How long do bodies last?

I mean camera bodies, of course.

How long until they wear out? I assume it is 10+ yrs.

How long until they are replaced because new cameras are better and/or have more features?

My belief is that bodies are basically computers and become old & slow within just a few years. Not that they change, but the market changes around them making them appear old & slow.

Which brings me to my answer of 2-4 yrs. A body is useful for 2-4 years before the owner is selling to upgrade. This is long before the body has actually ceased to function. This means there should be a wonderful pool of 2-3 year old bodies in great shape that have lots of life in them that sell cheap.

What do you say?

true, bodies are "replaced" by new version on a regular basis.
As is often stated on here, your "old" cameras will continue to take good pictures even though new/better models are available. Case in point, my 30D is now 3 years old and it still takes perfectly fine pictures and I have no intention to sell it.

A camera body will last as long as it lasts. The average is given by the MTTF, but like any statistical number it's just a probability. That said and all build issues aside, you can expect the camera to last longer if you use it lightly but continually (no long months of letting it just sit there), and if you shoot only 5k/year, most cameras will last you 10-20 years. If you shoot 20k or more a year like I do, you can expect maybe 5 years out of a 40d or 15 years from my MKIII.

EDIT:
rather than a camera being a computer, it's more of the monitor. Yea, new, cool features come up, but it's still the same thing. And even with computers, if you know what you are doing you can use them much longer than you would first think. My parents used a 9year old pentium 2 (which died) when the core 2 quad cores came out, and they had no problems with it (pentium 2 is about .1GFLOP, their new core 2 quad core is about 50)

n1as wrote in post #7749595
I mean camera bodies, of course.

Which brings me to my answer of 2-4 yrs. A body is useful for 2-4 years before the owner is selling to upgrade. This is long before the body has actually ceased to function. This means there should be a wonderful pool of 2-3 year old bodies in great shape that have lots of life in them that sell cheap.

What do you say?

Correct in many respects ....except that certain bodies become "classics" and don't hit rock bottom prices (even after 7 or 8 years). What do you consider "cheap"? Relatively cheaper than new, but still an appreciable outlay are the 1D MKI and 1DsMki, 5D MkI. 1DMkIIN. 1DsMKII. These are often kept (not sold) by original owners who are updating, so supplies are short. Buyers expect to pick up low-shutter-count examples. The 5D was considered to be very "lacking" in features (usually by those who didn't own them) before the 5DMkII arrived and prices were expected to plummet. . Now -all of a sudden- the 5D has been recognised as a "classic" (even by those who didn't own them and now wish they did), and creditable performer, and prices have recovered. If you buy secondhand, and at the right price, the xD range will be the best value and with the longest life . IMHO.