# Shutter Count Question



## Dillard (Jan 12, 2012)

So I recently purchased a refurbished Nikon D7000 and was wondering about the shutter count after reading an article about someone buying one with close to 10k shutter actuations. Is there anyway for Nikon to reset the shutter count? I ran mine through myshuttercount.com and through the Mac's preview program and both read 101 actuations before I started snapping photos. I'm not complaining at all, just wondering if I just lucked up, or can Nikon reset the count? I obviously don't know much about the refurb process but figured someone on here may.

Thanks!
Dillard


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## Big Mike (Jan 12, 2012)

When you buy something that is factory refurbished, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's used.  For example, it may have been flagged for a minor (or major) discrepancy during the production line testing.  So they pull it from the line, fix it and inspect it.  They can't put it back into the production line, so it has to be sold as refurbished.
Some of the might have been store samples...and yes, some of them might be returns etc.

The good part, is that if it's refurbished, it gets fully tested and inspected, whereas if it came off the production line, it probably won't have been full tested, because they can only test a small sample.

So you have have lucked out and got an unused camera.  But either way, I'd guess that they can reset the shutter count if the want.


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## Dillard (Jan 12, 2012)

Ah, very good points! Thanks!


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## KmH (Jan 12, 2012)

Or it was a return from someone that had buyers remorse, or it was on display at a trade show.

Nikon cameras write the shutter count to the camera's EXIF data when the capture file type is set to JPEG. (AFAIK Canon's don't write shutte count to the EXIF, but the shutter count can be read by Canon sevice if you send the camera in.)

The shutter count can then read using any of the free EXIF readers available on the internet. I use Opanda a lot.


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## Dillard (Jan 12, 2012)

yea i had trouble finding Opanda for the Mac. But then learned that you can pull up the inspector in preview and it shows it there also. Thanks guys


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## greybeard (Jan 13, 2012)

I agree that Refurbished goods are often tested and adjusted better than regular production line goods.  I do a lot of audio recording and I've bought a few refurbished tape recorders.  They have always been tweaked out much better than brand new machines.


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## scoobydoo (May 18, 2012)

Dillard said:


> So I recently purchased a refurbished Nikon D7000 and was wondering about the shutter count after reading an article about someone buying one with close to 10k shutter actuations. Is there anyway for Nikon to reset the shutter count? I ran mine through myshuttercount.com and through the Mac's preview program and both read 101 actuations before I started snapping photos. I'm not complaining at all, just wondering if I just lucked up, or can Nikon reset the count? I obviously don't know much about the refurb process but figured someone on here may.
> 
> Thanks!
> Dillard



I've also read about people learning their shutter count being high upon receiving their "new" refurb camera. And I've heard about others being extremely low. Mine was about 250, which I was satisfied with. My thought on the question of whether Nikon can or does reset the count is this: Why would they? And if they did, why do it on some and not on others? My conclusion is that they don't and what you get, is what you get. There are probably very few unlucky people who get very high shutter counts, but the vast majority are on the low end.


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## SCraig (May 18, 2012)

My recommendation would be that before purchasing a refurb camera that one ASK what the shutter count is.  If the seller doesn't know how to obtain that information, or won't provided it, then you probably don't want to but the camera from them.  I suspect that a quality reseller would be glad to provide it.

As to whether or not Nikon CAN reset the count, there is no doubt in my mind that they can since it's only a matter of resetting a couple of bytes to zero.  I doubt, however, that they WOULD unless they did a complete shutter replacement and possibly not even then.


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## jrizal (May 18, 2012)

Just FYI, there is also a way to get the shutter count for Canon DSLRs.

Canon Shutter Count - EOSCount


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## coastalconn (May 19, 2012)

I've purchased 2 refurbished Nikons from Cameta in Long Island.  The D5000 had 18 clicks and the D90 had 2100.  I've heard a range from 1 to 3600 on various forums. So there is no way of telling from a large company, the boxes are factory sealed from Nikon and I wouldn't expect them to open every single one to get a shutter count, and frankly who cares?  I routinely take 300-400 pictures in a day shooting wildlife.  And I still have a long ways to go to get to 100K+


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