What's Too Many?

Two_In

Two_In

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When buying a 2nd hand body is 69'000 on the shutter count too many? What's an acceptable number? Does a body wear out much?

I can remember my Dad back in the 70s telling me that it was a good idea to have the car go round the clock, so that it looked like it hadn't done many miles - is this possible with a DSLR?
 
It depends on the body …. Some are rated to 100k, others 400k. But it all comes down to the condition of the camera, the expected shutter counts aren’t a guarantee…. And a shutter could fail at any time.

For me, 69k is nothing, but for others that’ll be too high
 
I just bought a d700 with 103,000 and completely fine with it. Apart from rubber grips starting to peel off, the camera is in good condition.
 
toohuge said:
It depends on the body …. Some are rated to 100k, others 400k. But it all comes down to the condition of the camera, the expected shutter counts aren’t a guarantee…. And a shutter could fail at any time.

For me, 69k is nothing, but for others that’ll be too high
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:agree:
Also a camera that’s been sitting is worse than a camera that’s been used regularly.
 
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I think people look at this the wrong way round . How many shots do you think you will take per year /per month etc a sports shooter may take 10000 a month in which case he will get to the shutter life expectancy quicker . If you will go out and take the odd shoot here and there and maybe only average 100 or 200 a month then that shutter count of 69k is probably not that high as you'll have years and years of use in it ... I had a camera that worked with no faults, used and abused and never serviced with over 1/2 million on the shutter but I've also heard of shutters failing pretty much out of the box .
 
All the above and why IMO and AFAIK to talk of shutter life is wrong by its implication that "it has reached its half of life figure....."

Mean Time Before Failure (MTBF) is more accurate and more properly explains why some shutters will fail early and others 'live' way longer than the assumed "shutter life".
 
Box Brownie said:
explains why some shutters will fail early and others 'live' way longer than the assumed "shutter life".
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Are shutters easily replaced? Or is it time to discard the body at this point?
 
toohuge said:
It depends on the body …. Some are rated to 100k, others 400k.
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How do I find the rating for a D5200? I Googed but found nothing...
 
Also it’s worth remembering that the specification members are averages numbers so many will fail earlier and later. A well used camera with a fairly high shutter count might be a bettter buy than a mint hardly used camera of the same age.

Edit: members Autocorrect!
 
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I can testify from experience that buying a camera with a very low shutter count didn't work for me. About 7 years ago I purchased a mint condition Nikon D4 with very low shutter count of around 12k from Grays. First time out with the camera it would keep locking up (only battery removal would get it to switch off and unlock) and 80% of the images were out of focus. I returned it with examples of the mis focusing and Grays sent it to Fixation as they thought the mirror box was misaligned. Got it back and it would still lock up plus the AF was still way off with every lens. I ended up taking it back to Grays and buying a D4S with a much higher shutter count. The bloke in Grays wasn't impressed with me when I said the D4 they sold me was clearly a dud as why else would a 2-3 year old flagship pro only have had around 12k clicks?

With a high shutter count you know there's far more likelihood the camera works, but I'd be very wary of an older body with around only 10% of shutter life expectancy used.
 
Two_In said:
Are shutters easily replaced? Or is it time to discard the body at this point?
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All depends on the value of the body. The last time I had a shutter replaced was on a Canon 1DX which I think set me back £400. The latest stacked mirrorless cameras from NIKOn the Z* and Z9 have no shutter. My Sony A9 has one but I only need to use it when using flash. I expect the new A9MKIII will follow Nikon and go shutterless
 
Box Brownie said:
All the above and why IMO and AFAIK to talk of shutter life is wrong by its implication that "it has reached its half of life figure....."

Mean Time Before Failure (MTBF) is more accurate and more properly explains why some shutters will fail early and others 'live' way longer than the assumed "shutter life".
Click to expand...
In general MTBF is not better. This term is badly understood by non-specialists and does not mean what most think it does. where a failure mode has a wear out characteristic (and a camera shutter might well have) MTBF is pretty well a meaningless number. Useful Life may be more useful. The trouble is that there is rarely a definition of what the manufacturer means by life. In any event, these life figures mean little for an individual device, but do give information about a population of similar devices.
 
I got a barely used olympus epl-7 in non-working condition. Problem was that, on taking a photo, the shutter would lock.

So I bought it for the price of the lens it came with (basically a free lens and camera on top of another lens!) and spent about an hour actuating the shutter, then turning the camera off and on and doing it again. Works perfectly now, and hasn't hiccuped in months.

I wonder if these things benefit from being used to an extent.
 
Marino said:
:agree:
Also a camera that’s been sitting is worse than a camera that’s been used regularly.
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was about to say the same thing. A long time ago I had a D3 and I bought it used with a heavy shutter count and the thing never missed a beat. In fact, its the only camera I ever regretted selling!
 
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