"I see no advantage in using something like polycarbonate. Metals are
proven. If is works, don't break it. Metals usually have more durability
from repeated use or movement."
Plastic products are much cheaper to manufacture. Not because plastic is
cheaper than metal -- it's actually more expensive -- but because
molded-plastic parts require little or no post-molding handwork. Plastic can
produce complex moldings that reduce the number of parts needed and often
just snap together.
Plastic also makes small, high-performance zoom lenses practical. In a
plastic-bodied lens, the cam system can have almost any kind of shape and
motion, including mechanisms that would not be practical with metal.
When you whip out your Infinity Stylus Zoom Wide 80 DLX to snap a shot,
remember that such a camera could not be made (at any "reasonable" price)
from metal parts. I'm grateful for my "cheap plastic" IS-30, which I can
take anywhere without worrying about damaging or losing it. The OM-4T
remains safely at home, ready for those photographic situations the IS-30
can't handle.
By the way, I've discovered that once you half-depress the shutter release
on an IS-30, thereby locking the focus, you can then fire the camera in a
dark room. This makes it possible to remove film, then replace it at or near
the last exposure.
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