Updated 2/17/2010. Added ExifTool information to main body of article.
Unfortunately, this value is not read (to my knowledge) by any of Nikon’s software; and the incompatibilities between Adobe PhotoShop and Nikon EXIF are legion. Thankfully, there’s a neat litle freeware program from Opanda, iExif, that will do the trick.
Install Opanda, and it automatically adds itself to the Windows context menu for JPG files. Right click on the file you want from Windows Explorer, and select ‘View EXIF/GPS/IPTC with iExif’ from the context menu. As the menu implies, not only does the program reveal EXIF data, but any IPTC or GPS tags as well. Very handy for looking at the ‘guts’ of a file.
This trick only works for the D70, D2H, and later cameras. (I’ve not tested D1H/D1X/D100, but it does not work with D1 files.) The files must also be straight from the camera — files that have been post processed in Adobe PhotoShop lose this information (along with much of the other EXIF data, sadly). And it doesn’t work with RAW files, which aren’t supported by iExif.
Additional options. Minimalists out there may be interested in ExifTool, a freeware command-line utility. No interface to speak of, but those of you who were undaunted by MS-DOS might find it handy. It is available in both PC and Mac flavors and the Perl source is available as well.
62 responses so far ↓
1 Angela // Feb 5, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Is there an on-camera way to check for actuations? I am looking at purchasing a store’s demmo camera and want to see how used it is. Or would that be the same thing?
2 The Sports Photo Guy // Feb 5, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Not that I’m aware of. You could always bring your own memory card, shoot a frame, then check the image on the card with iExif.
I’m not sure this is the best way to judge the condition of demo camera, though. Unless the store was loaning it for shooting, it probably won’t have many shutter clicks. I would, however, thoroughly check all of the controls for signs of being “loose” or worn. I imagine physical/mechanical damage from so many fumbling fingers is the greater risk.
3 Dave // Feb 8, 2009 at 5:25 pm
I have never been able to find this data in-camera either. As Chuck suggests, you have to analyze the last photo you took using third-party software.
I looked into a few options. I prefer not to install a lot of utilities on my machine, so I use ExifTool to look at the image metadata. It does not require any kind of formal Windows install. Instead, you just download the zip file and extract the executable onto your desktop (or wherever you want to keep it). Then just drag an image onto the icon for executable, and it pops up a DOS window with all the name-value pairs from the EXIF data. The number of shutter activations is included in this data, along with a whole lot of other information.
The homepage for ExifTool (freeware) is
http://owl.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/
4 Dave // Feb 8, 2009 at 7:55 pm
…And ExifTool does seem to work OK on RAW files from my D300 also. I copy my files onto my PC using Nikon Transfer, I am not sure if that would make any difference or not.
5 Joanna // Apr 20, 2009 at 5:09 am
hi there,
i’m planning to buy a used nikon d70 for my niece but the shutter count is already 22,000. Is iy worth buying?
6 The Sports Photo Guy // Apr 20, 2009 at 5:30 am
22,000 isn’t so bad. My own D70, purchased in March of 2004, is well over 40,000 and still going strong.
7 Nikon user // Apr 22, 2009 at 1:12 am
What about a Nikon D2X body with 53,380 actuations? Is it still worth buying? You think this is owned by a professional?
8 The Sports Photo Guy // Apr 22, 2009 at 6:34 am
That’s getting up there, but still not so bad. My pair of D300′s have roughly 75,000 and 50,000 actuations on them. The shutter on my D2H, however, gave out around 65,000 and had to be replaced. On the other hand, I’ve known of photojournalists who have 200,000 or more actuations (and one who had over 400,000, although that was on a Canon).
That’s the thing–it’s not quite a crap shoot, but you never can tell. I believe the D2X shutter has an MTBF (mean time between failures) of 150,000 for the shutter, but that’s just an average (“mean”). MyD2H failed well before its rated time; but it happens.
I’d call 53,000 a little on the heavy side, so I’d factor that into the price. I hope you’re considering paying less than the going rate for a new D300 in any event–it’s a better camera than the D2X in almost every way.
9 Andrej // Apr 23, 2009 at 3:51 pm
I’ve made 110.000 actuations (in 16 months) with my D100, 180.000 (in 21 months) with my D200 and well over 80.000 in the last 16 months with my D3.
Never had any problems.
The guy that purchased my used D200 just hit 230.000 past month and the camera still goes on strong!
10 Steve // May 4, 2009 at 8:13 am
Very usefule article and discussion. Will plan to bring the software and laptop to the camera mall when shopping for something used. Can use the shutter actuations in negotiation.
