googlit
02-12-2007, 12:24 AM
The life of an SLR is usually pretty closely tied to its shutter life. Nikon doesn't like to put a number on it, but I wanted to figure out about how many shots my D50 is good for.
After an exhaustive amount of research, I found two popular estimates: 15-20K shots, or 50K shots, and I lean towards the latter. The shutter will last longer if you don't use burst mode. If you're taking shots above about 1/1000 of a second, I believe that the camera uses a digital shutter and not the mechanical, which means the image won't be quite as clear, but your shutter won't get worn down.
All of my research was geared toward the D50, but the popular theory is that both the D50 and D70 have a similar shutter (if not the same mechanism) that lasts about the same time. I'm not sure exactly what happens when the shutter goes, but I believe that the shutter speed starts to become unreliable—I don't think it just stops working. The cost of replacing the shutter is enough that most people just lay their old camera to rest and buy a new one.
All of the information here was gleaned from forums and boards that I found around the web, so this probably isn't 100% accurate.
I'm up to 20,400 shots, so I'm guessing that the cameras last for about 50,000 shots. There's one guy (or so I've heard) whose D70 lasted for 150,000 shots.
Has anybody else had experience with this?
After an exhaustive amount of research, I found two popular estimates: 15-20K shots, or 50K shots, and I lean towards the latter. The shutter will last longer if you don't use burst mode. If you're taking shots above about 1/1000 of a second, I believe that the camera uses a digital shutter and not the mechanical, which means the image won't be quite as clear, but your shutter won't get worn down.
All of my research was geared toward the D50, but the popular theory is that both the D50 and D70 have a similar shutter (if not the same mechanism) that lasts about the same time. I'm not sure exactly what happens when the shutter goes, but I believe that the shutter speed starts to become unreliable—I don't think it just stops working. The cost of replacing the shutter is enough that most people just lay their old camera to rest and buy a new one.
All of the information here was gleaned from forums and boards that I found around the web, so this probably isn't 100% accurate.
I'm up to 20,400 shots, so I'm guessing that the cameras last for about 50,000 shots. There's one guy (or so I've heard) whose D70 lasted for 150,000 shots.
Has anybody else had experience with this?