Camera Body Actuations

Perhaps this is a stupid question. As I look at cameras for sale I often see some with actuations as few as 2000, but rarely over 20K. Why is that? Do most simply get new bodies like they are leasing a car? When I sold my T2i it had 27K but the resale market seems to have a lot of low mileage cameras, am I missing something?

Some people just don't snap that many frames. Some people pick up a camera, and then decide that it isn't really their thing. And also some people make bold face lies about shutter counts. 20k magically becomes 2k, and if it is actually noticed in time to matter it is easy enough to laugh it off as a typo and 'apologize' for their foolish mistake.


Depending on your shooting style it can take a VERY long time to rack up all that many frames. I mostly do sports photography, which and churn out several hundred an hour, or wildlife shots where I can come back with a hundred or two frames from an afternoon. Then I can turn around and do landscapes or something, where I'll go out for a weekend and come home with six frames, three of which were me bumping the shutter button as I was getting the camera ready.

See that's what I mean, I just sold a t2i I had for maybe a year and it had 27K. With my new 60D I must have taken atleast 500 snaps just getting used to the body in a week. And I totally understand the "accidental" shutter counts. I once had a guy try to sell me a 70-200 2.8 and then when I met up with him it miraculously had turned into a F/4? How does one not know what gear they actually own....

It all comes down to use, I sold an old camera (XSi) recently that was a few years old that I thought I had used a ton, only had about 10k clicks on it. All depends on what and how often you are shooting.

As stated I could go out in the city and take 20 pics in an afternoon, or I could shoot a wedding and take 500-600 shots in an hour.