Hey Canon DSLR users: Count your shutter releases!

I don't know about you, but for the last 10 years I have always wondered how many shutter releases I had on my cameras. I even had a friend offer to buy one of my older cameras, and I told him "you don't want my used cameras, since I probably have shot this past the shutter warranty."

Well...a couple of weeks ago I saw something on the web that intrigued me. It was an application for my Mac that would show me the shutter count of my DSLRs. And amazingly enough, the app is called ShutterCount. I know, I know, you are thinking, "how did they come up with that name?"

This application costs only $2.99 on the Apple App Store and it works very well.

Here is a screen shot of the application showing the shutter count of my Canon 1DX. (And, yes, I blurred the serial number)

The application is very easy to use. All you need is a standard USB 2 cable (and one comes with each camera). You download ShutterCount, connect the camera to your computer using the USB cable, and then launch the app. You may have to power cycle the camera (turn it off and on) for the software to see the camera. At that point, you are shown the camera model, serial number and shutter count. So handy!

Interesting that one of my 5D Mark III cameras has so many more shutter releases than the other. When I travel, I usually grab the same camera, which probably explains why one has so much more use than the other.

You can see that my Canon 5D Mark II cameras worked hard for me with 250,000 shots between the two bodies.

If you are like me, and own Canon cameras and a Mac computer, check out ShutterCount. For $2.99, it was a no brainer!