30 seconds in the video and - for some reason - i stop worrying about the shutter count.

I used to worry about this at first too, but then you get to the mindset of 'gear is meant to be used.' Off to Scotland this weekend so I'll be shooting many time lapses and racking up that shutter count I'm sure! Nice video mate :)

It’s like a car with high mileage. The car with highway miles usually has less wear and tear than the one driven in the city with the same miles.

Have you had a mechanical issue with your camera? If so, which camera and what happened? Check out my free and paid e-books on my website here: www.matjoez.com/2020/08/13/should-you-worry-about-your-shutter-count-with-timelapse-photography/

To your point about timelapse being less stressful - I've got a d7100 that is over 8 years old and has well north of 250k shutter actuations. I'm an outdoor photographer and don't treat my cameras like glass 😊. They're tools, just like hammers and shovels are tools. Out of all of the beatings that would probably make most people think I've got a vendetta out for my bodies, the reason the d7100 has been relegated to non critical work is the fact that it occasionally gets card errors and stops working with perfectly good cards. Actually the only camera where I've ever had a shutter fail on me is a 1953 Leica iiif. And failure is a strong word... It's just sticky. It was my grandfather's camera and has literally been around the world and back countless times. It just happens to be 67 years old 🤣

lol nice man! that intro made me laugh haha good one

Awesome bro. I had a 600d. I was making a time lapse and the tripod was balancing on a bench when the wind blew it over and ripped the bottom off the camera. It still works, but is held together with red tape. I'm going to give it away to someone one day who is wants to learn about photography. Replaced it with a 6d and also have an R nowadays. As for shutters breaking, never! Even if it does go, you are paying for a new shutter, not a new body.

Thanks for your thoughts! I’m putting my 5D mkiii back into Timelapse duty!

Thank you for this video. I use to shoot timelapse as well, using 2 Canon 6D, I was concerned regarding one with 170K shoots, I understand I can still use it. MY QUESSTIOn is about the lenses..., we have also a mechianical move for each shoot ( except for manual lense or at full aperture ) Do you consider that we have not to worry about the number of shots ? / Thank you for your point about that ?

I've never worried about it, cameras are tools to get the job done and I fully agree with you. But most of the time I use the electronic shutter mode anyway because it's silent. I have a sony mirrorless. It can get a bit annoying when immersed in nature in front of a beautiful sunset to hear clicks every few seconds... I know there are downsides with electronic shutter but I've never encountered them. I'd like to know your thought on this since you mentioned it in the blog. The only time I've purposely used mechanical shutter was with lightning.

The autofocus died in my D300s a few years ago, but that's pretty much the only camera failure I've had in like 18 years (not including the Panasonic G80 that died within 2 weeks of buying it brand new, heh). I tell people to keep their old bodies when they upgrade if they're into timelapse. It's usually more cost-effective to keep shooting the old camera for timelapse and let them eventually die than it is to replace the mirror/shutter assembly in a new one. I've got 11 Nikon DSLRs now that I just shoot timelapse with and most of 'em are still plenty high enough resolution for 4K timelapse. The pair of D100 bodies I bought in 2002 are still going strong and both have over a million actuations on them (although, not much good for anything higher than 1080p).

lmao your intro just earned a sub. What the heck did I just watch?!

I agree with you. My 5D Mark II according to my magic lantern has a Shutter count of 1650K ( 744180 (pics taken) + 906127 (live view actuations)). And the best thing it still works (asides the hot pixels). Even my Sony A7R Mark 1 shuttercount died at around 500k shuttercount and then every other component also slowly fails and becomes an unreliable tool. Now im on the EOS RP but has yet really work on it as I am now crazy hyperlapsing with my mavic 2 pro...

Boom. Nice vid.

Hey Matthew, I just have one question, “Should you worry about shutter counts when you do time lapse photography?“

The sensor can fail at some point too, they wear out as well. But usually they last a very very long time.

Thank you very mucj for the information❤❤

Lol this was really good. I enjoyed this video.

I have never had a camera break on me. And I did portrait- and carphoto for a living for years. I have had ONE CF card that didn't work well ONE time, still use it. I think the problem was when transfering the RAW-files to the computer. I worked with a 5D2 with well over 400K shutter counts. And it worked perfectly when I handed it over. And my cameras got USED. Hard. When you have a car dealer that is two hours away...one direction. 20 cars and about half a hour pr car. The cameras and lenses are BUMPED a LOT!!

My 1DX is nearing 700k actuations and I've only had to replace the PCB recently for about $300. Definitely not had 'freeway' miles on it, but still a workhorse for sure! Thanks for the video!

a camera is a tool, tools are there to be used got myself a nikon z6 just the other day, electronic/silent shutter. very nice for timelapse, even If i would´ve worried about shutter count before, it would now be completely irrelevant. as a nice side effect it´s actually very nice with a silent shutter out and about in nature next to your camera when taking long timelapse ^^

I knew that you can change the shutter for a 5d mark ii for example how much would it be ?

