Does burst shooting wear the shutter more than single shots for the same number of exposures?
Asked 8/12/2012
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If you take the same total number of photos, does shooting in continuous/burst mode cause more wear on the shutter or other mechanical parts than taking those shots one at a time? For example, would 1,000 shots at 4 fps wear the camera more than 1,000 shots taken individually?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
14y ago
2 Answers
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I think the realistic answer is that without spending tens of thousands of your preferred currency to set up a proper test environment and test a whole bunch of different cameras there's no real way to know.
Presumably the manufacturers test each model of camera to get an idea of how long they will last under continuous use (although I imagine that only the high end manufacturers test properly) and that figure, after suitable massaging, is the one they release to the public.
Edit for pedantry: If a camera will take, for example, 100,000 exposures before breaking then if they are continuous at, again for example, 5 frames per second then the camera will break after approx five or so hours. If the same camera is used to take one shot a day then the camera will break many years later.
Thus, technically, a camera used continuously will break 'faster', i.e. before, one used intermittently regardless of any other factors...
Originally by user9817. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user9817
14y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
For the same number of exposures, the main mechanical wear is generally tied to the number of shutter actuations, not whether they were taken singly or in a burst. So 1,000 shots is essentially 1,000 shutter cycles either way.
In practice, exact wear differences are hard to prove without controlled testing across many cameras. Manufacturers rate shutters by expected actuation life, and that rating is the best rough guide.
What burst shooting does change is time: if a shutter is good for, say, 100,000 exposures, you can reach that total much faster by shooting bursts than by taking occasional single frames. So burst mode doesn’t necessarily add extra wear per shot, but it can use up the camera’s rated life more quickly in calendar time.
Bottom line: wear is primarily about total shot count, not fps, assuming normal use.
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