No way to measure that issue, though, other than to ask the owner and hope for an honest answer.īottom line, if the camera otherwise looks to be well treated, then you're just taking your chances with anything other than very low shutter count (and even then, there's no guarantee).
For instance, if a user keeps his camera in his car during hot weather and the temp regularly goes well over 100, then lubricants and components might well be affected and the camera components, including the shutter, can die sooner. One thing that I think most people don't consider is the damage that can occur just from adverse conditions of high or low temps. The range can be from very low (less than 10 actuations) to very high (2 million or more!), so there's no guarantee of life or of death. There is an interesting web site in which users have entered their shutter count on failure for various bodies (doesn't seem to have been updated recently, though). Bodies are in very good shape otherwise, but there's always the concern that the shutter or something else (mirror box for instance) will fail at any point. My newer 5DIII has about 130k actuations on it. I haven't had any failures on my two 5DIII's yet, but the first had the shutter replaced at about 260k actuations on the recommendation of Canon when they had it for cleaning and now the new shutter has about 20k and the camera is chugging along fine. Shutter on the 5DIII is rated at 150k, but it's hard to know what that means as far as expected life span. Obviously, lower shutter count is preferable if you have two similar cameras at similar prices. Basically, shutter count is just another data point when you're shopping.