M9 Shutter Actuation Count?

[dcsang]

Ya know all this film production being sold off or halting over the last week has got me thinking that perhaps... if I want to continue to use my M lenses on a full frame body; I'm going to have to look to digital and specifically Leica's offering.

With that in mind, I've been perusing the used items (and waiting to see what the brouhaha is about later in September) and I'm curious; what is the shutter life on the M9?

I've seen many threads elsewhere that talk of "lifetime" or "no need to worry" or "it will last you till xxxx" but I don't recall ever seeing Leica or anyone state a stat/spec from Leica which would say "The expected life of the shutter on the M9 is xx,xxx actuations; at which time the camera should be returned to Leica for shutter replacement currently at a cost of $x,xxx" or such.

And, of course, my curiosity about this surrounds looking, as I said, at used M9 bodies and pricing.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[Godfrey]

Ya know all this film production being sold off or halting over the last week has got me thinking that perhaps... if I want to continue to use my M lenses on a full frame body; I'm going to have to look to digital and specifically Leica's offering.

With that in mind, I've been perusing the used items (and waiting to see what the brouhaha is about later in September) and I'm curious; what is the shutter life on the M9?

I've seen many threads elsewhere that talk of "lifetime" or "no need to worry" or "it will last you till xxxx" but I don't recall ever seeing Leica or anyone state a stat/spec from Leica which would say "The expected life of the shutter on the M9 is xx,xxx actuations; at which time the camera should be returned to Leica for shutter replacement currently at a cost of $x,xxx" or such.

And, of course, my curiosity about this surrounds looking, as I said, at used M9 bodies and pricing.

I don't recall Leica making any official statements about expected MTBF for the M9 shutter, but then I don't recall them publishing anything about that for any of the film cameras either.

Shutter parts are the sorts of things that tend to be around in stock for a long long time, and I have yet to wear out a shutter, so it's not something I've ever worried about. I'm not a "go out for an afternoon and come home with 5000 exposures" kind of person. ;-)

 

[dcsang]

I don't recall Leica making any official statements about expected MTBF for the M9 shutter, but then I don't recall them publishing anything about that for any of the film cameras either.

Shutter parts are the sorts of things that tend to be around in stock for a long long time, and I have yet to wear out a shutter, so it's not something I've ever worried about. I'm not a "go out for an afternoon and come home with 5000 exposures" kind of person. ;-)

Thanks Godfrey 🙂

I guess I'm just concerned as I see M9's locally for the $5000 mark but with more than 9K shutter counts on them.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[Godfrey]

Thanks Godfrey 🙂

I guess I'm just concerned as I see M9's locally for the $5000 mark but with more than 9K shutter counts on them.

I can't imagine that the expected life of the shutter is anything less than 10x that, and probably closer to 20x that.

When I was shooting every day and trying to make a business of it, I put 60,000 exposures on one Pentax *ist DS body and 37,000 on a second one over the course of a few years. That was (at the time) the very inexpensive, consumer grade offering from Pentax, and the comment I got from Pentax Service was that the shutters were likely good for 125,000 actuations at least.

- My E-1 (made in October 2003, I acquired it in 2008) had 2900 actuations on the shutter when I got it and now has 15,000. Still sounds and works like new.

- My E-5 (bought in October 2010) racked up 7000 actuations in the year and a half I was shooting with it, my friend now uses it every day in his business work.

- My Panasonic L1 (bought in June 2007) went for 40,000 actuations before I sold it in 2011. Still going strong according to the buyer.

- I don't recall what the Pentax K10D (bought 2006) had when I sold it in 2010. Had to have been over 40,000. Far as I'm aware, it's still snapping away too.

I don't think there's a modern camera in this class made today that won't run 100,000 actuations. One of the guys on a popular podcast who does a lot of time lapse work racked up 300,000 with his Canon 5D before he had it rebuilt.

The shutters in modern cameras are pretty durable, and they're not awfully expensive to rebuild. Few are ever actually worn out ... people get bored with their camera and buy something new in most cases long before they wear them out.

 

[icebear]

Thanks Godfrey 🙂

I guess I'm just concerned as I see M9's locally for the $5000 mark but with more than 9K shutter counts on them.

Cheers,
Dave

Hi Dave, my guess 9K is less than 10% of what this shutter should be good for. Just check the sensor carefully, that there are no stupid cleaning marks. Good luck, you will enjoy it.