Do other brands have the same issue? Are we just heavy shooters?
Very short answer :
Yes, basically they all do.
More elaborate answer :
Shutters at different price points do of course have different expected life spans. With pro bodies, by which I mean "cameras designed for heavy professional use", a lot of extra money is spent on shutters. Not only to make them last long, but also to make them produce consistent shutter speeds through their entire life span.
But even expensive shutters occasionally break down after low numbers of accutations. This occasionally stir up lots emotions, but part of that is because people fail to read what manufacturers actually write. I have yet to see one manufacturer "guarantee" any specific number of shutter accutations. When you read what they actually write it is usually much more cautious phrases like "tested to exceed 300,000 cycles" (Nikon USA about the D3s shutter) or "150,000 cycle-rated shutter" (Nikon USA about the D7000 shutter). What they are talking about is more something akin to a MBTF number (Mean Time Between Failures), or in plain English "
what you should expect, bar something unusual happening ".
My own observation, and many others have similar experiences is that it seem either shutters break down fairly quickly, or they will outlive the numbers specified by the manufacturer. And then often by a healthy margin. Or in other words, either your shutter will break down after something like 10-30k cycles (rare, but happens) or it will go on beyond the numbers specified by themanufacturer (the common case).
So why could cause shutters to break down?
- There could be something gone wrong during manufacturing, in which case it probably breaks down fairly quickly. Replacing it should fix the problem.
- Something happens to the shutter (dirt, something hitting it), in which case it can break down at any given point during its expected life span. Replacing it should fix the problem.
- The shutter has reached its expected life span (usually 100k cycles or beyond) and is just plain worn down. Replacing it should fix the poroblem.
- The camera body is slightly misaligned or bent, in which case the shutter will break down because it is subject to tension. In this case, replacing the shutter will not help at all, a new one will break down just as quickly.
The last cause is of course the most worrisome, it could mean several trips to the repair shop before someene add up the numbers and look for the real cause of the problems.
On a more personal note:
I currenly use two camera bodies, both Nikon D3, one is at 109489 cycles, the other at 199615 cycles (that one will reach a milestone during this weekend
) These are fairly moderate numbers as far as pro cameras go, so I fully expect them to keep clicking away for quite a while yet.
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I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every moment of it!
By the way, film is not dead.
It just smell funny
