Replace/upgrade or refurbish my 650D/T4i?
Sep 6, 2015
My 650D is now close to 110,000 shutter actuations. I haven't found an official Canon shutter life expectancy rating for the 650D but most InterWeb sources place it on average around the 80,000 mark and no more than 100k so you can safely say my shutter is in the red. The shutter actuation is very noisy now, i had the chance to use a new 700D recently and it was a little quieter - less "clacky" & loose sounding. Also there were a couple of incidents where the image taken was whited-out even though shutter speed, aperture, ISO, exposure were within acceptable limits making me think the shutter was potentially failing, whether it actually was or not i don't know, but it's age does make one think.
So my original plan is to give/send it to Canon for a service and perhaps see if they recommend replacing the shutter. Frankly it could do with a complete overhaul as the focus LED-indication plate in the OVF is mis-aligned, dust spots on the sensor (but not so many as i thought there could've been!), dirty mirror, dirty inside the OVF box, dust etc. in the nooks & crannies, eye-piece rubber split making it come-off easily, slightly loose top edge of foregrip and maybe thumbgrip too, one of the battery terminals was black & dirty but i cleaned that, and now i've got a small white scuff on top of the flash unit. LCD is greasy but not scratched which i'm happily surprised about, i did buy some screen protectors a long while ago but never got around to fitting one. Another thing to note is the body edge by the rear thumbgrip where the speaker is the plastic is shiny and no longer matt, a sign of it's long use.
Canon's current service price guide: http://www.canon.co.uk/images/UK%20RCC%20Service%20Costs_tcm14-1174182.pdf I don't know how much, if at all, my EOS would cost more than the £156.50 flat fee.
My other choice is to buy a new DSLR body instead of servicing the 650D. I would be most likely looking at the 750D, 760D or 70D (likliest).
Or service the 650D and keep it and buy a new DSLR as at some point i want to upgrade anyway and it's always nice to have a back-up [and since it's my first DSLR i wouldn't want to dump it anyway if it can be helped].
What are your thoughts people?
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