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Home » Cameras and Lenses » How to Find Total Shutter Actuations on Nikon and Canon DSLRs
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How to Find Total Shutter Actuations on Nikon and Canon DSLRs

Nasim Mansurov70 Comments

During the last several weeks, I have received several requests from our readers about finding the total number of shutter actuations on their DSLRs. I decided to write a short article on how you can find the total shutter actuations on both Nikon and Canon DSLRs, in case you are interested in seeing how much you have been using your camera or how close your shutter speed is to the manufacturers’ rated shutter life of 150,000 (on most entry and mid-level cameras) or 300,000 (professional cameras).

1) EXIF Data

The information on the total shutter actuations on your camera is preserved in file headers, known as “metadata” or “EXIF”. If you do not know what EXIF is and what it is used for, check out my “What is EXIF” article. Basically, your camera writes all exposure-related information such as date, time, shutter speed, aperture, ISO and a bunch of other important information into the header of each file. Some camera manufacturers like Nikon and Canon also add unique shutter actuations data fields that are used for seeing the total number of exposures or “shutter actuations” cameras have.

2) Switch to JPEG format

If you are shooting RAW, it is best to switch to JPEG format just for getting the required information from your camera. While the camera native RAW format preserves all of the EXIF information that is coming out of the camera, third party conversion software like Adobe Photoshop Lightroom can strip out some of the proprietary EXIF data, including the number of shutter actuations. Therefore, switching to JPEG will allow you to view EXIF data straight, without having to import the image into Lightroom or Photoshop first. It doesn’t matter what size of JPEG files you choose – even JPEG BASIC works fine. Once selected, take a picture of anything you want.

3) Download EXIF viewer

In order to view the proprietary EXIF information from files, you need to use an image EXIF viewer that does not strip out anything from the file. Unfortunately, almost all current image viewers only display generic EXIF data that most people use and ignore the rest. Instead of properly reading EXIF data from files and then parsing the results, they typically just look for generic EXIF tags within the file and display them when they are available. If something is not available, it stays blank. To reduce the number of blank items to the minimum, they only provide generic information that is more or less standardized across most camera manufacturers.

Since these kinds of image EXIF viewers are not going to work to find the total shutter count, we will need to use less popular versions of EXIF data viewers, such as Phil Harvey’s “ExifTool” and Opanda’s IExif.

4) Viewing Shutter Count EXIF Data via ExifTool

Once you download the single ExifTool executable from this website, move it to the root drive of your main drive (typically C: on Windows and / on MacOS), then open up the command prompt via Start->All Programs->Acessories->Command Prompt. If you are using a Mac, fire up the shell terminal. Type “cd c:” in Windows or “cd /” in MacOS to be in the same folder where the ExifTool executable resides. Then type:

  1. Nikon DSLR: exiftool source_jpeg_file.jpg | find “Shutter Count”
  2. Canon DSLR: exiftool source_jpeg_file.jpg | find “Image Number”

Obviously, replace “source_jpeg_file.jpg” with the name of your actual JPEG file. The program should return something like this: “Shutter Count: 19889” or “Image Number: 19889” – the number to the right of the string is the total shutter count on the camera.

5) Viewing Shutter Count EXIF Data via Opanda IExif

If you do not want to mess with command prompts, the best alternative is to use either Opanda IExif (for Windows). Just download the latest version of Opanda IExif and install using defaults.

Once the program is installed, open it up and then click the “Open” button to browse to your file. Select the JPEG file and you will see something like this:

Opanda IExif

Now scroll down until you see either “Total Number of Shutter Releases for Camera” and note the number:

Opanda IExif Shutter Count

Simple EXIF Viewer for MacOS has a different interface, but works similarly.

If you shoot with a Canon camera and your shutter count is not displayed by any of the above images, check out this website.

