Shutter Life - What is it? What happens after shutter dies? Repairable?

<p>Hi<br>

I am wondering why exactly is shutter life? I have few questions around this. If some of you knowledgeable audience can respond, it would really help me understanding basics.<br>

1) What is shutter life?<br>

2) What happens once camera shutter dies?<br>

3) Is that repairable?<br>

Thank you</p>

<p>1) Shutter life is the expected number of shutter actuations you can make with a particular camera before the shutter dies.</p>

<p>2) When the shutter dies or starts to malfunction you will get black or strange colored banding on photos or you just won't be able to take photos any longer</p>

<p>3) It is repairable, although it can be a costly repair. Unless you are taking tens or hundreds of thousands of photos per year, the likelihood of your shutter failing before a newer, better camera is out is slim.</p>

<p>RS</p>

<p>Thanks RS.<br>

I am not a pro. So I take photographs only during vacations, travel and occasionally family functions. I guess my average would be not more than 15000 photos every 3 years.<br>

Any idea approximately how much it costs to repair?</p>

<p>If you take 5,000 photographs a year, you should not be worried about shutter life.</p>

<p>The repair cost depends on the manufacturer. You can contact them and see if they would quote you a price. For Canon consumer DSLR cameras I believe the costs are around $200-250 US, but I reserve the right to be wrong about that. :)</p>

<p>The shutter would usually just be replaced by a new module. The cost of replacement will be fairly constant over time, but the value of the camera will be going down, so there comes a point when repair is not practicable.<br /> The 'expected life' is an average -- some will go out sooner, but the other half of the lot will go out later. At your level of shooting, I wouldn't worry about it. I think Rob is in the ball park on the cost, but like him, I don't <em>know</em> that.</p>

<p>By the way, although the mechanisms are much cruder, almost all of my 40+ year-old East German focal plane shutters are still working just fine, so long as they're given a little exercise from time to tim.</p>

<p>Some Nikon cameras were tested for 50,000, 100,000, 150,000, or more shutter actuations.</p>

<p>So this shutter life expectancy has some merit and is not just a guess, since is based on real tests, at least for Nikon cameras. Not sure about other brands.</p>

<p>This does not guarantee that shutter would not fail earlier, or the shutter would last longer. A lot depends on condition and environment where/how the camera is used.</p>

<p>Thanks JDM and Rob.<br>

This means that shutter actuations and cost of replacement over a period of time is not of a major or big concern. Lets say I buy a used (like new!) 5D MarkII with 25k shutter actuations, I am still good to use for at least 10 more years before I may think of replacement of shutter.</p>

<p>In 10 years time, given how quickly DSLR manufacturers release new models, you may not have an option of replacing the shutter, because a company may no longer stock the parts. </p>

<p>I'm not saying this will happen to the 5D Mark II. I have no advanced knowledge of any of Canon's long-term support plans. I'm just offering it up as a possibility.</p>

<p>What happens after the shutter dies? It depends - was it a good shutter, or did it lead a bad life? I've never before considered the after-life of a shutter, or for that matter any part of a camera. Is there indeed a camera heaven?</p>

<p>Just some idle thoughts while I wait for the electricity to go off here in northern Virginia as Irene approaches, clearly mad about something.</p>

<p>The technical term being known by the acronym MTBF..mean time before failure. I G**gled this and found a site with comprehensive listings for many cameras as reported by users. So Sorry,not bookmarked.<br>

I can give no good news : across the major brands,shutters failed at an arbitrary rate. But, overall, shutters proved to be remarkably durable.</p>

<p>I have used a camera with over 150k actuations (and not a nicely treated one at that!) and it worked fine. It was already way above the maximum actuations quoted by the manufacturer, but no problem. Far as I know, the camera is still in operation and still keeps working...</p>

<p>And I've used a camera whose shutter died within half the time quoted. It is, as has been said, arbitrary, but normally I would expect it to be biased towards the top end rather than the middle or low. The more "professional grade" the camera is, the more sturdy I would expect the shutter mechanism to be - unfortunately, that also means the more expensive the repair would be in case of failure...</p>