11 The Sports Photo Guy // May 5, 2009 at 7:41 am
I’ve just noticed that the shutter count isn’t displayed for my D90 – Nikon has apparently changed things. I’ll have to investigate to see if there are other tools that have figured out what Nikon has done with this figure.
12 Dave // May 8, 2009 at 12:06 am
EXIFtool (see my earlier post above) works fine for determining activations with my D90. The field name is “Shutter Count.”
13 The Sports Photo Guy // Jul 12, 2009 at 6:09 pm
OK, I was looking again today and iExif works just fine on my D90 files. Not sure what I was doing wrong before…
14 gig_22 // Sep 3, 2009 at 4:26 am
Hi there, I’m going to buy a used nikon D300, with actuation of 20,000. the price is $1,250 canadian dol. is that worth buying for its price ?
15 The Sports Photo Guy // Sep 3, 2009 at 4:54 am
That seems to be about the going price for a D300 in good condition. 20,000 frames is not a lot on that body.
16 Kim // Sep 13, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Thanx to sports photo guy website and to Dave who posted a freeware ExifTool link. this has helped so much to check the vigorously used Dslr Nikon cameras and are sold as new by some people on classfied adverts. this chap was selling me a D300 for £800 and he advertised it that it had only 900 shutter actuations. but when i went to meet him in the restaurant around London, i asked him if i could check the actuations and he told me i would never get that anywhere. so i switched on my laptop, test fired the D300 dowloaded the pics and drugged to my ExifTool. it showed me 100.000 plus shutters. he was gobsmacked too. so he asked me how i did it and showed him. finally i ended up not buying the machine and he went in disbelief. i even never saw his advert again.
17 Frank // Oct 16, 2009 at 10:09 am
Great advice, I was able to confirm shutter counts with the Opanda software. Thank you.
18 Wil // Oct 23, 2009 at 4:12 pm
IrfanView shows about 90 entries from Nikon EXIF, including all the maker data. Also displays NEF files.
19 Junaid // Dec 4, 2009 at 3:50 pm
Thank you for this page and the link to ExifTool. I was able to verify that my Nikon D5000 was sold to me as advertised.
20 mack // Dec 4, 2009 at 11:18 pm
Any Mac software that will reveal the number of shutter actuations???
21 The Sports Photo Guy // Dec 4, 2009 at 11:43 pm
Try EXIF Viewer:
http://homepage.mac.com/aozer/EV/
22 zibby // Dec 5, 2009 at 11:27 pm
hi
For the last few days I have been trying to find out how to find out my cameras shutter actuations, I have three cameras at the moment they are NIKON D2XS, D1X and CANON 30D. All the photos I take from these cameras are in JPEG files, but when i put them through CS2 and go to advance information All information comes except for the shutter actuations (image number) why I have no idea can anyone help me please tell me why this occuring? thanks
23 The Sports Photo Guy // Dec 6, 2009 at 12:40 am
The D1X does not, to my knowledge, record shutter actuation information.
The others you mention do, but Adobe stubbornly refused to read most camera-proprietary EXIF information until CS4. You’ll need one of the several, free tools listed on this page to read that information in those bodies.
24 Luis // Jan 2, 2010 at 12:24 pm
Have anyone tried ExifPro you can see alot of information even your cameras serial number and it supports raw files.
25 David // Jan 3, 2010 at 12:04 pm
Lightroom 2/3 shows shutter count
26 Avid photographer // Jan 16, 2010 at 11:57 pm
hi i am looking into buy a nikon d2x what would be considered a high number of actuations for this camera?????
27 The Sports Photo Guy // Jan 17, 2010 at 7:59 am
If I recall correctly, the D2X shutter is rated at 100,000 cycles. Note that this is an average; the shutter could fail at 10 cycles or 1,000,000. Personally, I would consider anything over 50-60,000 as fairly high and would lower my offer accordingly. Shutter replacements typically run around $400.
28 Jim // Jan 22, 2010 at 10:00 pm
Did you know the D3 is rated for 300,000 shutter actuations! The D300 and D700 share the same 150,000 shutter rating. Both, in my experience, very solid cameras.
29 The Sports Photo Guy // Jan 22, 2010 at 10:56 pm
Why, The Sports Photo Guy knows everything there is to know about Nikon cameras! Well, maybe not everything, but most of the stuff Nikon publishes, anyway.
That link has a very good explanation of “mean time between failures” (MTBF), which, while not precisely accurate is pretty good for practical purposes. Impressively, even the lowly D5000 has a 100,000-cycle shutter.
