That's the number we are talking about rbid. That's the shutter count. It is not an accurate way to judge a camera's lifespan. Just because an exif reader tells you a three year old D90 has less then 1000 clicks it doesn't mean it's only taken less then 1000 pictures in three years.

The best way to see how many clicks you have done on you camera, use the EXIF information from one of the last shots you have, and look for the Total number of shots. (There are a bunch of tools that allow you to display this info, one of them is Opanda IExif.)

They're talking about the clicks count that gets stored in each image's metadata, NSX, not the filename (DSC_0001 or whatever).

kyoshinikon said:
So what happens when it gets to 99,999 if it can't be reset? At my "weekend job" we use D70's and we shoot roughly 1,000 frames a day so about 2,000 a weekend and 16,000 a month and these were purchased new half a decade ago...

It rolls over?

My D40 went over 10000 shots, it went back do 00001 I think.

kyoshinikon said:
So what happens when it gets to 99,999 if it can't be reset? At my "weekend job" we use D70's and we shoot roughly 1,000 frames a day so about 2,000 a weekend and 16,000 a month and these were purchased new half a decade ago...

99,998 ... 99,999 ... 0 ... 1 ... 2 :)

Same as cars I suppose? Why dontcha check one of the pics you take this weekend to see it they magically sprout another digit or just go round through 0 again?

rbid said:
I don't think it is resetable.. on the D70/D70s it has only 5 digits for the number, that is values displayed are always between 0 and 99,999.

So what happens when it gets to 99,999 if it can't be reset? At my "weekend job" we use D70's and we shoot roughly 1,000 frames a day so about 2,000 a weekend and 16,000 a month and these were purchased new half a decade ago...

Yes it can be reset. Nikon even warns about it.

NikoDoby said:
I have no idea why people think the shutter count is like a car's odometer. It can be reset. There are several ways to reset the count, but I won't mention all of them.

Nikon's official statement on shutter actuations.

There is no way to accurately tell the total number of times your camera shutter has released. While there are third party software applications designed to read a cameras shutter count, this number is not always accurate because the shutter release times may be reset by firmware updates, or reset in the Service department if certain parts are replaced or other operations are performed.

Note the key words "other operations performed". So those of you looking to buy a used camera don't rely on the shutter count. It means nothing. I can reset my camera's count, shoot it at full fps to build the count back up and advertise it as a barely used low count camera. Even though my cameras are pretty much at or near 100,000 clicks. I come to that number by comparing the exif data of my photos and knowing how many photos were taken by which camera in my image library. So there's no way to get an exact number only an estimate.

NikoDoby said:
Shutter counts can be reset so the number means nothing! The oldest DSLR I have is the D70 and I know it's well over 100,000 but the shutter count shows it only has 30,000+ on it.

I don't think it is resetable.. on the D70/D70s it has only 5 digits for the number, that is values displayed are always between 0 and 99,999.

Mine was 100% free as I had a full coverage 5 year warranty from Samys (okay! I paid for the warranty) but remember it only took me a year to go from 500 actuation's to 170,000ish so I am a pretty avid shooter (that doesn't include the 40,000 I put on my D80 and XXX on my D200 and various friends cameras)

You don't have to "hack" firmware to reset the shutter count. The shutter count is a poor indicator of a camera's usage.

I think most people who would shoot with a D90 would not care/know how to hack the firmware to reset the count. Here are some observations when buying used.

Are all accessories included? This gives a general idea of how a person cares for their equipment. The worst used cameras I have seen, they typically are sold body only with the battery and maybe a generic charger from losing the OEM. Someone who has the box, and all the paperwork (receipt included) including the hot shoe cover / viewfinder cover seem to take better care of their goods.

Age, then shutter count. A camera a year old with 10,000 clicks might be worth more than one 4 months old with 50,000 clicks.

Ask for a sample shot of the sky @ f/22 focused at the minimum focus distance of the lens. You will probably see some spots on the sensor from doing this. How much dust it has on it can give an indication to how much use it has, or if the person just has one lens or not and never changed the lens. The sensor is worth more than the shutter anyway.

