I popped into the camera store a month back to pick up a spare battery for my camera. I was going on vacation for a couple of weeks and, not knowing exactly where I’d be able to charge up my gear overseas, a second power source seemed like a pragmatic idea.

I ended up purchasing the last of this specific battery that was in stock on clearance; it seems the manufacturer is doing away with that type of battery.

It is a sign of the times.

My camera is barely a few years old; at that time the most current model with features I still have not yet figured out, or do not require. Quickly, it is becoming outdated, as is most technology now.

Decades back, camera batteries were fairly standard. They were not rechargeable but lasted quite a while and were readily available. At that time, a small battery controlled only the light meter and, maybe, the shutter. The then-bulky motor drives to advance the film relied on a battery of standard AAs (pardon the pun) and there was never a shortage of those.

I’ve got cameras, both analogue and digital, that are decades old and still function well. No, they do not have the most advanced technological features – one of the cameras has none – but the cameras did exactly what they were supposed to do. They still do.

Cameras, like any computerized technology available today, are not meant to last forever. There is a built-in obsolescence; it is the way they make things nowadays. Every year there are new models, and new features, and a new type of power source to operate the equipment.

The art, craft and practice of photography is fundamentally the same: essentially the capture of images. However, there are limits in terms of how long the equipment will last. Like our laptops, tablets, and mobile devices, the operating systems of the computers have a somewhat predetermined lifespan. A camera now will become outdated long before the images will ever fade.

Sadly, we live with it; hell, we put up with it.

Nothing lasts forever; well, not the equipment. Yet my love of photography sustains me and will for much longer than the camera. My love of photography is timeless.