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…?