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Filed Under: Cameras and Lenses Tagged With: Canon, DSLR Camera, Howto, Nikon, Photography Tips

About Nasim Mansurov

Nasim Mansurov is the author and founder of Photography Life, based out of Denver, Colorado. He is recognized as one of the leading educators in the photography industry, conducting workshops, producing educational videos and frequently writing content for Photography Life. You can follow him on Instagram, 500px and Facebook. Read more about Nasim here.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Rahul
    August 31, 2010 at 10:11 am

    hi Nasim,

    You have a very nice site/blog , excellent for newbies to understand photography terminology, and superb bird photos ( not to say the others aren’t , the ones I saw were mostly birds). I too voted for you and it’s good to see you up in 2nd spot ! Hope you get the 1st spot !

    One question about shutter count , rather two questions :
    Doesn’t the camera itself have a function that shows shutter count readout on the LCD ?
    I read that shutter replacement itself costs 1/2 the price of the camera , having read replacement costs like 200 or 300 Euro. That is mighty expensive , is the shutter really that expensive ? I thought the sensor would be the most expensive part of the body.

    Phew , ok more questions !
    I had been looking for a D90, but it is now unavailable . I chose the D90 over D5000 mainly because of the AF motor, dual control dials, prism VF , the higher battery capacity and optional grip along with better LCD cemented it further. But are AF lenses still sold , or are all new lenses AF-S , making the in-body AF motor less relevant as I won’t be buying used lenses. Are in-lens motors more likely to fail than in-body AF motors ? A motor is a machine , thus likely to fail sometime, and so I expect AF-S or Canon EF lenses won’t last as much compared to non-motorized lenses , is it correct ?

    My choices are to either by a used D90 (again not easy to find, I found one but with no warranty ) , buy a lower segment body like D5000 or D3000 (D3100 not launched yet) , or wait 1 year for the D95/D7000 (D90 successor) which rumors say is an awesome camera – magnesium body , 6-8fps , 16MP but with better high ISO performance than D90, 100% VF and dual card slots , and a hefty price ( hence the 1 year, for the price to reduce to something I can afford )!

    What do you suggest I do ? How is the D3100’s low light performance compared to D5000’s ?

    Sorry if ask too much, but

    Reply
    • Rahul
      August 31, 2010 at 10:13 am

      Eh, my post is missing some text !

      Sorry for asking so many questions in one go …google doesn’t have all the answers, or maybe not easily found answers.

      Reply
    • Nasim Mansurov
      September 2, 2010 at 1:22 am

      Thank you Rahul!

      In terms of shutter count, the camera only shows what is left on the memory stick or will show a number next to a file name, which is only the last 4 digits. Once you go over 9999 images, the sequence starts over… And yes, shutter replacement is expensive because they have to open the camera up and it is not easy to do.

      In terms of focus motors, there is no such thing that they fail more often than cameras without them, so don’t worry about that.

      As for your D90 purchase – if you have not done it already, wait for a few weeks and see if Nikon announces an update or not. Even if you can’t buy one now, the price on the used D90 cameras will drop by at least 50-100 USD.

      In terms of D3100 vs D5000 – don’t know yet, need to perform some tests.

      Reply
      • Rahul
        September 2, 2010 at 7:36 am

        hi Nasim,

        Thanks for your replies. It’s surprising that manufacturers don’t display full camera information within the camera display itself.

        About AF motors, I think you misunderstood me. I mean to say if, is the in-lens AF motor as all Canon EF lenses and Nikkor AF-S have, more likely to fail than the in-body AF motors that only semi-pro and pro level Nikons have ?

        So I guess you haven’t spent much time with the D3100. I was hoping to get a good idea of the D3100 low light shots, to guess if the D95/D7000 might indeed be worth waiting for in terms of low light performance , considering the increase in pixel count over the D90.

        Thanks again, I’ll be on the lookout for a D90, new or used for some time anyhow.

        Reply
        • Nasim Mansurov
          October 4, 2010 at 3:17 pm

          Rahul,

          I don’t believe anybody tracks how many AF motors in cameras die vs in-lens motors. I have many lenses with AF motors and never had a single one fail…maybe others do not get as lucky.

          I’m hoping to get the D3100 this week.

          Reply
          • Rahul
            October 7, 2010 at 11:06 am

            Hi Nasim,
            I did read someplace about in body motors outlasting in-lens motors, but not much else and no stats or numbers. I certainly hope they last, good lenses aren’t cheap !

