POLL: How many shutter cycles do you burn through?

I have used this many shutter cycles in the last 12 months (all your dslrs together):

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Marsu42

Marsu42

Canon Pride.
Feb 7, 2012
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Berlin
der-tierfotograf.de
#1
Having worn through my 60D in four years and having reached 160k, I wonder how much other people use their camera(s). I'm in a bad spot doing wildlife (= a lot of missed shots or the subject moved) and focus stacking, doing other photography styles certainly preserves the camera for a longer time.

I know it's hard to explain to people who are still rooted in the film/analog world how many digital shots I sometimes take home. But I'm curious about the dslr folk here and if I should go see the doctor about pressing the shutter button too often :->.

Feel free to elaborate in the thread how you achieve the shutter count you voted for (which photography style, full-time pro or weekend amateur, ...). Enabling Live view also counts as a cycle here, if you want to get the stats use a computer app or Magic Lantern.
 
#3
-Had a 20D "all-original" which clocked up a few hundred thousand before going to my daughter. It's still going

-Had a 5D Classic "all-original" which clocked up a few hundred thousand before going to an assistant. Still going.

-Have a 1DMkIIn with several hundred thousand up and for the most part is retired. It comes out for very dirty or wet boat salt-water jobs.

-Have a 1D MkIV with several hundred thousand clicks which works like new and is in daily use.

-Have a 5D3 with around 250,000 clicks which works like new and is in daily use.

The only two shutters I have ever replaced are in an EOS 1n film body where I punched my thumb through the shutter while changing film in the back of very bumpy helicopter flight, and the other in a 1 day old 5D3 which was officially DOA. The body was replaced without question. My experience indicates to me that the stated shutter life published by Canon is incredibly conservative.

I guess I am a heavy shooter, but that comes with a required ability as a ruthless editor. I can flag 100 keepers from a 2000 frame shoot in about 45 minutes. This kind of workflow is not going to suit everybody; maybe more patient and considered shooters will probably come up with as good a 100 as me, but only shooting 200-300 frames. I shoot heavily to catch that magic moment locked inside a dynamic flow of human action which could be on a sports field, on an advertising shoot, in a studio portrait shoot or in a corporate office. I'm just grateful that shutters last as long as they do.

-pw
 
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#4
Ruined said:
I am not sure altogether. I know in the past couple of weeks I have burned through about 2500 or so.
Click to expand...
Agreed, I have few sport events in a year where I shoot 1500 to 2000 clicks then the majority is 2-300 at a pace of once in a week, sometimes three weeks.
 
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#5
23041 actuations on my 5dmkii (bought in May 2010)
more than 11587 actuations on my 5dmkiii (bought in October 2013)

I used ShutterCount to read the data from my bodies. But that app is buggy, it reports only 9834 actuations for my mkiii although I am already at IMG_1587 for the second time with it, so I guess the actual number of actuations with it must be higher than 11587.
 
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#6
Would have been higher but have hardly used the cameras this year....you gotta love expandable raid has with real time replication....i have 4 copies of everything, nas1 main copy and real time replicated to nas2, nas1 daily replicates to a separate raid 10 volume on separate disks and I have nas1 doing a daily replication to azure blob spaces. Would love to get nas2 to another location but no one is willing to give me that much bandwidth for free. Any takers?

Typically I would say 100k plus a year for average shooting nothing aggressive
 
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#8
lo lite said:
23041 actuations on my 5dmkii (bought in May 2010)
Click to expand...

As I said, ShutterCount.app seems to be buggy. I installed ML onto the mkii for the first time and it reports 23295+-4455 which results in 18840 cycles. That comes much closer to the current IMG number I have on that body: 7868 for the second time = 17868 pictures taken. That shutter count thingy seems to be a somewhat difficult value to get, I wonder why it is reported in such a strange way by ML, why the two values?
 
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#9
ajfotofilmagem said:
What a tough question... I work regularly in events, with my mentality of the time of film: Better to have just one good photograph, rather than 10 mediocre photograph.

Think more and shoot less. ::)
Click to expand...

my way of thinking too as I also come from the film age (1985 - 2002: Praktica MTL 5B, 2002 - 2010: EOS 33).
 
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#10
My 7D has about 18.5k since I got it in Nov. 2011. So for me it is about 5-10k a year. I started doing some time lapse photography a few weeks ago and expect my shutter count to get a lot higher in the next few months.
 
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#11
I'm closing in on 10k clicks per year now. My shooting mode and frequency has changed a bit over the years, but I have my main focus points on birds and wildlife. I would shoot a lot more (on occasions and places) if I could afford it, but being long-term unemployed (and hating it to the core of my soul) I have to be a lot more selective about where I shoot and how to get there. Still, I find that I get more photos for each year that I have my 7D.
1st year (not a full one) ≈ 2600 keepers
2nd ≈ 3600
3rd ≈ 5800
So far this year > 4000 , but I'm deleting more duds now.
 
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#13
ajfotofilmagem said:
Think more and shoot less. ::)
Click to expand...

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.
 
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#14
I shoot in the annual 30K range at various events, campouts, swim meets, etc. Shooting swimming eats a lot of frames. I usually shoot several different bodies depending on the subject or activity.

For example, my 60D had about 26K frames on it in June 2011. I've probably got at least that many, probably more on the 5D3 as well. I've tried to slow down the frames a bit but in general, I just shoot what I feel is necessary at the time. Then I process them, upload them, move on. Cameras are just tools and the more you do, the more you use them. That's why I have them. Not using them fully would simply be a waste.

It is refreshing however to shoot only a hundred or so frames at smaller activities!
 
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#15
I think I shoot about 50k-65k shutter actuations a year. I have a 7D with well over 100k shutter actuations in a little over two years, and I have a 5D III with around 10k actuations. I use both bodies these days, so the 50k+ actuations over the next 12 months will probably be split between the two.
 
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#18
Somewhere around 20k between the 1Dx and the others; liberal use of exposure bracketing has no doubt inflated that figure somewhat. For static subjects I prefer to get them in one or two, but if it is moving then I don't feel the least bit bad about keeping one in one hundred.

Jim
 
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#19
Marsu42 said:
ajfotofilmagem said:
Think more and shoot less. ::)
Click to expand...
I try to do this to make my cameras last longer :-)
Click to expand...
Thinking and planning and shooting less is often the best approach, certainly if you're doing a very technical shoot or following a highly specific job brief. Yet looking back through my best & favourite shots, they've come from a position of pure knowing and instinct which is orders of magnitude faster than thinking. Like a musician, once you've got your technique deeply established, it moves smoothly into the background like a rock-solid rhythm section, freeing the artist to explore unhindered yet being technically completely grounded.

I'd never carry a consideration of holding back to make my camera last longer. They're generally spectacularly durable. You won't see a successful creative artist not using a brush in case it wears out, or an exploring type not walking that bit further to see into the next valley in case it wears out his shoes.

Creativity needs to be free to run fast and unhindered. Durable cameras, plenty of card space, plenty of battery reserve and you're set!

-pw
 
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#20
having just gotten a 70D in march after my trip to japan where my ti1 started to show its age.
it still great for single shots but not for birds in flight my new passion. on that trip alone I did 1 16 gig card and a 32 gig for around 1200 jpg raw shots. yes I do both and I am at 2600 on my 70D by the end of the migration time here in new England the shutter count should be around 5k on my new camera.
 
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