Brave New Product World – what can I do with Smartmedia Cards?

I am the proud owner of a FujiFilm F401 digital camera which takes good pictures, is small and handy to carry around and gave me a lot of joy in the last 3 years.

I had to send it in Christmas 2004, as the main chip got buggered and got it replaced on warranty. so that was fine.

Now all the buttons on the back seem to have shifted in functionality – the zoom in button is now turn on Macro, and there is no way to choose the different flash modes.

I googled a bit about the issue and it seems that the internals are scrambled by a leaking battery. I contacted Fuji and will see tomorrow how much it’ll cost me to fix this £150 camera.

I also wanted to plan for the worst case scenario and checked what I can replace the camera with – and re-use all the SmartMedia cards I bought over the years, and realised that it seems impossible to find a camera that does support SmartMedia any longer…

What is this? Do we have to buy accessories for every item we buy these days anew? Is there no chance to re-use what you already have?
It seems that when you buy products now they are already worthless when you get them – as the reselling prices are that low that it is not worth the effort of postage and packaging.

I spend a lot of money on products – if I get quality, but I really cannot be bothered to buy things just for the sake of following a new trend and not see any support for older products…

My watch is a Mondaine which was designed in 1943 and not changed since, my vacuum cleaner is a Henry which proved to be indestructable in many an UK office in the last 50 years, why does all the digital stuff you buy these days have to be flimsy and break in a year?

Now here is my question:

• Is there a newer camera at an affordable price that still supports SmartMedia cards or will I have to ditch the lot when Fuji tells me it is going to be £££ to fix it?