How to find your camera’s shutter count
June 22, 2009
Here’s a quick tip…want to find out the exact number of actuation’s (aka the shutter count) on your Nikon DSLR? Well, here is a simple way using Photoshop CS3. The information is only viewable in RAW files so open your latest one and go to ‘File’ then ‘File Info’ and click the tabs as per the image below. Viola!
Where to look in the 'File Info' box
Use a different version of Photoshop? Or want to use other software? lets have a quick look at those options too…
CS2 and CS4 work in the same way as CS3, although the file structure may be slightly different for 4. The folder you are looking for has the same name though regardless, as per the image below taken from CS4 on a Mac.
This is the folder your looking for
Don’t have photoshop?
Well that’s ok too. There is plenty of software that’s available to read the full EXIF data, one popular one (that’s also free) is Opanda IExif. As mentioned in the reply below from Pete, Opanda may not be completley accurate with Nikon bodies, especially if you shoot JPEG + RAW using dual cards on the D3.
Naming conventions
I try to set my naming convention in camera so it makes it easy to know roughly how many shots the camera has taken at all times. Well, as you can see from the first image, I’m not far off…but, with the file number only containing four digits, shooting two cameras and having to remember to make a slight change to the file number prefix every 9999 shots, it can be easy to forget! So this useful tip helps keep things in order. On a side note Mr Nikon, why IS file naming set to four digits when the D3 amongst others have shutters rated at six figure numbers…?
The file info looks different on my Mac and I can’t find the count while looking at a tiff I converted from raw using NX.
Hi Allan, I forgot to mention you need to open a RAW file. The information doesn’t show up in out of camera JPEGS or converted TIFFS.
Sorry to say that I work closely with Nikon who actually state that opanda exif is innacurate with Nikon camera bodies. And, dont forget if you are running dual card slots on a D3 (JPEG + RAW) then this will double the shot count and render it inaccurate, so infact, you can half the shutter count if you do this.
regards,
Pete.
Hi Pete, thanks for the tip about Opanda! I don’t use it myself but I do on occassion shoot JPEG + RAW on my D3. With my file numbering I seem to be pretty close to same info Photoshop gives me in the EXIF so I’m guessing Photoshop is accurate?
Hello Richard,
You asked:
“On a side note Mr Nikon, why IS file naming set to four digits when the D3 amongst others have shutters rated at six figure numbers…?”
The answer is that the file naming convention is specified by a consortium of Japanese camera companies, in the DCF standard:
http://www.exif.org/dcf.PDF
More info here:
http://www.exif.org/dcf-exif.PDF
Both standards are available here:
http://www.exif.org/specifications.html
The file name specification is on p. 9 (section 3.2.1) in DCF.PDF.
Cheers,
Matt
Matt, thank you for answering that and supplying the links, much appreciated!