DSLR lifetime
Actually, this post has me thinking: what typically kills a DSLR? That is, beyond dropping it from 4 feet (which will kill a DSLR. trust me on this one. RIP D30), what are the things that will typically break in a DSLR first that will make it prohibitively expensive to repair versus the cost of a new replacement? It’s sortof like a car. As long as the engine and a few other critical components don’t die, you can keep repairing it, barring a money pit situation. So, what is the “engine” of a DSLR?
- The shutter?
- I think I’m okay here. I have shot around 15,000 frames, and before that I’d guess the previous owner did a third of that, but I don’t know. This thread indicates an average lifetime of 50k frames with a typical consumer EOS body shutter. So not a problem. And even if it did break, apparently it’s not a difficult repair to send in and have done — a few hundred bucks. (Though, with the plummetting cost of DSLRs, a “few hundred” quickly gets into viable replacement territory, depending on how many “few” we’re talking.)
- The sensor
- I am curious about this, and I have my suspicions that this will actually begin to be the thing that causes me to replace it. I don’t think that it will ever just completely die, but I already have a scary number of dead pixels (as I learned when I started doing lightning photography with long-exposure noise reduction turned off). There’s also a weird pock-mark I can visibly see on the sensor, which yields a little circle sometimes that I have to clone out. I have a feeling the sensor might eventually get beatup enough that it’s unusable?
- CF card slot
- I don’t know what the possibility of this dying is, but I’ve read about people having problems. And I don’t know a lot about embedded electronics, but I’m guessing the CF reader is incorporated into the main board itself, and this is likely prohibitively expensive to replace/repair. I really have no idea though.
What else? What will kill a DSLR?
I’m gonna go with ” water immersion” here. Definitely a killer.
You dropped your D30???? That is very bad news. My condolences.
I had the problem of a malfunctioning CF slot. Threw money at the problem but eventually I just had to replace the whole damn thing.
I bet running one over with a truck and then setting it on fire would kill it.
I’m guessing my dog could do some nice damage to a camera. She already chewed up one of my SD cards. I’m also guessing that if I had to use my camera as a weapon, it would end it’s life. I’ve actually considered the latter when exploring bad areas of town. I should probably just carry mace. It’s cheaper.
But, as for real problems, I’d think dropping it, getting it too wet or leaving it in a really hot car would be the only probable fears.
I too, had a problem with a malfunctioning card slot. It seemed like one of the pins that connects to the CF card was bent so the CF card couldn’t be pushed in all the way. Unfortunately it was about 6 months after my warranty ended, it cost about $200 to fix.
Awesome shot. You know, of all the cities in the US I think Nashville has the crappiest skyline photo on Wikipedia. Hint hint!
Shit, how do I always manage to comment on the wrong posts :P