Determine shutter count

[chuck]

Is there a way to determine the shutter count on a recent Nikon DSLR like the D610 or D800?

[kohanmike]

<p>Macintosh computers come with an application called Preview to view most all image formats as well as PDFs. It has an Inspector that shows the shutter count of the camera when viewing photos from that camera.</p>

[Dieter Schaefer]

<p>Upload image here <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi">http://regex.info/exif.cgi</a> and look for "Image Number"</p>

[gulfbeach47]

<p>Thanks Michael Kohan. I never knew about Preview's Inspector and all the info it contained!<br>

I don't want to hi-jack Chuck's topic, but I have a related shutter count question. I have 35,000 snaps on one D300 and 21,000 on the other one. I'm guessing this is pretty low? <br />Just sent one in for minor repair at the beginning of the year and as usual Murphy's Law kicked in with Nikon repair. Had to send it back 2 more times. What a pain.<br /><br /></p>

[Wouter Willemse]

<p>John, 35k for a D300 is quite low, ... but.<br>

The figure that Nikon quotes for the life expectancy for a shutter is a MTBF (mean time between failure) - a statistical figure of the "most likely" count where the shutter might fail. For a D300, it's 150k. What this statistics means is that your shutter can fail at any given count. Only if you take a very large population of D300's, the average will be 150k. If you take a sample of 5 cameras, the count may be all over the place: 10, 10k or 1M: it can all happen. Therefor, the shutter actuation count is of relatively limited value, and it's in no way an indicator of pending doom.</p>

<p>A lot of people online act like the shutter count is like a ticking timebomb in a camera, and the shutter would be the one thing that fails on a camera. But it's just one of the things that may go wrong, and you never really know when it'll go wrong. At best, the shutter count is a fair indication of how much a camera has been used. Together with the aesthetics, it may give an idea whether it's been treated well.</p>

[pete_s.]

<p>And shutter count is reset to zero after a shutter replacement.<br>

So a low shutter count camera could actually be one that that has been really (ab)used.</p>

[psul_aul]

<p>The Picasa photo editing software from Google has a menu item for shutter count too.</p>

[gulfbeach47]

<p>Wouter, thanks for the detailed reply! At the rate I am going I doubt I will not reach 150k with these 2 bodies. I have cut back on covering Events and Sports, so shooting a lot less during the last couple of years. Is there an "updated" link that list the MTBF for all Nikons? <br />What about Canon and other brands in case non-Nikon folks check out the thread?<br />While doing a search for Nikon MTBF, I came across another Pnet link on the topic (for the D7000.) It was also rated at 150k. http://www.photo.net/nikon-camera-forum/00YXIA<br />Ps... Sorry for my delayed reply.</p>

[chuck]

When Nikon publicize a MTBF figure for shutter cycles, what is the definition of failure? Does the shutter actually seize

up and stop working completely, or the shutter still functions, but shutter timing begins to fall outside acceptable

tolerances?