I'm selling my HMC150 and I'm curious what people think of the relevance of the hour meter on a tapeless camera.

To me, the biggest concern in an old school camera is the head hours. It can and will wear out.

Strangely enough, tapeless cameras don't have heads to wear.

Yes, the LCD backlights will wear out, the batteries will lose their longevity, and even the motors for zoom and focus will quit eventually. But while my VX1000 lost some pixels in the viewfinder, it sure never had a problem with zoom or focus.

If you were buying a camera, how concerned would you be about high operational hours?

I think hours referenced against the appearance and operation of the camera are quite telling.

- Low hours, like-new appearance, everything functional => great buy
- high hours, like-new appearance, everything functional => great buy
- high hours, minor scuffs and cosmetic scratches, everything functional => good buy
- high hours, scuffs and scratches, broken rubber bits, label paint rubbed off => good buy at the right price
- LOW hours, scruffs, scratches, dents, stuff missing, stuff not working => GOOD BYE!