photoman022 Loc: Manchester CT USA

It looks like you're looking for an excuse to buy the new camera. Here it is: Your old camera is going to break down and you'll need a new one! (Note: I did not say WHEN it will break down but it might be tomorrow!!!!) Get that new camera!!!!!

BB4A

I'm loving this thread... All sorts of justifications for "upgrades", with none of the guilt, as we are counseling a fellow sufferer, not actually taking the medication ourselves.

So, I'll just pile on with my perspective. I currently own and love the Rebel T6i, and I've also fallen victim to the disease and am about 2,000 shots into my 7D Mkii. These are both excellent cameras, and this is purely my perspective (my distorted view of reality)... I think you would get more satisfaction, longer term, out of keeping your current camera for a while longer and save those dollars for a 7D Mkii.

Top of the range capabilities for a crop-sensor camera, hellaciously fast for those occasions when you need rapid, focused shots, surprisingly superb at low light, and I'm loving the zero post-processing monochrome portraiture I'm achieving with the 7D Mkii. Oh, and the fact that it's built like a battleship, will love all your EF-S lenses and does a great job with EF lenses if you want to trade up a little in the glass department (my new favorite nifty fifty on this body is the f/1.4 50mm USM), is a rather endearing trait that the T6i can't match.

Bottom line - you obviously love your existing camera body and glass format, otherwise you wouldn't be asking this question? Keep enjoying it, and if you want to upgrade to a camera body with additional glass options, save a little longer and watch for those 7D Mkii discounts... That way you can rationalize that you've future proofed your photography for at least another couple of hundred thousand shots, retained your existing camera as a light & comfortable second body, AND given yourself a bunch more creative options to fall in love with.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

I haven't seen Canon "rate" their shutters on a lot of their more recent models, the way they have done in the past. But in general the Rebel series cameras were considered to be "good for" about 75,000 actuations. (For comparison, 80D, 70D, 60D and other xxD-series: 100,000... original 7D: 150,000 and current 7D Mk II: 200,000.... 6D series unknown, but likely around 100,000.... recent 5D-series: 150,000... 1DX Mk II: something like 400,000.)

That being the case, your camera has lived about half its life.

But, this is just a "mean time between failures"... Only an estimate of shutter durability based upon the design and materials used, as well as track record of similar in the past. Some cameras don't live that long. Others live a far longer and happier life. There are Canon out there that have done 3X, 4X their MTBF and are still working fine.

And a shutter isn't the only thing that can fail in a camera... It's just the most mechanical assembly in a modern DSLR, and prone to wear. But solid state electronic parts can fail, too. Part of the reason that shutter count is referenced goes back to the early days of digital, when they were just basically film cameras with a sensor added. Without film to buy and process, it turned out that folks shooting digital took a lot more shots... a whole lot more! Olympus learned the hard way... a really nice digital they were offering was immediately popular with pros and advanced amateurs alike. But it turned out that the film-camera shutter they'd used was only good for between 15,000 and 20,000 clicks. Many of the buyers of the camera were shooting twice that many images a year! So Olympus found themselves replacing shutters under warranty a lot... sometimes even more than once in a given camera. No doubt that was expensive, so Oly and everyone else stepped up and developed more durable shutters to use in their digital cameras.

In my experience, if a camera "lives" past it's first week or month out of the box, it's usually going to be good for a lot of years use and at least as many "clicks" as it was rated. Only a few Canon models' shutters have seemed to fall a bit short. For example, 40D were known to have somewhat earlier shutter failure than other models in that series that came before and after.

So unless your camera has seen unusual abuse or has gotten wet or is an oddity, it's very likely got a lot of useful life left.

However, maybe you would find some of the newer model's features helpful for your purposes.

For example, T6i has a much more advanced autofocus system than T3i. Your camera has one high-performance "dual axis" AF point in the center, all the rest are lower performance single axis type... not great for fast acquisition or tracking moving subjects. In contrast, all of the T6i's AF points are "dual axis" and the center one is further enhanced "diagonal dual axis" type. Plus, T6i has a lot more AF points! The T6i's 19-point AF system is nearly identical to the 70D's (the only diff I'm aware of is that 70D has Micro Focus Adjustment feature, T6i/T6s don't)... The 70D in turn inherited a slightly "dumbed down" version of what was used in the original 7D. And the original 7D was and still is respected as a high performance "sports/action" camera. It has some other enhancements compared to 70D and T6i... but they both benefit a lot from what Canon learned with the 7D.

The new 77D and T7i apparently will have 45-point autofocus similar to what was introduced in the 80D. While that's quite good too, it's not as high performance as the 65-point AF in the 7D Mark II. But any of these newer models offer significant advancement over your T3i's autofocus system.

Continuous shooting frame rate is another thing that's often important for sports/action photography. Your T3i's top speed is about 3.5 frames a second. T6i/T6s can do 5 fps. T7i/77D are supposed to do 6 fps. 80D manages 7 fps and 7D Mk II does 10 fps (orig. 7D was rated to do 8 fps, but often slowed for metering and AF).

Shutter lag is another thing of concern to sport/action shooters. The shorter the better to be able to time peak action shots. All Canon DSLRs are pretty good... But some are better than others. Your T3i's shutter lag is 90 milliseconds. T4i and T5i improved slightly to 75ms. I don't know about T6i/T6s... but T7i/77D are slightly improved to 70ms. For comparison, 70D and 80D are 65ms and 60ms, respectively... And 7D Mark II is 55ms. Top of the line 1DX Mark II's shutter lag is user-adjustable between 55ms and about 35ms. At the other extreme, the most entry-level Rebel T6/1300D's lag is 120ms.