            Hope to have your D3100 review soon , am most interested in how it does at in low light/high ISO conditions( and D7000 vs D90 on the lines of D90 vs D300s comparison too if/when you get your hands on the D7000) !

            Reply
            • Nasim Mansurov
              October 22, 2010 at 12:32 am

              Rahul, lenses have a 5 year warranty versus 1 year camera warranty, so I would not be too concerned. Normally, cameras die faster than lenses, not the other way around…

              Hopefully to get the D3100 tomorrow morning.

              Reply
  2. Amit
    September 30, 2010 at 9:45 pm

    Is it expected that the first photograph from a Nikon DSLR will have an exif with shutter count as 1?

    Reply
    • Nasim Mansurov
      October 4, 2010 at 3:18 pm

      Amit, technically, yes, it should. However, the count might be a little higher due to manufacturer’s QA process.

      Reply
  3. Taz
    December 1, 2010 at 1:13 pm

    Hi I have a Nikon D700 it is showing the following data:

    Total Number of Shutter Releases for Camera = 23

    does this mean thats the total number of actuations it is a new camera please help :-)

    Reply
    • Nasim Mansurov
      December 7, 2010 at 8:06 pm

      Taz, yes, that means that the camera has had 23 actuations. This is normal – most likely the result of some tests during the camera QA process.

      Reply
  4. Kevin Martini
    June 18, 2011 at 12:01 pm

    This doesnt seem to work for my Canon 50D:

    $ exiftool /Users/Kevin/Desktop/exmast.jpg | find “Image Number”
    find: Image Number: No such file or directory

    $ exiftool /Users/Kevin/Desktop/exmast.JPG | grep “Image Number”

    Have they changed the name of the variable from “Image Number”? I tried just scrolling through the whole list that exiftools spits out when you remove the find/grep after the | and I still wasnt able to see anything about total actuations…

    Reply
    • Dragormir
      June 22, 2011 at 11:01 am

      I have the same problem as Kevin Martini: cannot find the variable named “Image Number” when I analyze data with exiftool from a photo taken with Canon 40D.

      I want to buy this camera from a guy that lives 300km away, and I have to find out the real number of shutter actuations, so I asked him to send me some photos that were actually taken today with the camera so I can run them through exiftool. He did, but I feel a bit stupid now, since I cannot find the number at all :(

      Please advise if you have any additional info on this.

      Tnx!

      Reply
  5. Shutter Actuations
    July 31, 2011 at 7:01 am

    I heard there are cancount.exe that can do canon shutter count, does it still exist? or it is just a rumor?

    Reply
  6. parham
    January 14, 2012 at 7:28 am

    thanks a lot for your information but the thing is i download the program (Opanda IExif) its work perfect but it doesn’t show total number of shutter i dont know how to find out ,its very important for me bec im gonna buy a camera from my friend if you can help me for that ill be appreciate thanks parham

    Reply
  7. Shutter Count
    January 16, 2012 at 1:37 pm

    There are plenty of websites out there that allow you to simply upload a jpeg right out of the camera to check the shutter count.

    Reply
    • parham
      January 16, 2012 at 2:41 pm

      So what website is that can you give me that website ?

      Reply
      • Nikon Shutter Count
        January 31, 2012 at 3:01 pm

        www.nikonshuttercount.com provides the ability to upload a jpeg and determine the shutter count quickly and easily. Try it yourself. It works for nearly all of Nikon’s DSLRs.

        Reply
      • Flickr
        February 17, 2012 at 7:14 am

        Actually, it appears that Flickr shows the shutter counts too. Upload a photo to Flickr, click on the ACTIONS button, and then select VIEW EXIF INFO. ‘Shutter Count’ is one of the data points shown

        Reply
        • Ari
          March 15, 2013 at 1:01 pm

          I uploaded to Flickr and it doesn’t include that information from what I see. It doesn’t work for my 5D MK2 on Opanda either. Bummed.

          Reply
        • Mary
          April 19, 2017 at 6:41 pm

          Thanks for the flickr comment, it worked for me.

