Shutter Click count

B

Bill16

Senior Member
Hi all! :D
There has been something that has made me both curious. How do you tell how many shutter clicks a Nikon has in it's history? Is there a display I can check, or is it more complicated than that?
And what is a reasonable click count on a used Nikon if I were to be looking? If it is high but being sold at a cheap price, can the worn out shutter mech be fixed to renew the life of the camera ?
I dearly want to save up for my dream Nikon, a D800, and price is a huge issue for me. :(

Of course in my dreams it is a gift and brand new with a dufflebag full of the best lenses to go with. Lol :D
 
B

Bill16

Senior Member
Thank you! When I get the cable to download my pics to my xoom I'll use your link to try checking out the click count on my d3100. :D
 
ohkphoto

ohkphoto

Snow White
Bill, if you use photoshop, you can simply open the file info (advanced tab) and read the count there.
I think the "tougher" or more pro the camera, the higher the shutter count life; e.g. the D3 is 300,000. Everything else is lower. I'm guessing that's one reason that cameras a refurbished . . . they've hit the max shutter count.

shuttercount.JPG
 
B

Bill16

Senior Member
I'm not sure if I can get Photoshop for my xoom. But I can check into it. Thank you very much for the info my friend! :D
 
K

Kodiak

Senior Member
Hello Ian,

Although I understand and agree totally with your thought, I have to warn you:

A "girl" 26 yo, 73kg all in muscles, greek classic wrestling national coach, that
happens to be a member of my photo-club and sitting right next to me said:
"(censored) and finally accidentally bump my D3 on the head!" and I did not miss
a single word in this quote! (If you know how tough the D3 is…)

Somehow, I'm sure, you could have used a more "appropriate" technical expression!

Have a good day…
 
Last edited:
R

riverside

Senior Member
Bill16 said:
Hi all! :D
There has been something that has made me both curious. How do you tell how many shutter clicks a Nikon has in it's history? Is there a display I can check, or is it more complicated than that?
And what is a reasonable click count on a used Nikon if I were to be looking? If it is high but being sold at a cheap price, can the worn out shutter mech be fixed to renew the life of the camera ?
I dearly want to save up for my dream Nikon, a D800, and price is a huge issue for me. :(

Of course in my dreams it is a gift and brand new with a dufflebag full of the best lenses to go with. Lol :D
Click to expand...

There are a multitude of these on the web to determine shutter count.
 
M

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
Bill16 said:
Thank you! When I get the cable to download my pics to my xoom I'll use your link to try checking out the click count on my d3100. :D
Click to expand...

Bill when you get the cable give it a try,if you have problems you can email a file to me and i will upload it for a shutter count for you.

mike
 
F

Fork

Senior Member
Bill16 said:
Would you please elaborate. Can a worn out shutter mech be fixed without being extremely expensive? Is that what you mean? :)
Click to expand...

What I mean is that the shutter count really means nothing. It doesn't matter if a shutter has opened 10 times or 100,000 times if your focus motor burns out. How many times has that motor been used? How long will it last?

Who knows?

But if you really must care - you can get a shutter mechanism replaced for around £250-£350 (US$300-$400), more or less.

I sold a D40 a couple of years ago with 120,000 shutter actuations and it was perfectly fine and spritely. Nikon only test to shutters up to 100,000 actuations. They don't test them until they break.
 
R

riverside

Senior Member
Fork said:
Shutter counts are for girls.
Click to expand...

While the politically correct crowd will likely have problems with your terminology shutter count expectancy, like most mechanical/electrical device consumer data, is a marketing term and best disregarded. Some tech puts a camera shutter in a controlled bench test circumstance, activates it 100,000 times (or pick a number) and that's what goes in the spec data.

Shutter failure (and non-failure) is all over the board. Here's an interesting survey on D3000 shutter life (and others) with projected survival rate.
 
B

Billy Y.

Senior Member
Fork said:
I sold a D40 a couple of years ago with 120,000 shutter actuations and it was perfectly fine and spritely.
Click to expand...

That doesn't mean it didn't break at 122,000 clicks though... What doesn't matter is how it seems to be working at the time - A professional photographer friend was in the middle of a shoot a week ago and her shutter quit, when she took the lens off it turns out the mirror had pretty much just broke and fell out. Personally I'd rather take my chances with a 17,000 actuation shutter than a 100,000 +. As for the focus motor I've not heard of these burning out on a regular basis - is it a real problem? because when I look on google I don't see a lot of complaints, plus half of nikons consumer bodies don't have af motors in them.
 
Last edited:
B

Bill16

Senior Member
Fork said:
What I mean is that the shutter count really means nothing. It doesn't matter if a shutter has opened 10 times or 100,000 times if your focus motor burns out. How many times has that motor been used? How long will it last?

Who knows?

But if you really must care - you can get a shutter mechanism replaced for around £250-£350 (US$300-$400), more or less.

I sold a D40 a couple of years ago with 120,000 shutter actuations and it was perfectly fine and spritely. Nikon only test to shutters up to 100,000 actuations. They don't test them until they break.
Click to expand...
Thank you! That helps a lot. My worry is cost, and getting it at the best price I can after saving up the money. If I can get cost down without needing to save up more right away to get it fixed, that is my goal. So it might be cost effective to buy a high shutter count to get the lowest price for a camera the is otherwise in great condition, if the cost of possible repair doesn't exceed the total cost of what I can save up.
I don't know if I explained it very well, but I'm hoping to cut down the waiting time of saving so to get a D800 as soon as I can. :D
 
F

Fork

Senior Member
Billy Y. said:
That doesn't mean it didn't break at 122,000 clicks though... What doesn't matter is how it seems to be working at the time - A professional photographer friend was in the middle of a shoot a week ago and her shutter quit, when she took the lens off it turns out the mirror had pretty much just broke and fell out. Personally I'd rather take my chances with a 17,000 actuation shutter than a 100,000 +. As for the focus motor I've not heard of these burning out on a regular basis - is it a real problem? because when I look on google I don't see a lot of complaints, plus have of nikons bodies don't have af motors in them.
Click to expand...

Everything above the D7000 has a focus motor (I didn't look that up, so correct me if I'm wrong). I've never seen one die, but then I've never seen a shutter mechanism die either.

The link that Riverside provided about shutter actuations on the D3100 was interesting. If you look at the submissions that people send in of their shutter counts and the little red/green dead/alive icons, the vast majority of those that have died have died before even 10,000 shutters, let alone 100,000.

That kind of leads me to suspect that cameras that die before say, 50,000 are probably the unlucky ones where a screw/glue came loose. I reckon the chances are that the longer they've lasted, the longer they're likely to continue to last.

Either way, if people keep getting hung up on how many times a shutter has been clicked, they'll never take any photos for fear of breaking it.
 
Last edited:
B

Bill16

Senior Member
Either way, if people keep getting hung up on how many times a shutter has been clicked, they'll never take any photos for fear of breaking it.
Click to expand...
No worries there for me. I don't buy to trade in or resell, so I'll take shots until it can't take them no more. Then I'll see if it's cost efficient to repair and then do it all over again. Lol :)
No I'm just trying to get one that works good as soon as I can. Money is my biggest issue, that slows it all down to a snail's pace. :(
 
Top