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Shutter Life of GH1&2
  • How much life there is GH's shutter? My Gh1 13580 ! Should we be worried !? I wonder if other shutter numbers...

  • 8 Replies sorted by
  • I think something in 100k to 150k range.

  • There is an online camera shutter life database at http://www.olegkikin.com/shutterlife/ of user reported shutter life. No GH1/2s are listed yet - may be that means their shutter life is really good :)

    For high end cameras, 150,000 to 300,000 shutter clicks before dying is normal.

    For low end cameras, 50,000 to 100,000 seems normal (some less, some more).

  • You don't have to worry anyway. Replacing shutter probably isn't big deal for Panasonic service and also shouldn't be very expensive. My GH1 has 45340, when I "kill" it, I will post here again ;-)

  • DSLRs have shutter ratings beause they have a lot more (mechanically) moving, such as the the whole mirror assembly which flips when shutter is used. Mirrorless cameras, while they still have a "shutter" it's just the shutter, but not the mirror portion. In other words, they have a lot less moving parts to break, and actually a lot less mass to move agressively. The "shutter life" shouldn't be much of an issue, unless you damage it with the lens off.

    Consider this though, DSLR's increase their "shutter count" when not even taking a picture, for example, when going to live view and back, or even to do a sensor cleaning. Not that it would contribute much to the count, but goes to show that it's not actually the use of the "shutter" that the number is trying to signify.

  • I have had GH1 since 2009. Last summers shots above 1/320sec shutter speed started to be over exposed at the upper part of the picture. About 1/4 of the total height of the picture. Shutter count was ca. 36000.

    See pictures. First one is 1/640sec. Second 1/1600sec. Third is 1/60sec image image image

    Now the shutter count is little more than 50000. Camera still works below 1/320sec but above that pictures are partly over exposed. Still using camera in video mode. No problems.

    P1360661.JPG
    1600 x 1200 - 313K
    P1360839.JPG
    1600 x 1200 - 421K
    P1340578.JPG
    1600 x 1200 - 329K
  • where can I check the shutter count of my GH1 ? Thanks

  • @labalbi If you didn't reset file numbering, your file no = shutter count

  • I tried entering the service mode on one of my GH2s and got a staggering 4.2 BILLION shutter counts!

    Following this advice:

    To enter the TEMPORARY Service mode (there also exists PERMANENT service mode) do the following:

    1. Make sure you have a NON-EMPTY (with some images) memory card in the camera.
    2. Set the Drive mode lever to Single position

    3. On a TURNED OFF camera push DISPLAY and AF/AE LOCK buttons simultaneously. While holding these two buttons turn on the power.

    Now the camera should be in the temporary service mode. To make sure it is, enter the Setup menu (the one marked with "wrench" icon) and look at the very last page. In the service mode there will be a new item ROM BACKUP. This item is for saving the user settings to and restoring them from a memory card.

    1. Push simultaneously LEFT ARROW and MENU/SET buttons. A menu can pop up or some settings show - don't pay attention to that now. While holding these two buttons push AF/AE LOCK. You can now release all three buttons. The screen will now show a table with the last 16 error codes and their dates. Table navigation is done with the arrow buttons. Error codes are explained in the Service Manual.

    2. Repeat the actions from item 4 once more. Now you will see CAMERA INFO screen. There is the most interesting info:

    VER: full software revision number

    No.: motherboard's serial number

    PWRCNT: Number of power on cycles (including exits from the Sleep mode)

    SHTCNT: Number of shutter activations

    STBCNT: Number of flash activations

    1. If you now push DISPLAY button you will see CAMERA INFO 2 screen. There are several more counters there: Total number of clock settings (ClockSet Cnt), and two more (UnderCut Cnt и RTC Read Err).<<

    2. By repeating actions from item 4 return the camera into the initial state. The camera can work as usual despite it is still in the service mode.

    Complete exit from the service mode is done when the camera is powered down.

    Could this be due to the hacking?