          Reply
  8. Daphne Goodwin
    March 7, 2012 at 8:34 am

    Kevin seems to have it right for the Mac, and linux systems:
    exiftool ‘filename.jpg’ | grep “attribute value”

    Reply
  9. Kevin Long
    March 16, 2012 at 5:11 pm

    Nikon JPG files on my pro D3, D3S and D4 bodies *do not* include shutter actuations. You need to stick with RAW.

    Reply
  10. carlos
    May 27, 2012 at 5:28 am

    thanks very nice , i check mine nikon d3100 and got 14391 still like 85000 to go :)

    Reply
  11. MC
    June 4, 2012 at 3:59 pm

    Hey all you worriers. Lighten up. If like Carlos you have ,say 14.5k shots taken in 18 months or thereabouts, that’s 10,ooo shots in a year. So if the D3100 is rated to 100,000 actuations, that’s 10 years. Do you not think that so many new cameras will have come along, with so much new technology that you want to keep your current camera? In 6 years you will probably hand your camera to your son or daughter and say “here’s a box brownie equivalent to get you started, I’ve got a new Nikon XYD4s with 75 megapixels, 35 fps with intregral eyebrow plucker”! I have two fine film cameras lying in my loft, pristine, but not much good. Who’s to say that something better than digital will come along. Bet they went wild when steam trains came. State of the art they were!

    Reply
  12. Kate
    July 12, 2012 at 11:03 pm

    I’m a bit confused by the data on jpg files from one card. I recently bought a pre-loved D300, used one card to shoot 4 jpg files in the store. The storeperson checked the files on the PC and told me the “actual shutter count is 3196”. I thought that was really low and I asked 3 times for clarification and was assured that the camera had done less than 4000 shots!
    Today I was thinking about it, so I researched how to check myself, and ended up here. But guess what? I have the same card with the same jpg files on it (haven’t used that card since the purchase) and each one has a vastly different shutter count – ie: not incremental by 1! Okay sure, there’s one at 3196 and one at 3197 in one folder, but two other folders were created for the two other shots (I don’t know why) and one shows a count of 5649 and the other is…wait for it….20,421! The 4 shots were taken between 3.06pm and 3.08pm with the first shot taken being the one reported as 20,421.
    Does anyone have any idea what I should make from this?? What is the real shutter count?

    Reply
  13. MC
    July 13, 2012 at 2:55 pm

    Try this bit of free software www.opanda.com/en/ie…sample.htm

    Reply
  14. MC
    July 13, 2012 at 2:58 pm

    Or scroll to Opanda software at top of this page.

    Reply
  15. JT
    July 17, 2012 at 2:00 pm

    Does Anyone know if the Opanda software has a Windows 2007 version. I see everything listed but that one.

    Reply
  16. Isaac McGinley
    July 18, 2012 at 9:06 am

    Thank you for this! Had no idea I’d shot so many! 20444

    I have a question, I shoot a D90 so can expect 100k shots or more out of the shutter…
    But once it’s gone is that it? Can I easily get it replaced in the future, and would it be obvious that the shutter is reaching the end of its working life?

    Thanks,
    Isaac

    Reply
    • MC
      July 18, 2012 at 11:27 am

      Hi Isaac.
      See my post no 23 above. The shutter can be replaced but ask yourself how long it took to fire off the 20k shots, 4 years? So that’s 5k a year which means the shutter will fail about 16 years from now. Or do different caculation. Then ask yourself if you will have moved to a higher spec camera well before then.

      Reply
  17. Karen
    September 28, 2012 at 12:19 pm

    I am selling my camera and was asked what the shutter actuation was. I came to your site, downloaded the exif tool, and got the meta data I needed to find out the image number.

    Big Thanks!

    Reply
  18. faz
    December 3, 2012 at 11:45 pm

    Hi Nasim,

    Would it be possible to reset the shutter count by any means? Service center would be having some ways of doing it? I had recently got my D800 replaced with a new one as the body had autofocus, dead pixels and dust in viewfinder. however the once replaced is having the serial number of older lot. the difference is 2000 in numbers. Would it be an issue or have the service center replaced it with a refurbished one? Please advise.