30 Colin Bell // Feb 17, 2010 at 11:50 am
Is it possible to get iEXIF software for Mac?
31 The Sports Photo Guy // Feb 17, 2010 at 7:38 pm
Colin – see the link I added to the article for ExifTool.
32 Webb // Feb 25, 2010 at 6:17 am
For most Mac users who are more than casual photographers, I recommend Graphic Converter, now at version 6.6. It is amazingly capable photo software for $35, and you can try it for free. It will retrieve EXIF data from any file that contains it, as well as blowing Photoshop Elements away for less than half the price.
33 Jon // Mar 2, 2010 at 2:59 am
I have a D200 that I have tried and tried to get a accurrate shutter count, tried Opanda and anther Exif Viewer and I keep getting 4286800714, this number does advance when I take another picture. Bought it used but It looks like a new camera and I have had it for 2 years and used it very little. How could I get a shutter count this large? Firnware is updated.
Jon
34 ginger // Mar 2, 2010 at 11:56 am
that EXIF app is really cool!! it will save me a lot of money and headache in buying a used dslr. planning to upgrade my d40x to a d300. i had too read my cameras manual but didn’t find anything about the actuation’s.
35 The Sports Photo Guy // Mar 4, 2010 at 7:56 pm
Something definitely sounds amiss; this is almost impossibly high.
36 Jason // Mar 12, 2010 at 8:31 pm
I thinking of buying a D70s W/a 18-70mm lense..$200 is the price that He wants ,as his wife just bought a NIKON D3 D-SLR for her New Business..Is this a good deal consdering that the shutter count is at 42,000, and also will this last!
37 The Sports Photo Guy // Mar 12, 2010 at 9:31 pm
Heck, the lens alone is worth almost that much. My original D70 (now converted to IR) has about that much mileage on it and is still going strong.
38 Jason // Mar 13, 2010 at 7:23 am
IAM BETTER OFF SPENDING AN EATRA $250 AND BUYING AN NIKON D3000 BRAND NEW!
OR IS THE D70s THAT MUCH BETTER AND THE PRICE I CAN BEAT..I ALSO THOUGHT THAT SHUTTER COUNTS SHOULDN’T BE THAT HIGH! IAM NEW TO NIKON FAMILY AN DWANT ONLY A CAMERA FROM PERSONAL USE (FAMILY PICS, SPORTING EVENTS, NATURE, ETC)
THANKS
39 The Sports Photo Guy // Mar 13, 2010 at 8:37 am
The plot thickens! If the D3000 is within your means, I’d go that route.
40 Lisa // Mar 27, 2010 at 12:10 pm
I must be a dunce. I installed Opanda IEXIF 2.26, but I cannot see anything in the list about shutter actuations. All the JPGs I am looking at are from a Nikon D300 and were processed using Adobe CS3. Suggestions?
41 The Sports Photo Guy // Mar 28, 2010 at 1:31 am
CS3 (very annoyingly) strips out the manufacturer-specific EXIF info such as the shutter count. If you examine the original files before you saved them in PhotoShop, you will see the shutter counts.
42 John // Mar 29, 2010 at 4:53 am
I understand reloading firmware may reset shutter count to zero. Will iEXIF be affected or will it still read true. Talking Nikon d70 here.
43 The Sports Photo Guy // Mar 29, 2010 at 5:42 am
Good question, though not one I’m in a position to answer since my last D70 firmware update was years ago and I’m not expecting Nikon to release another! However, if the count is reset, it’s reset – no software program is going to be able to figure out what the “true” shutter count is.
44 John // Mar 29, 2010 at 9:13 pm
Thanks. Just checked using the Iexif and shutter count 1507. Seller admits updating firmware and that shutter count is much (but unknown) higher. I guess this highlifts the danger of relying on this software or the shutter count at all. Makes it damn hard to value a camera when buying online. (had a photo emailed to me)..
I wonder if serial nos provide an indication of age and if so, how to check? Any ideas appreciated. Thanks for reply, very helpful forum..
45 Scott // Apr 24, 2010 at 4:34 am
On a mac, you can see the shutter count in CS3 from a D70s. Imported from Camera Raw, here is what it will look like:
File info
Advanced
http://ns.adobe.com/exif/1.0/aux/
aux:ImageNumber: 24679
46 Bill Edwards // May 18, 2010 at 10:14 am
I just tried to get a count on my D79s and thought I had it with Opanda power Exif, at least for a second. I imported jpg no. DSC_3036 and gor a makers note of 27390. Next to check, I imported DSC_3035 and got a makers note of 26884. What’s up with that?
