Life Expectancy?

[digitalfilm]

Is there any way that I can tell how many exposures has been made with my second hand D60?, does it really matter?, is there such a thing as life expectancy?

[eosster]

maybe on the shutter which can be replaced with a cost, other then that I really don't see any.

[eosster]

Well of course there is no 100% of guarantee or anything like that on electronic gear.

[Jon]

The MTBF on the shutter (the most likely component to go) is about 50,000 exposures. You may be able to get a rough frame count from the frame number on the latest picture (if the camera wasn't used on "Auto reset", if the previous owner never put in an out-of-sequence card from another camera, if they didn't take too many "dry firings", with no card in the camera).

[ron chappel]

After the shutter the sensor would be the biggest worry
I regularly see ancient canon EF lenses and bodies still going as strong as ever.They just don't seem to break unless they have a major accident.
They don't even get much corrosion inside

So i assume DSLR's would fail in the following way:
Shutter-limited life but replaceable
Sensor-theoretically very long life but still abit of a worry
general electronics- allmost foolproof.Likely connection plug wear and similar trivial things.

[wibbly]

I read (somewhere?) the number of shutter actuation is/maybe buried/encoded in the custom EXIF data somewhere. Not sure where, sorry... This is different from the image number, which can be reset by the user.

J

[Persian-Rice]

General rule of thumb.

D30/D60/10D/20D - 40,000 to 70,000
1D - 160,000 - 180,000
1D MKII/1Ds/1Ds MKII - 200,000 to 225,000

[Jon]

I read (somewhere?) the number of shutter actuation is/maybe buried/encoded in the custom EXIF data somewhere. Not sure where, sorry... This is different from the image number, which can be reset by the user.

J
I think that's apocryphal. I've never found any reference to a specific site in the EXIF, and I've done hex dumps of successive photos' EXIF data and seen nowhere, other than known fields, that shows a regular increase in value. Looked on D60, A80 and 20D. This seems to be one of those urban legends, photography variant. If it existed, someone would have posted a specific file/data offset. The other variant on this rumor is that Canon writes the value to an in-camera memory location which they can read via a special program. Again, that hasn't leaked out to the public at large. I'm not even really sure why Canon (as opposed to the purchaser of a used camera) would care about the actual number of actuations. Either the shutter works or it doesn't. Either the camera's in warranty or it isn't. If the shutter works, no problem. If it doesn't, the only question is "who pays?", and your warranty period, not number of shutter actuations, is going to determine that. If Canon tried to claim "too many shutter actuations", based on some hidden record, it would have come out somewhere, and would have been challenged, at least once, in a small claims court or by a consumer protection agency.

[EoSD30fReAk]

The other variant on this rumor is that Canon writes the value to an in-camera memory location which they can read via a special program. Again, that hasn't leaked out to the public at large. I'm not even really sure why Canon (as opposed to the purchaser of a used camera) would care about the actual number of actuations.this is actualy true!! it's possible for canon to go into the memory and see how many actuations the shutter had!

your question is WHY ?
well for future purpose! if canon get a lot of defective shutters with very few actuations then they have to redesign the shutter so that it will last longer!

also if the shutter is replaced then canon will reset this counter.

the software canon uses for this is a very well preserved secret! only official canon repair centres get this software!

if you realy want to know how many actuations your camera has had then go to a service center and ask them to check it for you, and they probably will do this for you;)

[Jon]

this is actualy true!! it's possible for canon to go into the memory and see how many actuations the shutter had!
Have you a primary source for this? Not something you heard from someone who knows someone . . . ? And would you explain what value there would be in keeping this information secret? There would be absolutely no value to Canon in keeping the absolute number of shutter actuations in a given camera secret. Rather, making it wilely available might encourage people to buy new rather than picking up a "gem" with 45K shutter actuations on it.