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Does My Camera's Shutter Have a Limited Life?
This may be relevant to the recent thread about Mechanical vs. Electronic Shutters, but, for something else to do, I recently got back into shooting horse shows, and particularly horses jumping.The ideal shot is the horse just leaving the ground. Timing is primary therefore, and I have been relying on continuous shutter to get the best shot. I ran across an article by a UK photographer, Nico Morgan. He (she) says that, with practice, you can get the best image with single shot mode and also panning, and don't need continuous shutter. Not only that, Morgan contends that the camera's shutter has a limited life, and you will burn it up faster using continuous shutter. New cameras are expensive. Canon never warned me about this! Maybe they secretly want me to wear out my camera faster so I have to buy a replacement. The article is 10 years old. Maybe shutters get better mileage today. Also in connection with action photography or shooting multiple images in succession, some photographers recommend using "Extreme" memory cards. I've tried a few but can't tell if they actually process images any faster than the plain kind. Jun 11 20 07:22 am Link Shutters have moving parts, all moving parts wear. Canon will have an "expected shutter life" statistic for every high end camera they make, they are not hiding anything. This may not apply for Rebels (like mine). I've seen many posters on here who have far more "clicks" than Canon's suggested shutter lifespan. You are essentially choosing the least worst shot out of a movie sequence. The trick to timing with a DSLR is that there is a small lag in the time from the release of the shutter button to the actual exposure - this is caused by the time it takes for the mirror to flip up out of the way. I used to run film in photolabs and had a regular customer who shot horse shows. He would submit 10 rolls of film with perfect jump shots, no "almost good enough" images. He had timing down. It takes practice to get that timing down but it is worth it for the time saved - not having to look at a pile of photos and choosing just a few. I started with volleyball and had some spectacular failures - film days so one shot at a time. I switched to dance, theater, and ice skating. I am not perfect but I'd say I've got it down. The image I've attached was "one shot, one kill", I have lots of images like that. It is partly a feel thing, certainly there is an anticipation factor. Learn the sound a horse makes just before it jumps, ice skaters make a sound just before they jump and with dance it is usually timed to the music, listen for a crescendo and fire just before the peak of the music hits and you should have it. Volleyball? Shooting as the player's arm is swinging towards the ball coming at them will usually result in a shot just an instant after the ball has been hit and is flying back over the net. That's what you want. If you fire at the exact moment the player hits the ball, their arm will be coming down and the ball may not even be in the frame. A lot can happen in a split second.  Jun 11 20 08:06 am Link Usually a shutter will last for about 100k clicks. Jun 11 20 08:22 am Link Jun 11 20 08:42 am Link Everything has a projected life and predictions are based on MTBF ( Mean Time between Failure). In general the more expensive the model the longer the shutter will last and then the issue is cost of repair v cost of replacing camera. Back in the film days shutter failure was uncommon as other thing tended to break quicker ( dilm transport being #!). With digital we tend to take more pictures and spend less on maintanence. Pro's would often send their cameras in for a CLA ( Clean Lube and adjust) on a regular basis and of course they alway had a second body and often a third. Jun 11 20 09:05 am Link Shutters last a lot longer these days. I think mine are rated to 400K, but some are getting a lot more too. As to timing horse jumps, some new mirrorless cameras are capable of taking electronic shutter shots prior to you even fully pressing the shutter button. Once pressed for focus, the electronic shutter can roll shots out in a buffer and store them as needed until the final shutter button press. Olympus calls it "Pro Capture Mode" and you can assign the timing and how many it takes and stores in the buffer. Press the shutter fully and it dumps them all onto the storage card. Jun 11 20 09:08 am Link Yes and yes. All shutters are rated to give you an idea of how long they are supposed the last. But the rating is done in laboratory conditions and your results may vary. Usually the more expensive the camera the longer the shutter is rated. My last camera was rated for 150,000 shutter actuations. My current camera is rated for 300,000. All that information is freely available on the internet. Btw, it's not something to "warn" you about, your car dealer doesn't tell you that the battery is only good for three years or the tires will have to be replace after 40,000 miles. And as far as single shot shot, she is right. Before I owned a camera with a motor drive I shot football and other sports using the single shot method. You just have to time when you push the shutter to the action. I would always catch the shot with the football just after it left the quarterback's hand. When I finally purchased a motor drive and used it on constant I would get the shot right before the release and then a shot after the release but the ball was long gone. But, of course, that's when four frames a second was considered fast, now my camera does nine frames a second so I may get the ball in the frame. Jun 11 20 10:18 am Link Thanks for the tips. I hate to make excuses but I'm afriad I'm getting older and my reaction time, hearing and eyesight,are not what they used to be. Practice, practice, practice. Meanwhile, I walked into a horse show last weekend with my daughter (a little local thing), but right away I noticed there must have been maybe 3-4 women there, most them of them in the ring already, set up with long telephotos, presumably pros or there to sell pics. I understand they may have had to pay the show sponsor for the privilege. Maybe I worry too much about what other people think, but I thought they all regarded me with great suspicion, except one woman outside the ring