Hey Y'all ! How's it going? This week as you can see by the title is "what's the mileage of your camera?" Your camera has moving parts just like your car and at sometime it will wear out and break.  Just like your car. The shutter count of your camera is like your odometer of your car telling you the mileage of your camera. I was inspired to write this blog because of a video I saw from Mark Denny a North Carolina photographer that has a great YouTube channel. He went over the shutter count in this video The Hidden Number That Could Kill Your Camera .  I knew about this and check all the camera's I use and buy. As you know I buy used and shutter count can be very important. My two cameras are fairly old but their shutter counts are relatively small. Depending on the type of camera that you use the shutter can 200,000 or more clicks before it starts to wear out.  My two cameras Sony A7III has 22,414 and my Sony A7C even less at 6330 clicks.  So I still have lots of life in my two Digital cameras. So why is it important?

It's a way to show how much your camera has been used. When buying or selling your camera the shutter count like the milage on your car is a way to show how much the camera has been used. A camera like your car can be pristine on the outside but wore out on the inside so how many clicks does matter. Camera's with mechanical shutter (some don't) the shutter is what moves the most and can wear out .  This could mean a costly repair or your camera just becoming a paper weight. With the economy going crazy lately holding on or at least knowing how much your camera is expected to last can save lots of money. So what is the life expectancy of a modern camera?

Life Expectancy, Depending on your camera model and make the company will give shutter life expectancy on your camera. High end camera's shutter count can go as high as 500,000 shutter clicks. Most midrange cameras are in the 200,000 range. Now High end camera's now have electronic shutters and shutter count isn't as important as mechanical shutter camera's. I do think that in the future all camera's will have electronic shutters but now only the highest end ones do.  If you're shooting an older camera or a mid range camera shutter count still matters.  Although knowing how much the electronic shutter being used is still good to know when buying a used camera. So how do you find out the shutter count?

Finding your shutter count can be found on your camera or in the EXIF data on a raw photo. It can be as easy as finding a website on your camera that reads the exif data and finds the shutter count. Depending on your camera there may be a specific program to use like Sony you can go to Sony Alpha Shutter counter . All you have to do is Google the camera you have and shutter count and you will get the program that you need to count the data. Then you just drag and drop the latest photo of your camera and the program will git you the shutter count. Takes less than a minute to do but really great info and kinda tells you how you shoot. A wildlife photographer may have many more shutter clicks than a landscape photographer. So someone like me that doesn't have his shutter on high speed shutter will have less than someone who does. And by theory the camera will last longer.

Well that's a little info on your camera until next week Get out and Shoot!

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link