Depending on the model around $200 or $300. Which isn't really worth it because by the time your camera fails it's probably worth less than $500 anyway.

kyoshinikon said:
My d90 ran 170,000ish before it was replaced while being serviced and there was no noticeable difference

That's something I've wanted to know. How much does it cost to put a new shutter in your camera? If it's not too expensive, the concern over how many actuations a used camera has had seems far less important to me. On the other hand if it costs the same as a new body, It's highly relevant.

Does anyone know the cost of a shutter replacement by the way? I have heard anywhere from $300-$500 and may even be covered by the warrenty depending on how long you have owned the camera. The $300-$500 is what I've heard for a D90 so a FX sensor must be more costly. I think shutter replacement cost has been discussed on here before.

My d90 ran 170,000ish before it was replaced while being serviced and there was no noticeable difference

Nobody knows anything, it's all trade secret information. That's why all the shutter actuation information in the press releases is useless. Just because they test a shutter to 250000 actuations as opposed to 100000 doesn't mean it's more reliable- the failure rate might be higher, and may actually be a less reliable shutter.

A bathtub curve sounds very likely though, since that model is used to model failure rates for a lot of electronic and mechanical devices.

If I had to guess, I'd think (hope) that most failures would be of the bathtub curve variety.

EDIT: I hope so because my D90 had done 7k in 9 months.

Does anyone know enough about quality control and risk management to know what fraction is likely to fail by the 'rated' number of actuations? I would think it would be something like one or two standard deviations below the average, which would mean about 30% or 5%, respectively. This is probably oversimplified, but does anyone know?

I bought my D700 with 30,000 actuations on it and got an amazing deal when I bought it used. I paid $1800 for it back in December 2009 when they were still going for $2400-$2600. Its up to 75,000 now with no problems. 12,000 is nothing! Of course take what Nikodoby says in mind as well.

I sent my 7 month old D3s for a warranty repair/overhaul and it'd used 330,000 frames. i asked the tech how long they should last for and he said there isn't really a limit and it'd keep on trucking towards a mill if i was lucky.
i offloaded an old Canon 1D mk3 recently that would have easily chewed thru 1 mill frames (in nearly three years) and was still working happily. i've only ever replaced a shutter once in 20+ years' shooting, on a very old FM2 which i still have and which still works fine.

Paperman said:
Something I've been wondering for a while....

I assume Nikon only "suggests" expected shutter life figures and there is no warranty related to just shutter actuation count. My question is :

Will Nikon replace a broken shutter for free - Let's say on a 150,000 rated D300 still under one year warranty , if it has gone past 200,000 clicks ? Or will they say, I went over the guaranteed limit ?

It's only free if the camera is still under warranty. There's this guy over in the dpreview forum that photographs dogs. He shoots at full fps continuously to get one or two photos of his dogs. He surpassed his new, I think it was a D2X or D3, camera's shutter expectancy within a few months of getting it. I think Nikon replaced his shutter twice with in the warranty.

I keep every single RAW I take (it's only 1 TB and some change for 100,000 shots),
it will be fun to see if my nikon will really last the estimated shutter life or not, so it is like an odometer for me. I'll be happy if I can get 200,000 shots and 200,000 miles out of both, but we'll see.

Something I've been wondering for a while....

I assume Nikon only "suggests" expected shutter life figures and there is no warranty related to just shutter actuation count. My question is :

Will Nikon replace a broken shutter for free - Let's say on a 150,000 rated D300 still under one year warranty , if it has gone past 200,000 clicks ? Or will they say, I went over the guaranteed limit ?

Have the spammers who "inflate post counts" before linking been doing so in the top threads? We see that behavior a lot out of bots. To counter it we use a forum thread which is invisible to people with a post count > 0 and clearly labeled "Spam Trap".

Anyone who makes their first post in there gets immediately blocked from further posting until a moderator reviews their post, though only about 1 in 20 (if not less) make an "honest" mistake, so simply k-lining all such posters is likely very safe.

Since the spam bots are looking at the first listed threads (making the assumption these are the most currently active ones) to post in, we've cut the spam load by around 3/4ths.

Now, another bot pattern (which I haven't seen on here) is one wherein the bot blockquotes a random message out of a random thread and adds something along the lines of "I find this interesting" or one of a few other "stock" phrases. I haven't seen an IPB or SMF script for those, yet. (and I know NR isn't using either of those boards, and while I haven't looked into bbP's community I hope it isn't that far behind the times (considering its marketshare))