Shutter Life

[badrano]

I've heard that SLR's in general are good/reliable for about 100,000 clicks.

What is the average shutter life before you would have to worry about things not working and/or get the camera refurbished?

 

[Big Mike]

Different cameras have a different rating.
Entry level camera may be rated at 50-100k, while professional cameras may be rated 5 times as much (I'm just estimating the numbers).

The thing to remember, is that these numbers are not necessarily an 'expected life'. I believe I read somewhere that they are an 'average to failure'. So any camera may last much longer, or may fail much sooner. It's rather hard to predict because things like environmental conditions may affect the shutter life.

Most people just use their cameras without thinking about shutter life, and when it break...you either replace the shutter or replace the whole camera. Also keep in mind that the shutter can be inspected and serviced...so some professionals will send their cameras in for regular (yearly) service.

 

[Gavjenks]

Well you can pretty much guarantee that if you are using the camera an average amount, it is very unlikely to fail before your warranty expires. That's the true cutoff that they will have engineered and surveyed and tested to have the camera survive up until.

I would trust that number a lot more than any published estimates about shutter clicks.

And if you know that you use your DSLR less than average, you're probably safe in assuming longer than that.

 

[Derrel]

Shoot the thing until the wheels fall off. By then, it'll be obsolescent.

 

[badrano]

So you're saying, just like everything else, it will stop working the day after the warranty expires :mrgreen:

Thanks for all the feedback. This was just a question of curiosity.

 

[smenkhare]

My Nikon D800 is rated to 200,000
My Fuji G617 is only rated to 5000

 

[table1349]

After extensive research and testing I can report that shutters will last right up to the moment they fail. After that you have to either have them fixed, replaced or buy a new body. It is an amazing thing but it happened that way EVERY TIME during my testing.

 

[erotavlas]

Will doing stuff like time-lapse have an adverse effect on the life of the shutter life? (due to the shutter firing constantly for a long period of time)