Question for all you experts !

I have heard about 'the number of shutter activations' of digital cameras ; how can I find this information on mine ? It's like getting a new car with 20 miles on the clock where they explain it as being driven round the compound or along the docks if it is exported.

You can't.

Pentax rates the K10D at 100,000 shutter cycles, like most professional DSLR's. In reality, you could probably get a lot more.

you can get a vague idea from the number of the photograph since it goes up by one each time. It's not foolproof as it can be reset and I think it resets to 0 after 10000 shots. Also if you use the in camera RAW development facility this increases the photo number as well.

Also, you can fire the shutter with no card in the camera, which will increase the shutter count without increasing the file number, but you're probably not going to do that too often.

If yours was new and boxed, I don't suppose it's had many shutter activations, but I'd guess they'd try at least one as a test before packing it up at the factory?

Dan

Thanks for all you experts: I read somewhere that a guy had bought a Pentax Digital with 'only' about 8000 'activations' so I wondered how he knew.

"1" If you drop it on to a concrete slab...

If they still built cameras like the old MX, you'd get lots. I was running through a hospital corridor to cover something unpleasant, when my MX cameras (which were swinging around my neck) whacked the concrete walls.

After it was all over, the only damage was a dent in the top on one of the prism housings. Cost me twenty-five bucks to get it fixed.

Don't try that with a modern camera!!