Shutters that can break??! :O

Hi,

I've recently been told that after a certain amount of images taken on a DSLR, the shutter itself inside can fall apart? Is this true and how many images is the limit before its meant to break?

This news is horrific...surely when the camera is so expensive, you don't expect it to break from taking too many photos!!

Thanks!! Diana xx

Tags: accident, breaking, camera, images, injury, limit, shutter, taking

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Permalink Reply by Michael on July 18, 2010 at 11:35am

I have not heard anything like that. I'm on my second DSLR. I have taken thousands of photos and not had a single problem with any camera functions. I'm using Canon.

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Permalink Reply by Papa Rotzzi on July 18, 2010 at 11:46am

Diana,

They are mechanical, not electrical, parts. As such they can and will fail. I think "meant to break" is a bit unfair.

Most entry level DSLR's will not publish their ratings but the few that I found in the past were about 50 to 75,000 shutter clicks. Pro level will be 100-250K. Either way, it is a LOT of photos and all but the highest volume pros will have long since upgraded their equipment or their camera will be obsolete be the time that kind of millage rolls-over. ( I personally know users that are approaching double the amount of clicks the camera is rated for with no issues..)

Enjoy your camera, it will be fine.

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Permalink Reply by Diana Field on July 18, 2010 at 12:03pm

Okay thank you,

I have an Olympus E-420 and since being told mine will last about 10-20K images it's worrying me! I'm at 8000ish now. :S Only got it last September ha!!

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Permalink Reply by Papa Rotzzi on July 18, 2010 at 12:09pm

Does Oly UK sell extended warranties? That may be an option if you are concerned. I have an old, abused, E-410 that is still humming along fine. But I don't have any idea how many shutter clicks it has gone through.

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Permalink Reply by Diana Field on July 18, 2010 at 12:11pm

Yeah, it has 2 years on it so thats good!! I'll get it to 20,000 by the end probably lol!! Then I can claim back on its warranty if it goes! :D

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Permalink Reply by Michael on July 18, 2010 at 12:33pm

Honestly, you will likely out grow your camera long before any problem occurs. If your desire and passion for taking great photos continues at it's current level you will start to recognize that your camera is not capable of doing some of the things that you grow to need and desire to do. That was my case and the case of every other passionate learning photographer I know.

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Permalink Reply by Diana Field on July 18, 2010 at 1:36pm

Cool, I'll just keep taking piccies :) Thanks guys!!

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Permalink Reply by Matt Needham on July 29, 2010 at 7:45am

The other thing is that if it's a decent quality camera that holds it's value a bit it should be quite reasonably priced to get the shutter replaced. I've had it replaced in two of my Canon DSLRs (both went way past the official shutter counts), and it was about $200.

Everything breaks eventually, especially if you are using it a lot.

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Permalink Reply by Diana Field on July 29, 2010 at 2:28pm

Do you reckon doing 'bursts' can almost damage it this way to make it closer to breaking? :S xx

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Permalink Reply by Matt Needham on August 4, 2010 at 6:13am

"Do you reckon doing 'bursts' can almost damage it this way to make it closer to breaking?"

I have wondered about this also. I rarely used anything other than single shot, and my shutters seemed to last for more shots than other folks were getting. I wondered if using burst all the time was harder on the shutter?

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Permalink Reply by CameraClicker on July 29, 2010 at 4:18pm

My Canons are rated at 150,000 and 300,000 depending on the model. Olympus lists specs for your camera on their page but does not list the expected life of the shutter.

They do offer a number of cookbook style solutions to taking photos that all can benefit from, here: http://www.olympusdigitalschool.com/Photo_Lessons/index.html

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Permalink Reply by nathan mccreery on July 30, 2010 at 9:33am

If you have a shutter that's rated at 150,000 cycles, that's a lot. I recently discarded negatives from 20 years of work in my medium volume commercial studio and as near as I could calculate there were about 300,000 negs. If you are working in a medium volume studio (About 200 famiy sessions, 350 senior portrait sessions and 20 weddings a year I would think it would take between 5 and seven years to do 150,000 exposures.