Finally, control access is another thing that can be important. For example, sports shooters often want more direct access to Exposure Compensation or shutter/aperture controls. They want to be able to make changes while keeping the camera to their eye and their eye on the action. T6i's controls are typical for Rebel series... many functions are "two-step". You first press a button, then turn a dial. In contrast the T6s, 77D, 80D have more direct access to some of the most used controls... simply turn the dial.

Back Button Focusing is a popular technique among sports photographers, too (primarily because it allows one to use AI Servo focus mode as a default setting). While I think it's possible to do BBF on all Canon DSLRs (and most EOS film SLRs), with some it's more conveniently done. On T6i/T6s and lower models, including your T3i, you have to reassign the AE Lock "*" button to control focus. On 77D and all xxD models from 40D onward, as well as all models upward, there's a separate "AF On" button that can be used instead, leaving the AE Lock function more quickly and easily accessible.

Frankly, maybe your best bet would be to instead add a lens for use on your T3i. Canon 70-200/2.8 are excellent for sports, especially on an APS-C model such as we're discussing. But a fast focusing 24-70mm f2.8 or similar also can be very useful. Or a 300mm f4 IS, to get shots at the other end of the football field! I always consider lenses more important than the camera they are used upon, so long as the camera is relatively up to modern spec. The T3i is 18MP (7DII is 20MP, T6i is 24MP... neither is all that much of an increase in this respect). And I shot sports for years with cameras that have essentially the same AF system and were little faster than your T3i. It's not like it hasn't already quite capably made 32,000 images for you! Sometimes the best thing to do is keep the camera you know and add optics that will make it even more useful.

Screamin Scott Loc: Marshfield Wi, Baltimore Md, now Dallas Ga

Here is a link to a shutter life expectancy database for that model. You should be good for awhile...

http://www.olegkikin.com/shutterlife/canon_eos600d.htm

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

A few things to consider. First the t3i is rated to 100,000 actuations, not 75,000, and the OPs use so far is a third of the rated life. Second, the OP has used his 32,000 clicks over three years. Extrapolating based on the rated life of the shutter he should expect another 7 years of use at that rate. Third, and most importantly, as you indicated, while a shutter can fail at any time they tend to last much longer than their conservative rated life and the OP could get 2 or 3 times or more the rated life of the shutter. Even at 2 times the rated life, his camera could potentially be used for the next 17 years, at 10,000 images per year, before the shutter fails!

ggab Loc: ?

I love my T3i.
While I use my 7D and 7D MkII for sports and nature photography, I use the T3i for stationary shots.
IMHO, keep it if it suites your needs.

hj Loc: Florida

Thanks everyone for the tremendous amount of info being shared. I'm reading every word!

ecar Loc: Oregon, USA

Even though camera manufacturers put a number on maximum shutter actuations, The actual number of camera failures due to excessive shutter counts are extremely rare. Most camera's fail for other reasons, way before the shutter fails. If your happy with your camera, you should keep it until it breaks, unless you want, and have the money to upgrade to a different camera.

I know one woman who insists on the controls on the left side of the camera, (such as the T3i) and refuses to go to a pro style camera with controls on the right. If this is not a concern, and you want to upgrade, and you have the money, Great!

BIG ROB Loc: Princeton, NJ 08540

According to Screaming Scott's link in the above post, to "The Shutter Life Database", the average life to failure of the
Canon EOS Rebel T3i is only :

Canon EOS 600D / Rebel T3i / Kiss X5 Shutter Life
Direct link to this page: Canon EOS 600D / Rebel T3i / Kiss X5

Average number of actuations after which shutter is still alive: 38,522.0
Average number of actuations after which shutter died: 52,320.4

That data doesn't look like he'll make it for the next seventeen years...

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

First, I have a t2i and a t3i each one with well over 100K actuations and still working. I question the statistics you present and how they were gathered. While shutters can fail at any time, there are far more reports of them significantly exceeding the rated number than failing prior to the rated number. My Canon 60D, also rated for 100,000 actuations currently has 145,000 and is still working fine. My Canon 7D Mark II is rated for 200,000 actuations and is currently at 75,000. Queries about shutter failures on this and other forums are relatively few and far between when you consider the huge number of forum members and the number of cameras owned. Often weeks can go by here before someone posts about a failed shutter. Almost everyone in this thread has similar experiences with shutter life.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

This is true, but 32,000 is not very many, even for a Canon, and I'm a die hard Nikon Nut.

IBM

I would get rid of it, as you only got about a hundred days left if your taking about a thousand pictures a day ,

skidiver8

If you want to upgrade to a better sports camera, move to the Canon 7D mark II. It has much better auto focus and shoots at 10 frames per second! I love mine!

DJphoto Loc: SF Bay Area

I feel much better now. I went to the vintage sports car races at Sears Point (Sonoma) last Sunday and took over 4,000 photos with my 80D. This discussion was making me think I need to scale back my "shoot rate" when I go to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for the weekend next month. Now I'll just shoot away and not worry about wearing out my camera prematurely. I guess I do need another SD card though.

BIG ROB Loc: Princeton, NJ 08540

Hey, don't get upset man; I'm only stating what that "Shutter Data Base" reports. Contact them, and give them, your grief if you believe that their data, is incorrect. That is what they're stating.

You know it all, contact them, and set "them straight", just as you post on here, if you feel strongly about it...

Also, I don't believe that there are all that many people who post on this forum, it's only a small group of the same people, and another group of various newcomers who pass by; less than 200 total I suspect.

Have a nice day.