Wow....That was fast....you made a video about my question...Thanks...!!’ 😁

My main body is a D750. I put 8400 images through it a couple weeks ago for one timelapse. Didn't check the interval and took an image every two seconds for hours. Really clean cloud building, but my hard drive hates me...and yet it just keeps on clicking away. Just take care of your gear and it'll blow past it's expected shutter count

P.s, as I understand it's guaranteed shutter count. So if you are over 150 000 clicks before warranty finish and camera gets problem with that, it's a big question if warranty covers it?

I bought an used Nikon D750 in January with 171,000 shutter in it. After the last night Preseids meteor shower session its over 330,000 and counting. :) No issues at all. Good as new.

my a6000 has 40k and i have it for 1 1/2 years now. only did a few timelapses around 600 pics but i like to take 3 pictures at a time when doing normal photography, just in case.

Since my new Nikon D850 has the option for curtainless shooting ("Silent Shooting") I am as optimitic as Matthew about those 'estimated numbers'.

Nice logic heres my two cents. Let me know what you think. Because a shutter an or mirror is a moving part, they need to have some metric of a lifespan, because someone will ask "how long should the shutter last?" and the metric is probably used more fore wanted purposes than anything else, but also gives repair techs and camera shops a metric to references when trying to upsale.

I am the proud owner of an EOS 7D with about 400k shots on it and it still is an absolute beast in terms of reliability. Never babied it - days of heavy rain, freezing winters, dropping it on rocks in the mountains, dusty environments. It somehow survived all of it. Sometimes it comes up with an error, telling me the shutter is jammed. Easy fix: gently bang it onto something hard a few times, turn it off and back on and it's back to life. I maybe wouldn't abuse my 5Dmk4 like that but it kinda shows that professional gear sometimes is actually build to last.

How about recording videos with a low frame rate and/or even eliminating extra frames during post editing? The result will still be time lapse but without using the shutter curtain, right?

what about silent shooting feature ?

What about using electronic shutter on my a7riii? Will that save them? I do a ton of TL’s

yes, there are a few Volvo sedans out there that have over 1`000`000 miles of driving on them with medals stuck to their rear trunk that the manufacturer offered the car's owner every 100`000 miles ... but the 'catch' there is, when that particular Volvo car reached the 100`000 or so mileage mark, its owner stopped driving it on a daily basis and drove it only a few miles every day or few days in order to keep it running healthy until it reached the 1M miles limit ... so, ... (wondering why i came up with that "irrelvant" example? well, aren't car engine's comparable to camera shutter mechanism?) ;-) _ _ _ my own little trick for time-lapsed videos so that i wouldn't hurt the actual mechanical shutter's mechanism so badly, is, well, firstly, i use an old iPhone5c mostly that i don't use for making phone calls and have kept it for its apps and cameras mostly ... it has a 1080p video resolution with its time-lapse mode being quite close to that resolution as well and its 8MP still photo mode is also still quite useful for semi-pro uses ... but well, yes, the fixed wide-angle lens is quite a limitation of coruse ... overall, it is quite fine for many time-lapse videos (which i do mostly of moving clouds more than anything else) and its fully electronic shutter --almost-- never wears down ... but what i also do at times when i'm going for truly long time-lapse videos, especially with my DSLR cameras that all have a mechanical shutter (as well as with the iPhone occasionally*), is, i shoot regular videos in the cameras max 1080 or 4K resolutions (if the sun is not directly in the view that is of course so as to burn out the poor sensor!) and then remove 'unwanted' frames later in post processing in order to create a time-lapse video ... or simply, i speed up the video itself without deleting any frames to achieve an effect similar to time-lapse videos ... yes, that sounds like cheating (isn't photography 'cheating' after all? ;-)) and it can never replace a real time-lapse video with each frame shot at say 20MP resolution ... but since the time-lapse videos i make are mostly for 'effect overlays' rather than scientific study or anything along those lines, then who cares about the lacking topmost image quality as long as i'm not wearing out my 'precious' DSLR cameras shutter mechanism in an 'unlawful' manner!? :-) * iPhone time-lapse videos image quality is quite fine, just as its video and still shots are ... more than fine in fact, when considering we're using a smartphone's camera with a tiny sensor ... but the main problem with it is its time-lapse videos time length ... and this how it goes: no matter how long i leave the iPhone's camera running in time-lapse mode, the final video is never longer than 35" or 36" max! occasionally, i have managed to get nearly 40" of time-lapse video out of it as well, which is quite fine for most uses, but there's no way to have full control over how long i want the shoot to go on and what exact effect -- fast, 'normal' or slow motion -- i want to achieve in the end ... yes, there maybe apps for the iPhone to allow me do more and better but i don't have any such apps currently installed on that iPhone due to some silly reasons, which is another story altogether! ;-) _ _ _ btw, another mechanical part that gets worn out even with a fully electronic shutter (in some cameras at least) is the lens's aperture mechanism that keeps closing and opening at its set designation each time the shutter fires ... (if it's narrower than its widest opening that is ...) of course that wouldn't be a problem if a lens with a manual aperture mechanism is used ... some new cameras controller CPUs have thought of that as well and keep the aperture closed at the desired setting automatically all the time ...

