How long do they 'live'?

[rye9]

I'm not asking about the durability of cameras... but how long do manufacturers tend to sell cameras for? I love the "buyer's guide" on macrumors.com, however that doesn't exist for everything unfortunately. What this boils down to is that I'm in the market for a new camera... but the one of interest to me has been out I believe since april 2007, so I am wondering how soon it will go on sale.

 

[dllavaneras]

but how long do manufacturers tend to sell cameras for?

That depends on the type of camera. I think P&S cameras get updates more often than DSLR cameras, and they usually reveal most of the new models right before mayor events (PMA and Photokina, the former is held annually and the latter is every two years).
Of course, that doesn't mean that cameras don't get released at other times (Panasonic just revealed a bunch of new cameras this week), but they tend to hold of the most revolutionary/biggest updates for those mayor events.

 

[rye9]

It's a point and shoot one. The Canon SD750.. just something nice and simple for college. I just did a little research and saw it was out for a while; so I figured if I could save some money on it by waiting I would.

 

[ChrisA]

Nikon tends to update their low end camera much faster than their high end modles. The consumer DSLRs are on an 18 month product cycle and pro level models tend to last about 30 months and the point and shoot models maybe a year to 18 months. I don't think these figures are exact. But I did read that Nikon had a goal to keep their entry level DSLRs on an 18 month cycle. This sounds agressive but if they can do it then they can keep driving the prices down every cycle because they can keep taking advantage of lower cost parts in each new design.