Jim Bob

How many of you have actually had a DSLR in need of repair during or after the warranty period? How many of you own DSLRs that have never required repair and are still fully functional after exceeding the shutter actuation life spans provided in the manuals?

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I've never had a DSLR that needed repair, but I am very careful with them. The way you treat your equipment, as well as the number of shots you take, will determine how long your gear lasts. A war photographer and a local landscape photographer will have totally different experiences.

Fortunately for them, Nikon has been able to tempt me with new models before my old ones wear out. I've had film SLRs last for decades, but my DSLRs are generally sold and replaced within five years. We currently have six Nikon DSLRs in the house, and I've sold over a dozen this century. Yes, ridiculous, although many of them were bought used and refurbished and sold for good prices. That's why I'm keeping my D750s indefinitely.

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

I still have my T1i, 7 + years, my son has an older Canon, my film cameras are from the 60's and 70's, treat cameras like kids, bob.

insman1132 Loc: Southwest Florida

I have never had any camera of any kind, dating way back to the 1950's that needed repair - ever! Maybe just lucky??

Bazbo Loc: Lisboa, Portugal

I have never had a camera that needed a repair, going back to 2006 when I finally made the transition to digital. I give my cameras away when I upgrade bur I understand that the cameras that I have gifted are still in service and working fine.

BTW, I am not particularly easy on the gear so they are in for some rough treatment while I own them. Still, no problem with any of them, Maybe I a just lucky.

BebuLamar

I bought a used Nikon D70s and it's working fine. It would be about 10 year old now.

Macbadger Loc: Illinois

I have been using SLRs since 1969, DSLRs since 2008. I never had a problem until 2012 when I went on safari in East Africa. Before I left, I asked a pro photographer friend what lenses he would advise I take. He told me, and then said to take a second body for sure. I never owned more than one before that, and since I never had a problem, I asked why he would advise the second body. He said that if I did have a problem on a trip like that, and didn't have a second body, I would probably kill myself. Well I took his advice and bought a second body. About half way through the trip, I couldn't get the lens off my primary body, nor would it take any photos with the lens already attached. Thank heavens I took his advice. I now bring two bodies on any trip that I consider critical. The fact that one has never had a problem, even for many decades, is no guarantee that you won't have a failure. Of course, the failure will come at the most inopportune time.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Different manufacturers have different design specifications for their different camera lines. A top of the line dSLR might withstand 250,000 shutter actuations as its Mean Time Before Failure (MTBF), while a midrange dSLR from the same company might last 150,000 actuations, MTBF. And the company's entry level dSLR might be tested to just 75,000 actuations.

Of course, cameras fail for all sorts of reasons unrelated to the shutter. But the estimated MTBF life is usually rated in shutter clicks, not time.

Since digital cameras have been available in high volume for only about 16 years, there has been a lot of "model churn" in the industry.

In the old days of film, a camera model might be available for a decade or more without major changes. The original Nikon F debuted in 1959 and was officially succeeded by the F2 in 1972, but still made until May of 1974. My 1971 model still works.

Now, we're lucky if a body lasts 2–3 years *in the marketplace.* The implications of this are manifold. Given proper care, a new camera will be usable for a lot longer than most people want to own it. Manufacturers are moving innovations into their products at a rate faster than we can assimilate them. Competition is fierce, especially since smartphones have cut the bottom out of the market. So we are bombarded with New! New! New! all the time.

In my own experience, working at a school portrait company, we bought about 330 Canon EOS 20D bodies in 2005. We kept adding 20Ds until they were no longer available. Then we switched to adding 30D, 40D, and 50D bodies as their predecessors were no longer available. By the time Lifetouch bought our division of Herff Jones in 2011, we had been seeing the 20D bodies start to fail. Although Canon didn't publish an MTBF for the 20D, most of them seemed to get around 63,000 to 78,000 shutter clicks before they quit. We had just begun to replace the most heavily used of them at five years, as a preventative measure.

The 30Ds were the first Canons in the midrange to get over 100,000 shutter clicks MTBF. We did have a few of them fail due to abuse, but they were mostly repaired and put back in service. The 40D was similarly reliable.

I guess where I'm going with this is that most cameras are very reliable, and you will probably WANT a new one before you will NEED a new one.

We had an occasional body that would not focus correctly. I had a 40D that was just plain made incorrectly. Canon could not get it to focus, so they sent me another one on the third go-round. We had a few bodies of each generation with bad electronics, over the years, but most of those had been stored in car trunks in sub-zero °F or over 90°F weather, and no digital camera can survive much of that! Since we worked in tethered mode, always connected to a PC laptop for instant editing, cropping, and order generation, the micro-USB connectors on the 30D and 40D bodies proved to be a very weak point of failure.

By the time we were sold, we had over 440 dSLRs in our employees' hands, and hundreds more we had sold to customers of our wholesale lab. Failure rates were very low.

Regarding warranty repairs, I would say that most extended warranties are worthless, because you probably won't need them. Dealers sell extended warranties because they are almost all profit. You would be better off putting the amount of the extended warranty charge in savings, every time you are offered one, and call it "self-insurance against equipment failure."

Authorized Importer warranties are another matter entirely. If you need service during the warranty period, then you need a valid warranty for your country, or you need the time it takes either to return it to the dealer (if they support it), or to send it abroad for service. Some people buy gray market gear, and put the price difference between that and officially imported gear into a savings account, "just in case." Do that with enough equipment, and you can save a bundle while still having repairs covered. You are assuming the risk yourself, instead of letting a dealer charge you extra for it...

Jim Bob

These are all very interesting and informative replies and I thank you all so very, very much for taking the time to post them.

Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.

I think we are more in danger of not being able to find batteries for older DSLR's then we are of the camera itself giving up the ghost.

bigtex2000 Loc: Arlington, TX

This would be my greater concern regarding longevity!!!!!!!!

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I have no concerns at all about camera longevity. MY longevity, yes!

Gear Acquisition Syndrome will drive most of us to replace our current gear at some point, since the pace of innovation ensures everything is twice as fast about 5-7 years after we buy it.

And there is always some extremely introverted techie in a garage somewhere, dreaming up the Next Big Thing to change current paradigms...

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

Even if you don't use your DSLR, eventually the internal battery will die which quite likely will render the camera functionally impaired or inoperable. Although internal battery replacement is an option, you may consider the expense not worthwhile for, at that point, 20-year old digital camera.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

I still shot with film cameras that are over 50 years old (and they are like new), I do not see any reason why DSLR's would not last just as long! I never had to send any camera in for a repair!

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

A digital camera is an entirely different beast compared to a (mostly) mechanical film camera. With slight corrosion of the mechanical parts in your 50-year old camera, the camera will usually keep on working. When the delicate, miniature-sized electronic components begin to corrode in your DSLR, the circuit board is done and the camera rendered useless.