How accurate are estimated shutter lives?
Nikon estimates their D7100's shutter life at 100,000
how accurate has this been since it has come out, do a lot of users get more than that, less?
I had on old Nikon D100 with over 200,000 shutter cycles on it. That was three years ago and it is still going strong and is being used by an artist colleague of mine.
If you think about it, you will never put your cameras shutter through the stress camera makers put the shutters… Unless you are in the bad habit of machine gunning your subjects hoping to get one good shot.
I sent a 6 year old Nikon D300 into Nikon to correct a small auto-focus issue that developed after I was hammered when shooting on the sidelines of a football game. It was intermittent, but had started becoming more pronounced.
While Nikon had the camera, they replaced the shutter, base plate and auto-focus mechanism, plus cleaned the camera so it looked like new. All this for under $250. Considering that a refurbished Nikon D300 costs over $1,650, it was a bargain.
As mentioned, you will have probably replaced your camera long before the shutter fails.
I have a colleague who owns a Nikon D3 he uses to shoot sports. Those shutters are tested to 300,000 cycles. He has over 1,000,000 cycles on his camera and it is still going strong
To be honest with you I think most people upgrade or change their camera before they reach that level of use… Technology is moving so fast and sometimes something interesting comes along that makes upgrading worthwhile…
My last camera was the Pentax *ist DS I used it without any issues for 10 years that makes it one of the best value for money pieces of equipment i've ever owned, you can't argue with that… The *ist DS is still going strong with flawless performance.
I tend to carry 2 or 3 cameras nowadays, so i'm covered if one of them decide to die on me… To be fair I don't expect any problems with my kit… Although i'd recommend investing in some insurance… My D7100 died on me after I dropped it… Too much electronic stuff in cameras for my liking it makes them more fragile than what i'm used to.
As Huffy says, you will probably change your camera well before the top estimated shutter count.
I'm sure that most "good" camera manufacturers under estimate the count to be on the safe side.
And then, it all depends on how well you use the camera and look after it. If you are shooting a lot of Continuous shutter stuff then it will obviously affect the life much more than single landscape type shots.
Like a car's engine; some will do just 100,000 miles while others last forever.
The figure of 100,000 is a test result known as MTBF - mean time before failure. Nikon will have set up a rig with several shutters and fired them repeatedly until they died. They will repeat with enough to build up a vaild data set. They will then calculate the mean number of shots before the shutter fails and round it to a suitable number.
The shutter on my son's camera has a quoted life of 50,000. Nobody told him! It is still going at 60,000 plus!
Thing is, by the time you reach 100,000 you have had your money's worth out of the camera and it is probably ready for an upgrade anyway
These shutter actuation limits are only a guideline, the camera may last well beyond that stipulated by the manufacturer. You can also have the shutter mechanism repaired/replaced.
Even if the shutter fails on the day it reaches 100,000, let's say you take 10,000 shots a year - the camera will last 10 years. By then you'll have probably bought a new camera.