Canon 50D Shutter Actuations Counter (and Canon 40D too!)

Just a quick post before knocking off for the evening.

Saw a post today on canonrumors.com that had a link to a site that has a free piece of software that can read the (until now) Canon Support territory of how many actuations a shutter has. The idea is pretty basic - it uses the EOS Utility drivers (you put this .exe file in the same directory as the EOS Utility) to access the information from the camera. You plug in the camera to your computer with a USB cable, turn it on, close the EOS Utility if it starts, then start this application. Click the "Get Count" button and voila!.

This program accesses information from the Digic III processor (or the Digic IV) so the app will work on the 40D, 50D, and the 5D Mark II, but not on the 30D, or 350D,400D, etc...

It was interesting to see that my 40D has 27,010 actuations, but how accurate is it? Well, my 50D shows 3,961 - which shows 4 more than the highest image number. This results from some "remote shooting from PC" which counts as a shutter actuation, but since the file is saved directly to the computer, so the compact flash card count doesn't get increased. So I'd say that the 27k actuations reading on my 40D is pretty accurate.

This is only for the PC, not for the Mac, but you can read all the details here.

Thanks for reading!

Comments

[Paibool]

Thanks Will.

Just 1 Question.
If I've formated my CF card, will it give the real number of actuations?

[Paibool]

After I used the program, I found that the program counts only those images that transfered via EOS Utility. I, sometime, use my internal card reader on my PC to directly download images from CF. It won't give the exact count for my case. T_T

[WillShootPhotos]

Paibool,

Yes, the utility will still give the real number of actuations. It reads the data from the camera, not the card itself.

- Will

[WillShootPhotos]

Paibool,

I just ran a test, your information about how the counter works is incorrect.

The counter software DOES count shots that are *not* transferred by the EOS utility.

Here is how I tested to confirm:

1. I ran the utility, it read 5564

2. I shot 20 images then removed the CF card

3. I ran the utility - it read 5584

I am still very confident in the shutter actuation counter.

Hope this helps!

- Will

[djuro radakovic]

OK.