where there’s smoke there’s forum fire
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.
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.
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.
You don't have to "hack" firmware to reset the shutter count. The shutter count is a poor indicator of a camera's usage.
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)
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.
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.
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...
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?
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 :)
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.
They're talking about the clicks count that gets stored in each image's metadata, NSX, not the filename (DSC_0001 or whatever).
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.)
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.
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