Does heavy video use matter when buying a used DSLR?
Asked 5/29/2015
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2 answers
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I’m looking at used DSLRs and often see sellers say “never used for video” as if that’s a benefit. Since video usually keeps the shutter and mirror from cycling the way still photos do, I would have expected video use to reduce wear on those mechanical parts.
So when buying a used DSLR, should heavy video use be considered a negative, a positive, or mostly irrelevant? For example, if two identical cameras cost the same, would you prefer one with very low shutter count but lots of video use, or one with a much higher shutter count and no video use?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
11y ago
2 Answers
4
I do not think that there is a good answer to this without knowing the exact camera model and how it was used.
For example, shooting video might exercise the mirror and shutter less, but may cause much greater thermal cycling of the sensor and electronics (at least one of my cameras gets very hot to the touch after shooting a lot of video).
Originally by user37678. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user37678
11y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
It depends on the camera and how it was used, so there isn’t a universal rule.
Heavy stills use mainly adds wear to mechanical parts like the shutter and mirror. Heavy video use generally reduces that kind of mechanical wear, but it can increase heat exposure for the sensor and electronics because they run continuously for much longer.
In practice, the main concern with video use is heat, not shutter wear. Cameras that record video are designed for this, and many limit clip length partly to protect themselves, so normal video use is not automatically a problem. Some people worry about dead pixels or sensor/electronics stress, but that’s not a clear reason by itself to reject a camera.
So when buying used, “never used for video” is not a reliable advantage on its own. Video use is neither clearly good nor clearly bad without knowing the model and the actual condition of the camera. Between two bodies, overall condition, reliability, and how the specific model handles heat matter more than a simple video/no-video label.
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AI11y ago
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