I am considering purchasing a nikon camera with 12,000 shutter actuations. Is this a lot for a nikon? What is considered the shutter actuations limit for a nikon camera?
shutter actuations
(39 posts) (21 voices)-
Posted 2 years ago #
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depends on the camera. What body is it?
For example. Average D3 life is 300,000. D700 150,000. I believe about 80,000-100,000 for D90
Posted 2 years ago # -
My D200 has gone over 150 000 accuations in its 4 years with me and still runs fine. Those stats are 'tested to'. It is true that the camera could fail before the tested variable, but it may last longer, too.
Posted 2 years ago # -
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.
Posted 2 years ago # -
It's a d90 camera. I didn't know it could be reset or inaccurate. Thanks for letting me know.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Nikodoby, are you sure about the shutter being resettable ? I heard upgrading firmware etc would zero the counter but it did not do so on my D300 . And my old D80 always showed the correct number .
Regarding the shutter count expectancy , I'd say enough data was gathered in the last 5 years or so to suggest that the shutter mechanism was not as vulnarable/fragile as initially thought/worried about ; thus the 150,000 rating on the new D7000 - an amateur level camera in the end no matter how sophisticated it is.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I have found if looking at a used camera check the body condition and note the rubber for usage marks. It is hard to fix that or most won't even take the time to treat it. Shutters seem to last for ever if the camera was well taken care of.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Paperman, yes I'm sure. 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.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Hi all,
Most of the problems I've encountered in the past (if any) have been in the penta-prism or in the case of the focal-plane shutters of film cameras, some shutter dragging as the curtain got 'sticky'.
But the number that Nikon gives for the 'count' is pretty conservative. My guess - and it is just a guess - is that the engineers take into account the life of the camera and the conditions they expect it to encounter.
I beat my D90, something like 3000 clicks this week, and that's just a tiny bit over average for me.
My best,
Mike
Posted 2 years ago # -
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Resetting a car's odometer is illegal. Resetting your cameras shutter count isn't
Posted 2 years ago # -
Point taken.
Posted 2 years ago # -
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I'm not saying everyone who's advertising a low count camera is trying to scam buyers. Often times sellers don't even know the count has been reset because they only look at the count when they are putting their camera up for sale. They just assume the count is accurate. However I'm always suspicious when a supposedly low count camera is the "focus" of a higher price or quick sale. With so many D90s hitting the used market now buyers should beware.
By the way I hope I got all of that A-hole spammer's post throughout the forum. Lately spammers have been joining in discussions and leaving brief comments to build up a post count and then dropping spam all over the place.
Posted 2 years ago # -
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))
Posted 2 years ago # -
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 ?
Posted 2 years ago # -
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.Posted 2 years ago # -
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.
Posted 2 years ago # -
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.Posted 2 years ago # -
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.
Posted 2 years ago # -
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?
Posted 2 years ago # -
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.
Posted 2 years ago # -
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.
Posted 2 years ago # -
My d90 ran 170,000ish before it was replaced while being serviced and there was no noticeable difference
Posted 2 years ago # -
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.
Posted 2 years ago #
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