Hey there, new photographer here. So I recently learned that my Canon R6 has a lifespan of about 300,000 actuations of the shutter. I generally take about 1000 photos each shoot (obviously I cull the photos after). According to these calculations, my camera should last for about 300 sessions. This number seems a little low to me? Considering the immense cost of the camera? What is your opinion on this and have you also considered lifespan of the camera when shooting? Any suggestions? Should I be more conservative with my photos considering this? Thanks in advance!
Honestly, not really. I photograph air shows, and over a busy weekend I can easily hit around 5k shots. But even with half a dozen shows over the summer months, that’s still ‘only’ 30k actuations. Which means a camera rated for 300k actuations would be expected to last for 10 years.
In reality, it’ll be less of course, because it doesn’t just sit in a cupboard for the other 9 months of the year; I photograph other events too, but those are at most 1k shots per weekend rather than 5k.
Even taking all that into account, the reality is that my oldest camera is a 6D Mk2, released in mid-2017. So it’s at most 6 years old (and more likely about 5, because I’m rarely an early adopter). Both my other 2 DSLRs and mirrorless bodies are considerably newer.
tl;dr - I’m almost certainly going to upgrade/replace the camera due to age and availability of shiny new tech before it hits its shutter count.