Shutter Count

Bristolian

Bristolian

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Steve
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I'm not normally someone who bothers too much about how many pictures my cameras have taken ... they either work or they're broken :)

However, I was a bit bored this morning so thought I'd check my D300 that was recently repaired by Nikon and two things leapt out at me. Firstly, during the time Nikon had the body the number of shutter actuations went up by 731 but the file number count only increased by 45. Secondly, since the body came back from repair it has taken 484 pictures (it's not my prime body at the moment) but the shutter count has only gone up by 434 :thinking:

All of these figures are taken from the information provided by shuttercount. In the first instance I loaded the last image taken before sending the body back to Nikon and the first I took on its return - DSC_1952 & DSC_1997 with shutter counts of 12282 and 13013 respectively. Secondly, DSC_1997 & DSC_2431 came up with 13013 and 13447.

So, I guess the question it raises in my mind is: can we trust the information provided by the likes of shuttercount?
 
Did you use live view at all? I believe this will increase the shutter count without increasing the file number (if I recall correctly it takes 3 shutter actuations in live view). This is probably how Nikon "used" it too
 
Turn on your camera, note your image number and shutter count. Now switch into and out of LV say 5 times (dont take a shot) now come out of live view and take one shot normally.Check your shutter count and image number.
Has the image number increased by one ? Probably, but more importantly has the shutter count increased by 6.
 
Hi guys, not used LV - hardly ever do :)

I agree that Nikon may have used it that way but it doesn't account for the HUGE difference between shutter count and file number.

Not a bad thought though:D
 
You could always try something like Opanda iexif tool - it's free I think ....
 
Hi Paul,

It's been a while since I used Opanda and if I remember correctly you needd the paid for Pro version to read RAW files.
 
I've only ever used it on jpegs, even though I shoot in raw. Have a look at this http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/ I've just tried it, basically downloaded the Windows version and installed it to my desktop. I literally just dropped a nef file on it and it displays the meta data, including the shutter count. Bit clunky to use but works!
 
Bristolian said:
I agree that Nikon may have used it that way but it doesn't account for the HUGE difference between shutter count and file number.
Click to expand...

Surely the file number only goes up if files are actually created, i.e. saved to a memory card. Nikon must have some tests that involve the shutter action only (without a memory card inserted) thereby increasing the shutter count and not the file count.
 
PaulButler said:
I've only ever used it on jpegs, even though I shoot in raw. Have a look at this http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/ I've just tried it, basically downloaded the Windows version and installed it to my desktop. I literally just dropped a nef file on it and it displays the meta data, including the shutter count. Bit clunky to use but works!
Click to expand...

Paul,

Thanks for the link. It gives the same results as shuttercount.com ... but it's quicker as you don't have to upload the image first.
 
Gruffalogill said:
Surely the file number only goes up if files are actually created, i.e. saved to a memory card.
Click to expand...


Nope.. it's shutter actuations... and live view uses up 3 shutter actuations.
 
Pookeyhead said:
Nope.. it's shutter actuations... and live view uses up 3 shutter actuations.
Click to expand...

Not sure what you mean? I just tested on my 5dmk2:

took shot with memory card in - file 967
took memory card out and took 10 more shots (which presumably increased the shutter count by 10)
re-inserted memory card, took shot, - file 968

So, shutter count up 11, file up 1.
 
Gruffalogill said:
Not sure what you mean? I just tested on my 5dmk2:

took shot with memory card in - file 967
took memory card out and took 10 more shots (which presumably increased the shutter count by 10)
re-inserted memory card, took shot, - file 968

So, shutter count up 11, file up 1.
Click to expand...

What Pookeyhead was saying is right - at least on Nikon bodies. If you use liveview to take a shot then the shutter count goes up by three even though the shot number only increases by one.

Turn on liveview; shutter opens so you can see the scene on rear screen (1)
You press the shutter release; shutter closes and then opens again to actually take the picture and closes again (2)
Shutter opens again to let you frame the next shot in liveview (3)
 
But what happens if you have no memory card in? Does the shot/file number still go up?
 
Gruffalogill said:
But what happens if you have no memory card in? Does the shot/file number still go up?
Click to expand...

The file number won't, no, but the shutter count in the camera's firmware will. The file number means nothing.. you can reset that any time you want. The file number will not increase because it's not writing a file.... but the camera will still record the shutter actuations in it's total shutter count.
 
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