Does burst mode wear out a DSLR shutter faster?
Asked 6/7/2016
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I shoot about 400–500 photos per day on a Canon EOS 1200D / Rebel, and many are taken in burst mode. After about five months, the camera showed Err 30 and needed shutter repair. Does shooting in burst mode or using flash wear out the shutter faster, or is it mainly the total number of shutter actuations that matters?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
10y ago
2 Answers
29
It doesn't really matter whether shutter activations are in burst mode or not. What matters is that they happen. 500 shots per day for 150 days is 75,000 shutter activations! Canon no longer provides shutter ratings for the Rebel series but back when they did the oldest Rebels and later lower priced models had ratings of 50,000 activations while the later higher priced Rebels had 100,000 cycle shutter ratings. Your shutter failed almost exactly halfway between 50K and 100K. It sounds like you just wore it out.
It's just like miles on a car: they cause wear and tear whether it takes six years or six decades to put a million miles on one. Most cars won't last a million miles. Most 1200D Rebel shutters probably won't last much more than 75,000 shutter cycles either.
If you bought the camera new I'd be interested to know if the shutter replacement was covered by Canon under warranty.
Originally by user15871. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user15871
10y ago
0
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Burst mode itself doesn’t add special wear beyond increasing the number of shutter actuations. What matters most is the total shutter count, not whether those shots were taken one at a time or in a burst.
At 400–500 photos per day for about five months, you may have reached roughly 75,000 shutter actuations. That is heavy use for an entry-level DSLR, and a shutter failure at that point is plausible. Err 30 is commonly associated with a shutter malfunction.
Shutter life ratings are averages, not guarantees: some fail earlier, some last much longer. Entry-level bodies are generally built for fewer cycles than higher-end models, so your usage level could reasonably wear one out sooner.
Using flash is not usually the main issue here; the repeated shutter cycles are the bigger factor.
So yes: it likely wasn’t burst mode specifically, but the high total number of shots. If the camera was still under warranty at the time, repair may have been covered.
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