adams, most digital camera's lcd whether a homebrew or commericial will not tolerate temps below freezing for more than a day or so. they will tend to crack. as far as longevity, well anything mechanical will break eventually but the great thing about the homebrew is you built it, so you will know how to fix most things. if the mother board goes out well the guys that sell them stand behind em and will go way out of there way to help you fix it. I had one that after building the unit, I shower tested it for water tightness. well being my first camera I didn't remove the mother board and lets say my box wasn't water tight yet. called hags who sold me the board and he went out of his way to fix it and didn't charge me a thang. other than my stupid error I personally haven't had any problems.