Yep as already mentioned manufacturers only give a low rating to safe guard themselves and time lapse is generally at slower shutter speeds too none this fast high shutter speed you would use for shooting flying birds etc

I used a Canon 50D for timelapse and the mirror eventually fell out. I'd love to find out how many shutter actuations it finally reached.

my 500d is a tank i have used in -40c, i upgrade to the 1dxii becuse i use it in verry tuff envarioment. i think sutter count is shutter count.

i just bought a second hand camera from Japan and it had 155 000 !!! i dont know how to feel but thank you!!...

I used to worry about this at first too, but then you get to the mindset of 'gear is meant to be used.' On the same day, off to the town and shoot timelapse from morning till night. Suddenly error and there goes my motherboard. Then I never shoot timelapse anymore. Heartbroken.

I use a canon 600d (amazing camera) for timelapse, in Italy it cost about 300 euros, if i'll broke camera or shutter i'll buy another. So no problem for me

Not worrying about shutter speed is okay but knowing when your camera is about done for is a way to help you plan for a new one.

100% agree

Top!😊🙏

My 5d4 still kicking on 170k Scount! Yah

I shoot mirrorless so I just turn on Silent Shooting 😛

Woah, big shutter counts: that's a brilliant endorsement for the Canon mechanisms. I've spent something like £3000 replacing shutter mechanisms on Nikon D3S, D700 and D750 cameras over the years (oh, and one Sony A7II where the shutter blades exploded out of their track and scratched the sensor at a count of only about 50K shutter actuations grr). The Nikons far exceeded their predicted shutter counts (the D3S did particularly well, but it was also particularly expensive to repair), but you do have to consider that expense when calculating how profitable timelapse shooting is (naturally! :-) My primary cameras now have electronic "shutters" (I only turn on the mechanical shutters when shooting in the studio with flash), and I'm anticipating that they'll each reach a couple million shots before they fail (likely the USB ports will fail, stupid micro-USB shape grr). But yeah, you gotta use your kit to create (and earn), so I never questioned the expense, and just got to work :-)

I would have to say environmental conditions would play the biggest part. It’s made to do the exact same action over and over and over again in a sustained environment. Once that environment is changed say with heat, humidity or cold. Those changes in environment will most likely degrade the mechanism.

i have a Canon EOS R. i do the in camera time lapse usually the max 3600 shots. i will quit worrying. but then i take a 3600 shot sequence, look at it on the camera and decide it isn't even worth downloading to the computer. oh well.

Sadly, people place too much emphasis on shutter counts when buying second hand cameras, or like right now when I want to do a trade in right, the shop will knock the trade value back. It means nothing. My friend who done a lot of time-lapse using a Canon DSLR recently had the shutter replaced and it didn't cost much at all. Cheers

I have 600,000 on my 5D4 and 400,000 (on its third shutter, total count is close to 1.3 Million)) on my 5D2. I agree with you.

so does electronic shutter fix this?

Definitely impacts resale value. But reality of shutter count is that is what the manufacturer aims for and warrenties against like a car having a 100k mile warranty. Doesn't mean it will break after that just that you're paying for it yourself if it breaks.

If I own a car, I'm going to drive the car as much as I can before I get a better/replacement car. In other words, until it breaks down and becomes unusable. Likewise, if you don't use the camera until the shutter breaks, then you are not maximizing its potential.

The manufacturer probably is on the low side when they state the shutter count guarantee just for safety reason.. And i base that on absolutely nothing..

what is happening with the focus

nice video lol

I think you once mentioned that the accuracy of the shutter decreased quite a bit after the shutter count estimate was reached. This might actually lead to flicker in the sequence. But it's easily fixed with LRTimelapse of course.

The only problem is a resale value as not everyone understand this.

Should you worry "Trtrrtrrtrtrtrtrt" About *Trtrtrtrtrtrtrt" Your "Trtrtrtrtrtrtrrtr" Shutter count? "Trtrtrt" Me: Ok i guess no🤣

My 6D has 380k and has been trough a lotttt. I just don’t care haha

As digital age is now a reality, the answer is simple, mecanical shutter in digital photo should be a thing of the past and should be only use for analog film camera, take a mirror less digital camera like an MFT from olympus panasonic or a digital large sensor, like sony or fujifilm and your done !

vetzak, of had ik het niet goed begrepen :-)

Electronic shutter and fugetaboutit

But are all cameras made to the same standards?🤔

It's simple, one who worries about shutter count, its the one who plan to sell camera after some use.

dag vetzak 🤦‍♂️😂😂😂