Why don't cameras display the shutter count?

[BigBen08]

I don't know of any camera that displays the shutter count, and how to find the count is a common forum subject.

Why don't camera manufactures include the shutter count in the menu? From a technical standpoint it should be very easy.

 

[robert1955]

Like with so many things digital a combination of lack of demand by users and a lack of thinking out of the box from designers.

I think it is not something you'd need access to regularly. People want to know with some certainty when they are buying or selling a second hand camera. Many cameras record it 'somewhere' in exif and it would be nice if you could access it more easily; somewhere deep in the set-up menu would be good enough.

 

[Sympa]

It would point out to every user to the fact that a camera can wear out.

 

[JimKasson]

It would point out to every user to the fact that a camera can wear out.

Uh, it would point out that a shutter can wear out. Replacing a shutter is not usually a big deal, unless the camera has depreciated to a small fraction of its original purchase price, which is exactly what has happened by the time the shutter goes, most of the time.

It's pretty easy to look at the EXIF if you're curious.

Jim

--
http://blog.kasson.com

 

[Atarijedi]

I don't know of any camera that displays the shutter count, and how to find the count is a common forum subject.

Why don't camera manufactures include the shutter count in the menu? From a technical standpoint it should be very easy.

 

[fPrime]

1. BigBen08 wrote:

I don't know of any camera that displays the shutter count

Interestingly, I know of at least one camera that does... my Fuji S5 Pro. The Nikon D200 which is based upon the same body, however, doesn’t.

fPrime

 

[dwalby]

It would point out to every user to the fact that a camera can wear out.

Uh, it would point out that a shutter can wear out. Replacing a shutter is not usually a big deal, unless the camera has depreciated to a small fraction of its original purchase price, which is exactly what has happened by the time the shutter goes, most of the time.

It's pretty easy to look at the EXIF if you're curious.

While there may be some models that provide shutter count info in the EXIF, AFAIK this is not the case with most Canon models, and I suspect many other ones too.

 

[BigBen08]

It would point out to every user to the fact that a camera can wear out.

Uh, it would point out that a shutter can wear out. Replacing a shutter is not usually a big deal, unless the camera has depreciated to a small fraction of its original purchase price, which is exactly what has happened by the time the shutter goes, most of the time.

Most likely the more the shutter is activated, the more other things are being used...control buttons and electronics for example. Shutter count (some what) can be an indicator of how much the camera has been used. Less so if the user shoots sports/action at high frame rates.

For myself I'm not concerned about shutter count when buying a used dslr. But over the years I've sold at least a dozen dslrs, and every time some potential buyer would ask me about the shutter count.

Btw, my Olympus dslrs displayed the shutter count. But it required "jumping through hoops" on the menu system to get it. ;-)

 

[JimKasson]

It would point out to every user to the fact that a camera can wear out.

Uh, it would point out that a shutter can wear out. Replacing a shutter is not usually a big deal, unless the camera has depreciated to a small fraction of its original purchase price, which is exactly what has happened by the time the shutter goes, most of the time.

Most likely the more the shutter is activated, the more other things are being used...control buttons and electronics for example. Shutter count (some what) can be an indicator of how much the camera has been used. Less so if the user shoots sports/action at high frame rates.

Sony doesn't include electronic shutter activations in the shutter count total in the EXIF. I have an a7RII with around 2 million activations (making synthetic slitscans), and the EXIF says about 150,000.

I guess you're not a fan of that, and would like to see the whole 2,000,000+ activations counted, right?

Jim

--
http://blog.kasson.com

 

[photogirl7]

It would point out to every user to the fact that a camera can wear out.

Uh, it would point out that a shutter can wear out. Replacing a shutter is not usually a big deal, unless the camera has depreciated to a small fraction of its original purchase price, which is exactly what has happened by the time the shutter goes, most of the time.

Most likely the more the shutter is activated, the more other things are being used...control buttons and electronics for example. Shutter count (some what) can be an indicator of how much the camera has been used. Less so if the user shoots sports/action at high frame rates.

yup

For myself I'm not concerned about shutter count when buying a used dslr. But over the years I've sold at least a dozen dslrs, and every time some potential buyer would ask me about the shutter count.

same here

Btw, my Olympus dslrs displayed the shutter count. But it required "jumping through hoops" on the menu system to get it. ;-)

--
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[petrochemist]

If manufacturers included a simple display of shutter counts they'd end up with loads of complaints from peoples whose shutter died before reaching the quoted (average) shutter life. People in general do not understand Gaussian distributions...

The information is of no significance in day to day shooting, so cluttering up the info screen etc with it would be a step backwards from a users point of view too. Having it available in the extended EXIF so that more knowledgeable users can track it down when buying/selling/servicing (or tracking annual usage etc) seems a good compromise to me. Though having it encrypted as many manufacturers do is a pain.

My Pentax bodies encode the data in EXIF & there are websites that can provide shutter activations if a image is uploaded with it's EXIF (This has allowed me to retrospective find out how many activations where on a camera when I first used it.)

On my Panasonic bodies there is a complicated command string entered by the cameras buttons that displays the current information. This is MUCH less useful and is complicated in that the different models use different command strings. Perhaps it's time I went through the process again to see how usage has changed since my last record in Dec 15.