    Regards

    Reply
  19. JohnBoz
    May 20, 2013 at 8:18 pm

    Just bought a D7100 and tried to get the shutter count using Image EXIF Viewer for MacOSX.
    Took one pic and got a long list of data and the following sets of shutter counts:

    Exif.NikonSi02xx.ShutterCount1 value = 0
    Exif.NikonSi02xx.ShutterCount2 value = 254 299
    Exif.NikonSi02xx.ShutterCount value = 16777216
    Exif.Nikon3.ShutterCount value = 2

    On the 4th pic, got the following:

    Exif.NikonSi02xx.ShutterCount1 value = 0
    Exif.NikonSi02xx.ShutterCount2 value = 255 185
    Exif.NikonSi02xx.ShutterCount value = 16777216
    Exif.Nikon3.ShutterCount value = 8

    I assume the correct values are the last in the series. Any idea why is the number doubled (2 & 8 instead of 1 & 4)?

    Thanks for your helpful information!

    Reply
  20. Karan
    May 27, 2013 at 5:05 am

    Hello Nasim,

    Is a used D5100 camera with 20,000 actuations considered a good buy?

    Thanks….Karan

    Reply
  21. matzky
    June 19, 2013 at 5:48 am

    my friend have a d5000, when we try to look for it’s actuation, the exef data shows data for d3100!
    did anybody know why?

    Reply
  22. Bobby
    July 15, 2013 at 10:15 am

    I found that if I opened my last jpeg in cs5 and then went to File>file info>advanced>schema

    It gives “image number” for my Nikon D3X it’s 44,000

    Is this accurate? No acuations are listed in EXIF?

    Reply
  23. MC
    August 14, 2013 at 10:02 pm

    Uh, OK. But how the fuck do I get the jpgs out of the camera without going through Aperture or Lightroom?

    Reply
    • Rachel
      September 22, 2017 at 3:02 pm

      On my canon, image format is one of the first things you see when you click the menu button. It’s hard to describe in writing, but there are probably a lot of youtube videos that can show you quickly.

      Reply
  24. MC
    August 15, 2013 at 5:28 am

    Obviously a different MC. You don’t need to go near PS or LR. Simply follow the instructions in paragraph no. 5 here..
    photographylife.com/how-t…anon-dslrs

    Reply
  25. AJ
    January 11, 2014 at 8:04 am

    Just sharing how I got my shutter count:
    I used a different program. XnViewMP is an image viewer with lite post-processing features. One of its most valuable capabilities is being able to show EXIF data in full deails.
    DISCLAIMER: I am in no way affiliated with XnViewMP.

    1. Just open your image via XnViewMP.
    2. Once its opened, rIght click on the image and select “Properties”
    3. Select “EXIF” tab
    4. Under “Makernotes” tree, look for the value of “Shutter Count”

    Have a good day!

    Reply
  26. Mike
    April 9, 2014 at 9:10 am

    Just confirmed with 2 D90’s that you can simply open the files in Preview and the Show the Inspector and click on the little i, then click on Nikon (if there, it was for me) or exif tabs. Under Nikon it shows Shutter Count, and in Exif it shows as Image Number.

    Hope this helps.
    Mike

    Reply
  27. Photosaddict
    April 10, 2014 at 1:48 am

    Let’s check a new FREE solution for shutter count at
    photosaddict.blogspot.com.au

    I was successful with my Canon 60D. So cool!

    Reply
  28. sal
    July 23, 2014 at 11:20 pm

    hai ,i have canon 1100d cam,which is the final shutter cound in this cam

    Reply
  29. Dave
    August 27, 2014 at 8:26 am

    For Windows and Mac: www.direstudio.com/shuttercount/

    Reply
  30. Chopan 66
    October 16, 2014 at 10:29 pm

    Last time I downloaded the opanda software I got a Virus

    Reply
  31. globalmullet
    January 6, 2015 at 4:30 am

    OSX/iPhoto/Show file in Finder/Preview/Tools/Show Inspector/Info – Shutter Count listed

    Reply
  32. ThatZip
    January 12, 2015 at 10:18 am

    I tried this with my new Nikon Df and there was no subject line with anything referring to a total number of shutter releases. So, what else can i try now? Thank you.

