Camera Actuations

jaqian

Is there a site somewhere that states how many actuations a camera can expect to have before it no longer works.

e.g. how many actuations would a D80 have before it dies.

Looking into buying a second-hand slr and was wondering about the whole actuations thing. I tried looking on Nikon site but no info there. Everyone will tell you how many actuations they have but trying to find something to compare it against is harder.

Cheers,
Rob

Paulw

jaqian wrote: »

Is there a site somewhere that states how many actuations a camera can expect to have before it no longer works.

No idea about Nikon, but Canon give "mean time to failure". In other words, your camera could fail after 1 or 1,000,000 actuations. Most Canon cameras are listed as around 150,000 actuations, but I know my 20D had over 220,000 before I sold it, and it's still running fine.

Morrisseeee

Probably around 50,000 to 100,000 for entry-level models, more than that on higher spec models.

melekalikimaka

Morrisseeee wrote: »

Probably around 50,000 to 100,000 for entry-level models, more than that on higher spec models.

i think its ALOT less from what i recall, closer to 20,000 from my vague recollection, 100,000 is closer to pro line up for nikon anyway

Morrisseeee

Well mine is 50,000, so there, put that in your pipe & smoke it !!
Only kidding , I remember reading it somewhere.
>> as I open up Goooogle and do a search.... >>

jaqian

What actually happens to a camera after it reaches its last actuation? Does the shutter freeze up etc. Can it be fixed, is it expensive?

Morrisseeee

It gives a little cough, then lights up the LED screen one last time & then dies !!! only skittin !
I'd say by the time you've reached 50,000 or whatever then you are already thinking about getting a new one anyway, as reaching that total would take a few years, especially for non-pros.

Thirdfox

In many situations amateurs will take many more photos than the "pros" (if it's not the area of sport photography). There must be tens of thousands deleted uninteresting photos as the newbies experiment and learn about photography. That's the beauty of digital - quick to learn and easy to experiment.

Certainly, I take fewer shots now, but my standard has gone up proportionally (I would hope!)

As far as actuations go - the professional range are rated (D3, D3x - tested to 300,000 actuations). The entry level isn't.

I've clocked up 27,000 on my D40 after 2 years - the first 10,000 probably came from the first 6 months (2,000 alone over 14 days in Japan). But if you treat your camera right then you probably can get a long period of use out of it - I've heard of D70 with 60,000+ actuations.

Imagine using 2,000 rolls of film! ...or buying it

AnCatDubh

Saw this before - can't vouch for how accurate or otherwise as it's community generated and not verified

http://www.olegkikin.com/shutterlife/

Eirebear

How do you go about figuring our how many you have clocked up?
I'm thinking my 30D must be pushing it a bit lately

kjt

The number of your last photo should do the trick

Thirdfox

AnCatDubh wrote: »

Saw this before - can't vouch for how accurate or otherwise as it's community generated and not verified

http://www.olegkikin.com/shutterlife/

Not accurate at all - I remember one guy on the D40 section put it as dying after 400000 shots or something like that. Which almost seems mathematically impossible because the camera was only out for a while.

Eirebear wrote: »

How do you go about figuring our how many you have clocked up?
I'm thinking my 30D must be pushing it a bit lately

An exif viewer - like Opanda will display all the info. For Nikon cameras the shutter count is included in the detailed exif information.

kjt wrote: »

The number of your last photo should do the trick

Not if you go past 10,000 photos - the number reverts back to DSC_0000
and you can reset the file numbering too.

magicbastarder

Paulw wrote: »

I know my 20D had over 220,000 before I sold it, and it's still running fine.

if you had it for three years, that's over 200 shots a day. was this used for professional work?

coylemj

My experience in the area of 'Mean Time Between Failure' relates to the IT business and what I can tell you is that what manufacturers quote is complete BS because if one guy says that his machine will do 'x' cycles before it's expected to fail, his competitor will simply say that his machine can do 1.5 x or 2x.

In all (not almost all, just all) cases MTBF cannot be verified, it's just a throwaway number so it means absolutely nothing.

Calina

magicbastarder wrote: »

if you had it for three years, that's over 200 shots a day. was this used for professional work?

The last day before it failed, my 40D did 403 shots. If it hadn't failed it would probably have done around 800.

Paul is a sports photographer. The volumes can climb very fast under those circumstances. I've turned in 1500 shots a day on occasion.