30D, Camera condition inquiry

Hi, Noob here with first post. I've been watching this forum for a week or so and am really impressed with the level of activity and information being shared.

Recently I decided to buy a digital SLR for myself, and since my wife currently owns several lenses for her older Canon rebel digital I wound up buying a used 30D body from a local camera store.

After reading this forum I see a lot of conversation about shutter life of a camera, so me being a typical worrier, I start wondering about it. This camera shows absolutely no external wear at all except for a slight finish wear on the flash hot shoe. My wife recently replaced her rebel with a new 40D, and I can sit it beside my used 30D and you can hardly tell the difference as far as condition. You would think that if my 30D had seen a lot of use that it would show more signs of external wear, right? Kind of a silly post here, just looking for words of encouragement.

Anyway, I'm really enjoying this forum!

only way to find the true shutter count for a 30D is to send it to Canon. unfortunately, there are no existing 3rd party software that will read the true shutter count of the 30D. btw, welcome to POTN!!

wproct wrote in post #8205905
Hi, Noob here with first post. I've been watching this forum for a week or so and am really impressed with the level of activity and information being shared.

Recently I decided to buy a digital SLR for myself, and since my wife currently owns several lenses for her older Canon rebel digital I wound up buying a used 30D body from a local camera store.

After reading this forum I see a lot of conversation about shutter life of a camera, so me being a typical worrier, I start wondering about it. This camera shows absolutely no external wear at all except for a slight finish wear on the flash hot shoe. My wife recently replaced her rebel with a new 40D, and I can sit it beside my used 30D and you can hardly tell the difference as far as condition. You would think that if my 30D had seen a lot of use that it would show more signs of external wear, right? Kind of a silly post here, just looking for words of encouragement.


Anyway, I'm really enjoying this forum!

Welcome, just enjoy, only worry if it goes wrong.

Canon uses the LAWYER APPROVED verbiage:

"Shutter rated to ..." number of actuations.

That is NOT a promise nor legally binding of any kind. If they test just one body and shutter and it made it to or past xxxx number of actuations then the marketing verbiage can be printed just like that.

If yours lasts 10 acutations or 500,000...you are either screwed or very lucky.

I'm just sort of amazed that you can construct anything that can flip a piece of glass that fast any number of times. But then my wife calls me the "anti-handyman".

Welcome to the forums. And happy shooting with your 30D

Welcome. I would not worry too much. If it happens, it happens. If you buy a brand new body it may fail early. Use the camera and enjoy it.

Only canon can tell you the count. You can inquire as to the file count if it hasn't been reset. That could give you some idea however it can be reset every day if a person wants to.

I saw a post on another forum from a model photog who said both of his 30D's had over 200k on them. So who knows?

What can you do about it? Even if it had 10 actuations the next one could be its last. Or you could get hit by a bus. If it fails, it fails and you get it fixed by Canon. In all likelihood it will last for a while.

My 30D's shutter failed at about 30,000 actuations (3 months after warranty). Sent it to Canon and they put a new shutter box in for $200 (which now has about 2,000 clicks on it). I think that'd be the most you'd be out if your shutter failed.

wproct wrote in post #8205905
Hi, Noob here with first post. I've been watching this forum for a week or so and am really impressed with the level of activity and information being shared.

Recently I decided to buy a digital SLR for myself, and since my wife currently owns several lenses for her older Canon rebel digital I wound up buying a used 30D body from a local camera store.

After reading this forum I see a lot of conversation about shutter life of a camera, so me being a typical worrier, I start wondering about it. This camera shows absolutely no external wear at all except for a slight finish wear on the flash hot shoe. My wife recently replaced her rebel with a new 40D, and I can sit it beside my used 30D and you can hardly tell the difference as far as condition. You would think that if my 30D had seen a lot of use that it would show more signs of external wear, right? Kind of a silly post here, just looking for words of encouragement.

Anyway, I'm really enjoying this forum!

While its true that without sending it into Canon you have no way of knowing the actual shutter actuation count, you can take comfort in the fact that you appear to have gotten a well-cared for used camera. Odds are that the shutter count is probably a bit on the low side, but once again that's just a guess.
Even in the pro series 1D bodies, shutter life is a crap shoot. A shutter is a mechanical device, and like any mechanical device, it can fail.
I don't know what you paid for your camera but at this point in its life, I would imagine that the resale value of a 30D is probably close to what it would cost to have the shutter replaced if it should fail, so for as long as it works (which most likely will be for many years) just enjoy it and don't worry about the number of clicks.

Hopefully that was encouraging.

Welcome to the forum, you're right; there is a wealth of information to be had here, even some occasional humor as well

Thanks to all for your comments. I'm just having a ball getting familiar with the camera. I'm just going to keep clicking away and not worry about it. If it fails I'll just get it repaired, and if not I'll continue to enjoy the heck out of it! Thanks again for the replies.

wproct wrote in post #8208416
Thanks to all for your comments. I'm just having a ball getting familiar with the camera. I'm just going to keep clicking away and not worry about it. If it fails I'll just get it repaired, and if not I'll continue to enjoy the heck out of it! Thanks again for the replies.

Perfect attitude!

I wore out one 20D with about 95,000 actuations (rated to 50,000). I've got two 30Ds that each have about 50,000 (rated to 100,000), and I'll just keep shooting them until they wear out. Could be tomorrow, could be a couple years down the road.

-MasterChief- wrote in post #8205929
only way to find the true shutter count for a 30D is to send it to Canon.

I had a repair on mine and asked for shutter count and they did not give me one, even though it showed it was requested on the repair sheet .

Tony-S wrote in post #8207424
My 30D's shutter failed at about 30,000 actuations (3 months after warranty). Sent it to Canon and they put a new shutter box in for $200 (which now has about 2,000 clicks on it). I think that'd be the most you'd be out if your shutter failed.

I remember when I first bought my 30D there were maybe half a dozen posts on the POTN forums from people who had shutter failure after around 6k clicks. It worried me a little but I tried to ignore it as some isolated coincidence. And I think thats all it was because I've never seen that again. But its nice to know how much it costs to get a shutter replaced.