Thanks,
Bill
47 ECB // May 22, 2010 at 11:48 am
Hi, information posted in here has been very helpful. I just purchased a used D2X for $670 us. actuations shown is 35298… Is the actuations too high for the price I paid? If the shutter goes out can it be fixed and what is the average cost. Thanks
48 The Sports Photo Guy // May 22, 2010 at 12:11 pm
That’s quite a bargain. Blown shutters can be fixed for ~ $200-$400 in my experience. I wouldn’t worry too much – while of course you can never tell when a mechanical part might fail, the shutter on the D2X is rated for 150,000 cycles I believe. Your camera should have a good amount of life left in it.
49 The Sports Photo Guy // May 22, 2010 at 12:16 pm
Weird. Just looked at several groups of my shots and the shutter release counts are all precisely sequential, as you would expect them to be. Have you checked other images shot on other dates/times?
50 PAM // Jun 11, 2010 at 8:24 pm
Planning to upgrade a point and shoot to DSLR and is now thinking of buying a refurbished Nikon D5000 for $ 519.00 or a brand new for $ 696.95 from ADORAMA.com. Is buying a refurbished DSLR not a good idea. I was told that one of the items not to buy refurbished is a digital camera. Will the refurbished unit have lots of actuation on them or are they Nikon factory reset ?
51 The Sports Photo Guy // Jun 12, 2010 at 5:38 pm
If the refurbished camera is sold by a reputable dealer, and has a warranty, then I’d have no problem in most cases. This past basketball season, I bought a refurbished D40 from Cameta Camera. It came with a warranty and I’ve had no problems with it at all.
If a warranty isn’t offered, Mack warranties are always a possibility.
52 Jayson // Jun 13, 2010 at 11:20 pm
I’m glad I found this article. I just purchased a supposedly brand-new D5000 this afternoon. The EXIF data for the first picture I took was 951. I’m thinking somebody had some fun with my camera before I purchased it!
53 Delivery McGee // Jul 3, 2010 at 12:26 am
951 isn’t bad at all. That’s about how long I’d go before being sure it wouldn’t randomly crap out on me from a manufacturing defect. I’d definitely call up the seller and yell at them and try to get a partial refund, though, if it was advertised as new.
For comparison, my newspaper-issued D2xs has 107,000 and is still going strong. And it’s had a hard life.
Currently waiting for the battery to charge for my D1x to see if I can pull a count off it. It’s also the paper’s, but I’ve had it longer (only just given the D2), so I consider it “mine” more.
54 Wendy Smith // Jul 14, 2010 at 8:18 am
You can also get the shutter actuation count on a mac in preview, open the inspector (command+I) and click on the Nikon tab under i, and it will give you the shutter count.
55 Wendy Smith // Jul 14, 2010 at 8:20 am
Where can you find what a specific camera’s shutter count is rated? Have looked at Nikon’s website, but can’t find this information anywhere.
56 The Sports Photo Guy // Jul 14, 2010 at 8:45 am
Wendy,
Thanks for the Mac tip.
Try this link for shutter MTBF ratings:
http://support.nikonusa.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/16492
Chuck
57 Photo Em // Aug 8, 2010 at 1:47 am
My Nikon D50, which I’ve had for 4.5 years, shows a current shutter count of 1305 using PhotoME. Does that mean 130 thousand or so??
Because a couple of years ago, there was a place online where you could upload a pic and it would display the info, and I was already at 7oK.
I’ve been shooting professionally since then and, based on how many images I have on one of my harddrives alone, am fairly confident that my number should be in the 150K – 200K range.
I haven’t upgraded the firmware or anything.
Help?
58 The Sports Photo Guy // Aug 8, 2010 at 6:40 am
I’m not familiar with PhotoME, but the number reported by other software I’ve seen is a regular number, not tens or hundreds.
59 Photo Em // Aug 11, 2010 at 11:43 pm
I tried other photos. I can’t find the difference in the files, but some groups of photos show 68500 (for example) as the shutter count.
I don’t know. All the other EXIF looks accurate and lengthy!
60 D5000 // Aug 17, 2010 at 5:42 pm
Very good and informative article. Will be testing my yet-to-be-bought d5000 with the software later this week. I was hoping to find something about checking the actuations and this is just the article i was looking for. Magic!
61 wtcpaul // Aug 19, 2010 at 1:53 pm
Bidding on a D40x on ebay. Asked the seller if he knows the number of actuations and he doesn’t know how to obtain. Does anyone know if iExif will work for images taken on a D40X?
Thanks!
62 The Sports Photo Guy // Aug 21, 2010 at 10:51 am
This technique should work on a D40X.
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