Shutter counts in nikon and canon slrs?

Right,
i'm looking into buying a second hand camera and i've found a canon eos 40d which has a shutter count of under 15k and i've also come across a nikon d300 with a shutter count of 6200.

are these good? Which one should i go for? Is the lower hutter count the better when buying second hand?

How do you know the shutter count? Be aware (at least for Nikon) that there's no easy way to find out the shutter count. If someone is going to sell you a camera and the file name is say, 6200.jpg (or.nef) that number can always be reset back to zero.

The D300 is rated for 150, 000 acctations and the 40D is rated for 10, 000. This does not mean that it will last that long. It also doesn't mean that it will die after that. I know of a couple of D300's that are well over 200, 000.

I own a D300. 6200 means it's barely broken in. Great camera, love it but it's not eeasy to get the hang of.

On Nikons the true shutter count is in the exif data, most (not all) exif viewers can get the true count of shutter actuations. 6200 is barely broken in and the D300 is a newer design so you should buy the 40d and let me buy the D300!

Ignore what Ryan says - he's wrong. Although the image file number can be reset, the shutter count is embedded in the EXIF data & can't be changed.

The D300 is good for around 150, 000 shutter actuations (that's what Nikon says) but that doesn't mean when you take the 150, 001 image the curtain breaks - many will go on for 200, 000, some will fail before that. It's like car engines. 6200 is insignificant.

Not sure about the 40d - probably around 100, 000-150, 000.

Out of those two I'd recommend th D300, not just for the less use its had, but because it is an excellent featured camera.