POLL: How many shutter cycles do you burn through?

[TeT]

15K 40/60 split between keepsakes with some rare top notch shots and pics for my eBay sales.

 

[adhocphotographer]

I find there is a direct correlation between my shutter count and the number of times in that period I have managed to head to a national park...

For street and general photography my shutter count is low ('high' keeper rate, 2/5 perhaps), but when i go to a national park, it is more like 1/10-100!

 

[AcutancePhotography]

Every photographer has different styles. I, personally, am a slow photographer. Almost all my shots are on a tripod and I am one of those types that takes about 5 minutes per shot. So for me to go out for two hours and come back with 20 shots is a good day o' shootin' ;D

I think I used my high speed shutter control once.. when I was reading the manual. LoL

Other togs in my group will go out for one hour and come back with both their cards full.

Everyone is different. That's one thing we all have in common.

 

[mackguyver]

Every photographer has different styles. I, personally, am a slow photographer. Almost all my shots are on a tripod and I am one of those types that takes about 5 minutes per shot. So for me to go out for two hours and come back with 20 shots is a good day o' shootin' ;D

I think I used my high speed shutter control once.. when I was reading the manual. LoL

Other togs in my group will go out for one hour and come back with both their cards full.

Everyone is different. That's one thing we all have in common.

First of all, I love the "I machine gun wildlife" option! Too funny. For me, I'm like AcutancePhotography with my landscape and other work, so my 5DII barely turned a few thousand exposures, but my 7D and 5DIII had many thousands of exposures and with the 1D X, I'm frightened to see how many shots I've taken. It's way to easy to fire off 2 or 3 shots when you only want one.

I find that burst mode is best for unpredictable shooting, but if I'm shooting sports or other more predictable subjects, I try for the peak moment.

 

[Besisika]

Think more and shoot less. :

I try to do this to make my cameras last longer

But I've come home too often and saw that a potential very good wildlife keeper was unusable because some minor detail got in the way (animal blinked or moved, grass in the way of the flash, background not in the best position): "Haaaarrrrgggnnnnnoooooo!". That's why I rather do safety shots nowadays, if just to be on the safe side with the dodgy 6d af w/ focus & recompose.

+1
My motto is "think twice and miss twice". Action won't wait.
Unless my subject is posed, I'd rather choose than miss. At the end of the day, what is the lifespan of your camera? when do you intend to upgrade it? So why take the chance of missing? In the land of moving action, the variables are too much to guess. As long as I remember I always regret that I haven't shot enough. One day I finally understood that there is no need to lie to myself anymore and pretend to be a perfect photographer. I am an average. I chimp, I fix things in post, and I am a machine-gunner. Maybe one day, I will be, but not today.
I have a T1i and I wanted to be gentle with it. Today, it just stays in the corner somewhere, still in very good shape.
Unless you found a cure to GAS, I am not sure what is the advantage of being a thinker.

 

[Marsu42]

My motto is "think twice and miss twice". Action won't wait.

Good I found someone who agrees with me ...

One day I finally understood that there is no need to lie to myself anymore and pretend to be a perfect photographer. I am an average. I chimp, I fix things in post, and I am a machine-gunner. Maybe one day, I will be, but not today.

I admit when talking to some photogs I feel completely moronic when I say that taking good wildlife pictures outside the zoo where animals wait for you many pictures are required. The usual reply is that if you know what you're doing, one shot is enough. I really don't know if this is true since I never saw such a good photog in action (while waist-high in water or lying in the mud between horse hooves, that is). I've gotten much better with exposure and framing, but I'm still way to slow to think first and then take the shot.

 

[Hannes]

I'm a bit over 20k, nearer 30 probably. Much of this comes from going to some events where I come home with 1500 photos. Shooting any kind of action 10 fps helps immensely to get the best possible shot but it does mean lots of sifting when you get home

 

[dgatwood]

I find there is a direct correlation between my shutter count and the number of times in that period I have managed to head to a national park...

I find the same thing, except instead of national parks, it's any place that I've never been before and am unlikely to go to again soon.

Either way, I've noticed a curious thing:

• With my first DSLR, I shot about 7,000 shots (this number may be high, because iPhoto creates a duplicate whenever you edit a photo) over about four years, or 1.75k per year.
• With my next one, I shot somewhere around 20,000 (same questionable numbers—it could be as low as 17k) over the course of 6 years, or about 3.3k per year.
• With my 6D, I've shot almost 29,000 shots in a little over a year.

I've done more traveling this year, but not an order of magnitude more....

I'm not sure if that high shot rate is because I'm trying to justifying spending so much money on gear last year, because I don't have to constantly wait for this camera to write pictures to flash, because I'm getting so many more keepers (the low-light handling of the 6D is freaking breathtaking compared with my XTi), or because of some other factor I'm not taking into account, but when I realized I had shot as many photos in a year with one camera as I had in the previous nine with two cameras, I wasn't quite sure what to say about those numbers. I'm still not sure.

