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Why care?
I normally don't. But everytime I sell a digital camera I am replacing by a newer oder different model, someone on ebay asks for the "shutter count" of it and it comes back to my mind.
What is the "shutter count"
In a DSLR or DSLM, there are only few things that wear by use and due to this are likely to break some time:
In older cameras there's the TFT, the main display, which used to use CCFLs for illumination that have a limited life expectancy. Modern cameras use white LEDs, that last forever. Nonetheless there are near to no old used cameras with a broken display lighting. And a display is easy to change and cheap if old technology.
Then there are capacitors, but modern, low-voltage SMD capacitors seem to last forever, too. Very rarely a flash capacitor seems to break down, you can find one or two cameras with such a fault every few months in Germany on ebay.
And then there are the very few mechanically moving parts in a modern electronic camera: There's always a mechanical shutter, that moves extremely fast and has to be built, move and last with extremely low telerances, as it is so fast and has to be completely light-tight in every tenth of the movement and all the time.
In DSLRs, there's also the mirror, that flips up extremely fast with every shot, up to 11 times a second or more in 1D-series bodies.
The "shutter count" is the number, the shutter has been moved in the camera's life. Adding to that, not so common, there's the number of mirror movements, due to lifeview sometimes slightly different. So this is the number, all the mechanically wearing parts in a camera have been moved. If the number is very high, it gets more and more likely that it will break, statistically. Canon of course don't guarantee any absolute numbers of shutter lifetime, but sometimes, especially for pro-bodies, they say something like "tested for 200,000 shutter actuations". There's a website ("petapixel") showing statistics, built from acutation numbers, visitors send in for their cameras, coupled with the information, if the shutter is still alive. Just google "shutter death", it's the first result. What you see here, is, that a relatively high number seems to break quite early, like below 20 or 40,000 for a Rebel or a 40D or 60D. But that's also just due a trap of all statistics: a) Most users only take about these low numbers of actuations in several years, so most cameras out there only have these amounts, b) if any people who don't know what they are doing buy such cameras, they do their mistakes only once (like trying to clean the shutter blades), because it breaks the camera, and they do it early in a camera's life, and c) someone who's camera had a broken shutter at low shutter actuation numbers surely will be more upset by it than people with an old, worn cameras, and are often amateurs, for whom a camera is a very expensive and worthy item. So these people are a lot more likely to send this to a website to officially "complain"! For a pro, time is money, and if his camera breaks after 200.000 actuations, he has it repaired or buys a newer one or both and has a backup body. He forgets it in a day and surely doesn't take the time (and so pay for it) to look for some strange numbers in his camera and send them to a website.
So, getting back to the point, this gets relevant when the shutter actuations get so high, that something might break.
How many actuations do I take?
To make it short: I do very few compared to the "tested for" lifetimes one could read from Canons manuals or values from the internet of 50,000 for a rebel or 80,000 to 100,000 for a 2-digit EOS like the 40D or 60D. I have never calculated a number per year, but when I look at my photo-folders, I took 4,300 shots, including all deleted-at-once ones (I started the trip with image-number 0000), during my trip to Australia, where my sister lives, last year, which was 5 weeks and my longest vacation ever. And I did not only visit a country I had never been to before, I travelled a third of a continent I had never been to before in these 5 weeks. On my annual motorcycle trip to the alps this year, with a few hiking trips, I have taken 900 digital photos and two rolls of 120 Velvia. I have some older vacation folders with over 2,000 shots from two weeks in the "all & untouched" subfolder - I try to discipline myself to not take a hundred shots in a row but to think about what I'm doing and so I'm getting better - in this and in photography itself, what's the point for me. So lets be generous and lets assume, that you really can afford two longer vacations per year, shoot at, let's say, six birthday partys, on and around christmas and easter. Let's say 5,000 shots a year? I do far less. If you have more than one camera, like me, it's half of that for each. So I could shoot 20 years with my 40D as my main camera at least before reaching 100,000 actuations, probably 40 years. In real life, I have a 5D Mark II, a 40D and an Olympus PEN. And a waterproof compact point-and-shoot and my cellphone and several film-cameras. I don't shoot any camera more than 2,000 times per year through a 5 year average, really, and I digital cameras are normally replaced every few years.
How many actuations did my cameras have?
5D Mark II: Aprox. 218,500. I have bought it about 6,000 actuations ago used. It was a simple calculation for me: A new shutter would cost me a bit above 300,- €, maybe 350,- when changed by a professional Canon service center. I bid an amount more than 400,- € below a good price for it on ebay at that time and it was in an extremely good, barely believably condition, really like new (I don't know, how the former owner has done this, maybe it was a lab or something, who remotely controlled it or such? Or he changed all outer parts before selling it.) and won. Good buy. I have used it for three years now without any problem.
40D: A bit below 40,000. Bought used. In heavily worn outer shape, but no problems technically.
400D: (Rebel XTI, now belonging to my girlfriend) Bought new in 2007, my first DSLR and only digital camera for many years: 13,000.
Olympus E-PL1 (sold): Below 7,000. Main camera on vacations for three years.
Olympus E-PM2: Bought new just before and for Australia-trip in 2013 and now main vacation camera: Below 6,000.
Broken shutters: None ever.
Relevance
Only one: When buying a used camera, if above a certain height, the price should get lower. At some height it's getting a gamble, like my 5D Mark II. But seriously: When it has lasted 218,000 actuations, is it really that likely, that the 10,000 I take until it is outdated will finally break it?
A word about supporting this site
I don’t run this site to earn money. I have a real job to earn my living with, a completely normal job. Since everything I write about here I have bought myself, for myself and with my own money from normal shops or ebay-sellers to actually use it, how much and what I am able to write about , depends on the amount of money that I can save and invest in equipment with good conscience. I share all this, because I want to, not to sell it. But when you find this helpful, maybe even as helpful as buying a magazine or book, of course you can support me, if you want. Your benefit is, that you help me being able to afford things to write about here.
You can use the “Donate” – button on the left to directly send a small amount of money (or a big amount, if you insist). You don’t need a paypal account to do so, every method is possible. If you decide to donate 99 cents, I’m thankful for it, because 10 people being as kind as you, make one new filter tested! The default currency is US $, but it works well with € or nearly any other currency, too.
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