    Reply
    • dakotacheryl
      November 21, 2015 at 9:08 am

      try #26 above…worked like a charm for me.

      Reply
  33. Mahmudur Rahman
    February 24, 2015 at 11:56 am

    OMG! So long, dont know if you are still out there! Well what if someone reset the counter? is there a way to reset it?

    Reply
    • Mahmudur Rahman
      February 24, 2015 at 11:59 am

      Well I just i got the tools to edit the exif data :D

      Reply
  34. Ikossan
    April 29, 2016 at 8:43 pm

    for canon on windows platforme, i’m using this utility:

    Reply
  35. Mourad MKHAKH
    May 2, 2016 at 6:40 pm

    Canon doesn’t have shutter count included on the EXIF information of an image file, as opposed to Nikon. There’s no official Canon based application to find the shutter count for an EOS DSLR.

    however, there are a few free tools that may help you to do this. I have used for years the utility developed by astrojargon.net : Canon EosInfo v1.2. It provides some information about the camera, including product Name, firmware version, battery level, shutter Counter, date/time, and owner/artist/copyright strings. but it does not support this features: Editing the owner/artist/copyright strings and synchronizing of the time within the local PC’s date/time.

    for that, I wrote a new utility that includes all these features by integrating those who were missing.

    The utility is for windows users, is free and will work on most recent EOS models (since 2010). infos can be read from a USB-connected camera and it provides accurate data that can not be attainable by for example reading the EXIF.

    link portable version:

    link installable version:

    note: you can send me an email with an attached file”log.txt” generated by the application if a bug has arrived.

    Reply
  36. johan
    October 9, 2016 at 11:34 am

    There is a RAW exitif reader/editor available for free. I tested it on several Nikon cameras and it works great. The shutter count is listed under “manufacture note” tag.

    www.photome.de/

    Reply
    • Gary Wells
      December 21, 2016 at 2:18 pm

      i used this program, but not able to find shutter count. If I open the content of Manufacture notes, there is no info regarding shutter count. Am I missing something. Trying to get shutter count on a Nikon D7200

      Gary

      Reply
      • Mourad MKHAKH
        April 19, 2017 at 7:25 pm

        you can tst this program, is my tool, i have release tow versions for Windows and Mac os. it works for Nikon, and somme Sony and Pentax.
        sourceforge.net/proje…exif-info/
        for Canon owners you must read the counter directly from the camera and not from image file.
        try also this for canon only on windows:
        sourceforge.net/proje…ital-info/
        have nice day

        Reply
  37. D750 guy
    December 30, 2016 at 8:26 pm

    Just tried on D750. There is no shutter count entry listed in OPanda iexif2 when using it. Photoshop CC has changed the way they display file info now as well.

    Reply
    • Mourad MKHAKH
      April 19, 2017 at 7:27 pm

      try t this tool, it is mine, i have release tow versions for Windows and Mac os. it works for Nikon, and also for somme Sony and Pentax cameras.
      sourceforge.net/proje…exif-info/

      Reply
      • Lam Hoang
        April 19, 2017 at 7:39 pm

        It’s nice if you can make it work with a Canon. Thanks

        Reply
        • Mourad MKHAKH
          April 19, 2017 at 7:44 pm

          Hi
          i had also released a version for Canon only(on windows):
          sourceforge.net/proje…ital-info/
          Canon don’t save the actuattion count on the EXIF data of the image, but directly on the PCB of the camera, you must conect your Canon DSLR to a PC via USB port.
          Thanks

          Reply
  38. JohnL
    November 25, 2017 at 10:40 am

    If you use the free downloaded Google’s Picasa, you can simply open the file in Picasa, right click on the file properties. Near the bottom of the properties you can see the shutter count. Very simple.

    Reply
  39. Karen
    March 5, 2018 at 9:04 pm

    Hi Nasim,

    thanks for your help.

    I just found a super easy way to locate the shutter count data – I assume this would work for numerous cameras/browsers etc as it is an online tool that reads the full metadata.

    Step 1
    take a JPG image (not raw as previously discussed)

    Step 2
    load photopixreview.com/shutt…on-camera/ onto your browser of choice

    Step 3
    drag & drop your jpg file, click through to process the image then scroll down the list to “shutter count”

    This just worked for me on a very old but still reliable Nikon D300 that I wish to sell.

