JohnS wrote:
As digital cameras are capable of firmware updates, I assume that
their basic program is stored in something akin to "flash ram". How
long does the program last in this memory before it starts getting
"soft" bits and becomes unreliable? Some rumours I've heard say 10
years. Does anyone have any authoritive info?
Thanks.

EEPROMs are fitted into many consumer equipments, and into most computers
today. I don't recall seeing any lifetime issues with these devices, at
least not when used mostly in read mode. It's not definitive, but see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Read-on...EAROM_lifetime

Cheers,
David