taking video on a tripod. After I reassured her I was just a hobbyist, she got very friendly and we chatted about the difficulty of getting the perfect shot. Of course, I don't want to take bread out of anyone's mouth, assuming all these ladies were there trying to make a living, and I'm just trying to have fun, but I think the more gear you have, the more you look like a pro (I was packing a 300 mm telephoto on a monopod). I'm afraid that if it was a big show, like at Tryon, NC, they might have thrown me out. Maybe next time I'll leave the monopod at home. Or maybe I should wear a sign that says "Rider's Dad" or "Hobbyist". Jun 11 20 10:24 am Link You should ask the organizers of the show what are their rules for photography. Then you won't need to feel guilty. If the show has a website, they might have posted a list of their rules. Jun 11 20 10:30 am Link rowdan2020 wrote: I am older, have very poor eyesight (20-210 uncorrected - blind as a bat) etc. Timing can be learned but not everybody can do it. I have a brother who loves music and has enough knowledge about guitar to play well but he just can't get the timing and probably never will. Jun 11 20 10:40 am Link Yes shutters have a limited life. All mechanical devices have a limited life. Canon gives specs on the estimated life of shutters in the manual. Yes you will kill a shutter by too much continuous shutter usage. I worked for a sports photographer that covered track days for Motorcycles. He killed 2 brand new Canon 1D series shutters in a few months of overuse.(Lucky that they were new enough to get repaired under warranty) You dont need faster cards unless the camera slows down or stops firing because the buffer is full. This used to be an issue in the olden days, Im doubtful it happens with modern equipment.  Jun 11 20 05:46 pm Link Brooklyn Bridge: Wow! That image is the essence of Speed! Jun 12 20 06:27 am Link The reason why I buy from the weekend warrior and not the 360 warriors. Jun 13 20 04:40 am Link If it has moving parts, even if they are only moving electrons, or if it is man made, or if it exists at all in this universe, it has a limited lifespan and will eventually wear out. It is only a matter of when, never of if. Jun 13 20 05:06 am Link Even if the shutter wears out, it's replaceable on more recent cameras and only costs a few hundred $$. The you have another few 100K clicks again. Some high volume photographers will go through a couple shutters before they upgrade to a newer body. Jun 13 20 12:22 pm Link Do you think that mechanics and electronics never wear or fail? As a very general rule the lower end models have a shutter expectancy life of about 50,000 frames, with the pro models about 400,000 Jun 15 20 02:54 am Link 63fotos wrote: There are some quite cheap cameras with an estimated shutter life span of only 50k actuations. As the price goes up, often the life expectancy does too. 100k to 150k is common in the more serious cameras. 300k is common in high-end pro bodies. Jun 17 20 04:10 am Link rowdan2020 wrote: Actually, the issue is not reaction time, but anticipation. Reaction time is when you see a kid run into the street, how long does it take for you to hit the brake. Anticipation is when you see the kid on the sidewalk and it looks like he may run into the street so you have your foot on the brake before he even steps off the curb. So if you know your reaction is slow you have to give yourself more anticipation time. Analyze your shots and if you are consistently early or late it is a matter of finding what to watch for in the sequence of motion to know when you need to initiate the shutter click. Jun 17 20 04:54 pm Link The advice about anticipation and timing is very good. Consider that not all that long ago sports photographers shot with a 4X5 Speed Graflex and had one sheet of film at a time to expose. They got the great shots because they knew the sport, they knew what was about to happen and they had the reflexes of a cat. You can develop the same reflexes. Also you have a daughter who does the sport. You might ask her what to look for in the body posture of the rider and the position of the horse just before the jump. I bet she can tell you exactly what her body will look like as she gets ready. Perhaps going to some shows without the camera and just watching carefully and taking the picture in your mind's eye will help. As for the reaction of the other photographers in the ring - unless there is a prohibition against photography I would suggest you ignore the looks and enjoy doing what you have every right as a father and photographer have. You don't have to explain or apologize for what you are doing. Enjoy your hobby and get great pictures for your daughter! Jun 18 20 10:08 am Link Wearing out my shutter using Continuous Shutter! Also, starting to get the hang of Timing and "Anticipation". Maybe work on panning next. Sigma 18mm-300 mm Zoom F3.5-6.3 Contemporary DC Macro OS HSM for Canon with an adapter on a Canon EOS M50. 1/1200 SS. [i[url=https://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/46385665]  [[url=https://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/46385666] /url]mg]https://photos.modelmayhem.com/photos/200623/11/5ef246c46bc9a_m.jpg[/img][/url]Jun 23 20 11:43 am Link Fixed for you  https://shuttercheck.app/data/canon/eos-m50/ "Canon EOS M50 shutter rated lifespan is 100000 actuations." Also https://blog.usro.net/canon-eos-digital … xpectancy/ Jun 23 20 02:24 pm Link Shutters can indeed wear out. More with a digital camera because digital shooting invites endless shooting and shooting and shooting without the concern of wasting film. But shutters can be replaced by camera repair shops. Does not mean you have to buy a new camera. Film camera shutters rarely wear out simply because they were not clicked a trillion times. Jun 23 20 03:34 pm Link GianCarlo Images wrote: This is true! I shoot many more images with a DSLR than I did with film. Jun 23 20 10:28 pm Link "Actuations". Thanks again, Mark. Stay safe in the Streets. Jun 24 20 05:22 am Link It's not a big deal, it costs around $250 to replace the shutter. I ask them to replace the rubber and they usually throw it in plus clean, calibrate the autofocus and redo all the lettering on the buttons etc so it looks like new.. Just a sensor clean and calibration costs like $120. Jun 25 20 02:02 am Link |