    Reply
  40. Nick
    May 10, 2018 at 3:25 pm

    If you upload your photos to an iOS device you can download “EXIF Viewer LITE by Fluntro” for free on the Apple App Store. Then you go to your photo album and select an uploaded photo. Scroll towards the bottom of the screen and it will tell you “shutter count”. Couldn’t be any easier!

    Reply
  41. Techwhippet.com
    May 22, 2018 at 12:30 pm

    Hi photographylife,
    Thanks for this awesome article, have been waiting for such kind article for long day

    Reply
  42. John Murrell
    June 4, 2018 at 1:38 am

    The assertion above that ‘image Number’ on a Canon camera shows the shutter count is only partially correct. On my 10D it shows 2929222 approaching 3 million shots which is clearly wrong. One EXIF data tool reports the number as 292-9222. That makes more sense – the last image was IMG_9222.JPG. I then realised that the first 3 digits are in fact the folder number on the memory card. Under DCIM there are two folders at present 291CANON and 292CANON. The folders each hold 100 files so the first 3 digits increment once every 100 images to reflect the new folder number while the last 4 digits increase to 9999 then rollover to 0. A twist is that looking at one of the early images I took with this camera is that the folder numbers start at 100 rather than 0. Thus to convert the image number to the number of shots taken we need to do do the following. Split the image number into two parts the last 4 digits call this file number and the first three folder number. We then need to do a bit of arithmetic.
    Shutter Count = (folder number-100)*100 + modulo100 file number
    Modulo 100 of the file number may sound frightening but in reality it means just take the two right hand digits.
    So for my 10D
    Shutter Count = (292-100)*100 +22 = 19200 +22 = 19222 shutter operations
    I have not checked this yet on later types of Canon Cameras but I expect it is the same as the image and folder numbering is set by a standard.
    John

    Reply
  43. John Murrell
    June 4, 2018 at 4:45 am

    I have done a bit more research and later Canon Cameras such as the 70D appear to use a slightly different version – they seem to allow more files in each folder below DCIM. It looks as though 9999 files are allowed in a sub-folder. Thus the numbers are something like 1017890 which split as above gives 101-7890. Conversion to shutter is easier as all one has to do is drop the leading 1 i.e. subtract 1 million so the above number gives 17890 shutter operations. Some Canon cameras such as the Canon Ixus seem to use the older method. The best way of determining is to see how many directories are under DCIM and what the numbers are if there are several folders and the numbers are relatively high the old format is used

    Reply
  44. Jayanta kumar Mitra
    June 10, 2018 at 11:05 pm

    Dear Nasim,

    I have been following your publication for last 5 years, and my compliments to you for your effort.
    I am an avid armature photographer by hobby and engineer by profession retired after 51 years of service.

    Although many such resources are available in the net ,personally I find yours is strikingly expressive.

    Best wishes

    Jayanta

    Reply
  45. Ian Lindsay
    July 31, 2018 at 10:52 pm

    Hi Nasim,
    In respect of the exif data software, I found that Irfanview also shows the number of photos taken. If one goes to the EXIF menu under information , one is able to get the info from there.
    I have tested my D750 and D7100 by this method and compared it with the online resources you have mentioned. It is 100% accurate.
    Irfanview can be downloaded here: www.irfanview.com/main_…d_engl.htm

    Thank you for providing us with such fantastic info and advice! :)

    Reply
  46. Butch Bryant
    August 22, 2018 at 3:40 am

    Why isn’t shutter count/release information available in camera ? I take a lot of pictures and life expectancy is very important. Some people may even use this in making a choice as to which camera to buy. Thanks,Butch

    Reply
  47. Gopi Potharlanka
    September 11, 2018 at 7:35 pm

    47)
    Gopi Potharlanka
    Can you tell me on Nikon D7100 total shutter count As of now my shutter cont was 3996
    I have to watch my shutter .
    Please let me know my total shutter count on Nikon D7100 or Please let me know how to look up

    Thank you

    Reply

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