Would you trust a 1Dx body with a million shutter count?

[Cthulhu]

I recently bought a 1DX with just over 500k on the counter, and it had a new shutter at 450k. The price was at the lower end of the expected range. There are signs of physical wear and tear around the body, but the controls, screens and so on are perfect. Since then I have been working it very hard. I consider it to have been a great buy. It isn't showroom-pretty, but it's performance is indistinguishable from new.

I had been tossing up between a 5D MkIV and a 1DX MkII, and compromised by getting the 5D Mk IV plus the used 1DX. They're a perfect pair with a 7D MkII as a second action body. FWIW the 7D MkII is a match for the 1DX in AI Servo mode, the tracking is just fantastic. Obviously the 1DX pulls ahead with file IQ, particularly when the iso gets past 1600.

I know plenty of sports shooters who have run 1-Series bodies up over a million clicks, some on the original shutter. I retired my 1D MkIV at around 650k clicks all original, and it functioned like new right up to the sale date.

-pw

I've had a similar experience with a backup body I recently bought. These things just keep on working and even if you had to replace important parts down the road you'd still be ahead of what clean or new bodies go for.

 

[[email protected]]

Having perpetrated super high shutter counts on a couple 1dx's...

When you see a camera getting tens of thousands of exposures a month, it is quite possibly one being used for intervalometer (timelapse) work. In that case, the wear would be on the shutter, and much less so on the other parts. In that case, the "mileage" analogy would not be appropriate, and it would be the shutter itself that would be of any concern. If, on the other hand, it had been a pro news 'tog's camera, then that same collection of actuations would probably mean the thing looks like it's been sandblasted. In sum, there are actuations, and then there are *ACTUATIONS*.

If the seller cannot tell you which use the camera experienced, you might be able to roughly guess by the exterior body condition, but I'd want a discount for that uncertainty.

I sold 2 1dx's last year, both of which I'd bought used. Perhaps half a million shots between them for timelapse. I calculated that the price per actuation on the difference from what I paid and what I sold for to be something like $1.25 per 1,000 clicks. To put that in perspective, buying a new 1 series nowadays and getting 450k clicks out of it before selling it for $2k after a bunch of years would net about $7.50 per 1,000 clicks. Even if you bake in an unexpected shutter collapse (about $450 in extra cost), buying high mileage used seems to be very rational.

-tig

 

[Mikehit]

Interesting comments tiggy.
The camera looked from the photo (and from the company description) to be in very good condition for such a high count so I wonder if it had been used for something 'low impact' like timelapse.