I can tell you these two stories.

I’ve had a Panasonic Lumix FZ30 for two and a half years (which I had bought used, so it was really three years old when I parted with it), and the camera never let me down. Can you say that about your Canon? (The only thing wearing off was the paint [but only there where hard things like rocks had touched the camera body], and some minor dust particles in the lens – nothing serious though.) I’d buy one again, even if it was now more than four years old, without hesitation. And I bet it would run like on its first day.

I’ve been working with PCs since I can think. Earlier, when I was always trying out new hard- and software, my PCs would always break down at some point. My last machines were an IBM ThinkPad from about 199something. It went and went and went and never had any issues, even though I once dropped it, mispartitioned the hard-drive, upgraded the memory … Now I’ve been having a Dell Latitude laptop for over a year, running Windows Vista first and then Windows 7 since the first beta came out. Never had any issues with it either (except for Vista being slow like hell). I upgraded the first 7 beta to the RC and then the RC to the final version – everything runs as smooth as ever. Never had to ‘troubleshoot’ any of my PCs in recent years – except of course if I did something I wasn’t supposed to. But the machines never failed me.

So what do we learn from all this? Maybe that, with serious gear, it’s more often the user that makes the gear fail? And that when you buy something high quality, say, a Leica, you probably won’t have any troubles? – No, of course not. Even a Leica can have issues. But I don’t think it’s the rule. As much as I don’t think it’s the rule for Canon compacts to break down within two years (although I doubt many p&s cameras will be used for that long, so how accurate are the statistics, anyway?) With all electronic and hitech gear chances are it may exhibit a failure at some point during its life. And sure, build quality (and thus the price tag) does play a role. And then there just are those who are prone to buy things that break down, and of course they’ll tell you how rubbish everything is. And then there are those who never experience any issues with any gear they possess, and they’ll tell you how great everything is.

Apple, for example. Never break down. Or do they? I can tell you I’ve had more trouble with my iPod than with anything. Maybe again it was all my fault, but more than once I was ready to throw it away.

Just my two cents, anyway.