camera life

Joined: 21 Jan 2007 Posts: 147 Location: Toledo, Ohio

Does anyone know how long these new Digital SLR's last, or how many pictures they will get before some maintenence? Ive had mine since January and just over 2200 have been put out by my new baby. Thanks again.

Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 4:16 am

I have a feeling, though I can't remember where I saw this so it might be wrong, that the Pentax *ist and K100 series have a rated shutter life of 50,000 actuations. I know the K10D is supposed to be 100,000+.

Basically I wouldn't worry too much about it, she'll live a number of years, by which time you'll be able to buy a 20mp camera with uber shake reduction for a fiver.

Joined: 21 Jan 2007 Posts: 147 Location: Toledo, Ohio

Thank you sir.

Joined: 04 Jun 2006 Posts: 52

What does that actually translate into though? Can you get the shutter mechanism replaced?

Joined: 09 May 2004 Posts: 152 Location: Santa Cruz, CA

If you're taking 1000's of pictures a week working weddings you might get up to that 50-100,000 range pretty quick but for the average user who might take 1000 or less pics per month it is going to take a while (say 3-5 years) at which point, with the nature of technology and ever improving sensors, you may be looking to upgrade to a new camera anyway. Being a 30D owner I would imagine that Canon can replace the shutter mechanism if it were to finally give out or break at some point, but unless it fails before it should, I would probably invest in a new camera rather than the price of repairs.

Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 7:29 pm

look at it this way,

my *ist DL2 is one year old (a little under, but nearly there) and has taken 5000 photos (again, a little under, but nearly there).

if it lives to its rated 50,000 shots, that's 10 years.

Most silicon chips have a design lifetime of about that, so replacing the shutter probably wouldn't buy me much extra time before the processor or RAM gave out, or the CCD aquired so many dead pixels as to be unusable. Unless it dies early, when the shutter gives out it's going to be new camera time.

The days of the 50 year old camera are over. The Pentax K1000 and its equivalents from the other brands have outlived all AF cameras to date and they will outlive all the DSLRs currently in production.

Joined: 27 Oct 2004 Posts: 452 Location: Gloucester, UK

Mongoose wrote:

The days of the 50 year old camera are over.

Sad but true. The purely mechanical cameras will be usable as long as film is available. They are built like tanks and there is comparatively little to go wrong with them.