 

[Besisika]

I find there is a direct correlation between my shutter count and the number of times in that period I have managed to head to a national park...

I find the same thing, except instead of national parks, it's any place that I've never been before and am unlikely to go to again soon.

Either way, I've noticed a curious thing:

• With my first DSLR, I shot about 7,000 shots (this number may be high, because iPhoto creates a duplicate whenever you edit a photo) over about four years, or 1.75k per year.
• With my next one, I shot somewhere around 20,000 (same questionable numbers—it could be as low as 17k) over the course of 6 years, or about 3.3k per year.
• With my 6D, I've shot almost 29,000 shots in a little over a year.

I've done more traveling this year, but not an order of magnitude more....

I'm not sure if that high shot rate is because I'm trying to justifying spending so much money on gear last year, because I don't have to constantly wait for this camera to write pictures to flash, because I'm getting so many more keepers (the low-light handling of the 6D is freaking breathtaking compared with my XTi), or because of some other factor I'm not taking into account, but when I realized I had shot as many photos in a year with one camera as I had in the previous nine with two cameras, I wasn't quite sure what to say about those numbers. I'm still not sure.

Let the "WHAT IF" begin then.
What if you shoot more because you are becomming a better photographer?
What if you shoot more because you "identify" more interesting stuff. What if you shoot more because you realize that you should shoot the same subject from different angles and different focal length and different dof, .... What if you shoot more because you have more poses in your arsenal than before? What if you shoot more because you know better what you are looking for and you cannot let it go until you are sure you got it right? What if you shoot more because you know better your gear and you have more possibilities from it? What if you shoot more because you discovered more and better techniques that keeps you going even when your legs disobei you (off-camera flash for instance)?
Let me know if I am wrong. Because if I am not, then shooting more could mean something good.

 

[ejenner]

In two weeks in Yellowstone this year I had 1500 exposures with my 7D and 4900 with my 5DIII.

I've been there a bunch of times so this was relatively 'calm' photography, but also with geysers it's kind of like sports - you take a lot if you are special situation, either with a particular geyser or light. I also bracket and focus stack a lot for landscapes. Having come from film too, but enjoying the ability to shoot without worrying about how much film I have.

Looks like I will en up with about 800-1000 exposures (including brackets, panos ect..) after culling and maybe 100 landscape shots I'll actually convert to .jpeg (i.e. final output and show people) and 100-200 more 'fun' or crap wildlife shots.

 

[dgatwood]

What if you shoot more because you are becomming a better photographer?
What if you shoot more because you "identify" more interesting stuff. What if you shoot more because you realize that you should shoot the same subject from different angles and different focal length and different dof, .... What if you shoot more because you have more poses in your arsenal than before? What if you shoot more because you know better what you are looking for and you cannot let it go until you are sure you got it right? What if you shoot more because you know better your gear and you have more possibilities from it? What if you shoot more because you discovered more and better techniques that keeps you going even when your legs disobei you (off-camera flash for instance)?
Let me know if I am wrong. Because if I am not, then shooting more could mean something good.

What if it has just taken me this long to fully get over the cost of film.

 

[JPAZ]

Really depends. I don't use the camera every day, but when I travel, I'll do about 1000 shots a week. I don't spray and pray but will do 2 or 3 shots of each photo I am trying to achieve.

 

[cellomaster27]

I used to shoot like a crazy person when I purchased my first dslr. I shot books, my desk, cup, fish, food, my roommate's hair, a/c, computer screen, soccer ball, candids, etc.. I think I deleted about 99% of them just recently. Now, I find 50 shots to be average on a photo walk. Around 500 for event shooting and a hundred or so with family gatherings. I try to only shoot what I would keep and out of those I delete mercilessly. Definitely end up with more keepers than before so that's a good thing! Keeps photography fun and simple for me (esp. the editing process).

 

[johnb]

When I first had the 50D I was probably only shooting three or four thousand images a year. Now that's doubled or trebled. Most of the images are shot to go with occasional articles that I'm writing on fly fishing (text and images packages are much more saleable than words by themselves) and it's very easy to run up ridiculous numbers of images shooting high speed continuous on someone who's flycasting. I've just had the shutter button replaced by Canon UK but, so far, almost six years in, the shutter itself is holding up.

 

[ChristopherMarkPerez]

I realized, a little too late, that I under-voted here.

15,000 - 20,000/year was with the 5D MkII only

10,000 - 15,000/year with a 7D (wildlife, special projects where AF speed is important)

15,000 to 20,000/year with a pair of Sony NEX (one of which recently died)

I tend to shoot and process images nearly every day of the week. Which leads to some great projects and publications (books, magazines, mooks, on-line stuff, everything).