Check a camera’s shutter count from a photo

How to use it#

1. Take a new photo with the camera, or find the newest one on its memory card.
2. Drop the file onto the box above as it came off the card: a JPG, a HEIC, or a raw file such as NEF, CR3, ARW, or PEF.
3. Read the count and the date beside it. The count is the camera’s total at the moment that photo was taken.
4. If there is no count, the line under the result says why: the model keeps none, or the file has lost the maker’s data.

Which cameras write a shutter count into their photos#

The count is not part of standard EXIF. Each maker keeps it, if it keeps it at all, in its maker notes, a private block in a format of its own, so which cameras can be read depends on the brand and often on the model.

Nikon writes it on every DSLR from the D200 on, including the D3000, D5000, and D7000 series, the D750, the D850, and the D5 and D6, and on every Z camera, the Nikon 1 series, and the Coolpix A. The D1 and D100 families and most Coolpix compacts have none.

Pentax writes it on its DSLRs from the *ist DL on, from the K100D and K-x to the K-5 and K-3, on the 645D and 645Z, and on the Q series. The *ist D and *ist DS have none. Newer bodies such as the K-1, the KP, and the K-3 Mark III keep it the same way. The Optio and WG compacts carry a similar number, but it is not known to be a count, so the page does not show it.

Sony keeps it on its Alpha (α) mirrorless and SLT cameras from the NEX-5N on: the NEX-6 and NEX-7, the A5000 and A5100, the A6000 to the A6700, every A7 from the first to the A7 V, including the R, S, and C models, the A9 and A9 II, the A1 and A1 II, the A68, the A77 II, the QX1, and the SLT-A37, A57, A65, A77, and A99. The file names these by their model codes, such as ILCE-7M3 for the A7 III. Sony stores the count in a different place on different bodies, so the page reads only the models whose place is known. That leaves out the DSLR-A cameras, the SLT-A33, A35, A55, and A58, the first NEX models, the compacts such as the RX100 and ZV-1, and the A9 III, which has no mechanical shutter at all.

Canon is the exception. A count can be read from the photos of the EOS R5, R6, R6 Mark II, R8, and R50, the PowerShot G5 X Mark II, and some EOS-1D Mark III bodies, and from no other Canon. The EOS 5D Mark IV, the 90D, the R, RP, R7, and R10, and the R5 Mark II all keep theirs inside the camera, where only software connected to it over USB can read it.

Fujifilm, OM System and Olympus, Panasonic, Leica, Sigma, Hasselblad, and Samsung cameras do not write a shutter count into their photos at all, and neither do phones. Ricoh’s GR compacts are not known to write one either. For those, a service centre for the brand can read it from the camera itself.

Why a photo can show no count#

The count lives in the maker notes, and plenty of software drops them. An export from an editor such as Lightroom, a copy saved from a phone’s gallery, and a photo sent through a chat app or posted online usually lose them, while the camera’s name survives. When the page finds the name and no maker notes, it asks for the original file. Take it straight off the memory card, or plug the camera in and copy it across without importing it into an editing app.

The image number is a different thing. Cameras also write a file number, the 4821 in DSC_4821.JPG, and Canon and Fujifilm store a counter of their own. Those count files, not shutter releases. They start again at a new card or folder, or once they pass 9999, so the page never shows them as a shutter count.

What the count tells you about a used camera#

Makers rate their shutters for a number of cycles, or actuations, from around 100,000 on entry-level bodies to several hundred thousand on professional ones. A rating is an average rather than a limit, but a count well below it says the shutter has most of its life left, and a count near it is worth pricing into an offer, since a replacement shutter is a repair bill of its own.

The number in a photo is the total when that photo was taken. When buying, ask the seller for a photo taken that day and sent as the original file, not an old picture from the camera, which shows an older and lower count. On a mirrorless camera, shots taken with the electronic shutter do not wear the mechanical one, and some bodies leave them out of the count. The line under the result says when that applies.