Which shutter most likely to last for 1 million clicks?

[loneranger]

I guess I should say which 'mechanical' shutter is most likely to last into the next century? Or will all these nice mechanical cameras be useless after the parts are gone?

[Tom A]

I know of one Leicaflex that had a couple of million shots done on it - with no service. It was used as a copy camera so all speeds above 1/8 were "dead".
Some of the "Cruise Ship Cameras" in the film age easily did 250-300 000 shots in a season (mostly M4P's and M4-2's). They were normally replaced after one or two seasons though.
I dont think it is unthinkable to have a M do 1000 000 exposures - provided that it is used regularly and kept serviced occasionally.
As for longevity - as parts are getting scarcer - repairs will be more difficult - but for the forseable future you should be fine. Remember that a million exposures is only 30 000 rolls of 36 exposures - about 8 rolls a/day for ten years.
I suspect that one of my old M2's that I bought in 1965 would have at least 300 000 exposures on it - but it has been rebuilt a couple of times (mainly due to accidents - car doors, concrete stairs and other minor incidents).

[ferider]

If they can fix a Harley Knucklehead today, they'll be able to fix my M6 for many years to come.

[mooge]

once all the parts are gone, we go raid the collectors' stashes. :D

there's actually a write-up on the M's shutter durability here...

http://www.nemeng.com/leica/007b.shtml



cheers.

[Erik van Straten]

Remember that a million exposures is only 30 000 rolls of 36 exposures.


Henri Cartier-Bresson used just over 14.000 rolls in his extremely long career.

Erik.

[sc_rufctr]

The classic cloth shutter in an M camera is very robust.
It's longevity is almost legendary.
But like anything mechanical it needs regular servicing and adjusting.

Parts??? I think as long as people are using these cameras parts will be available.

[loneranger]

It is one thing if the parts can be found, but if there will be no one to repair cameras, then what. I think camera mechanics are a dying breed.

[ItsReallyDarren]

Its beyond economically feasible but a skilled tech and shop could make the mechanical parts.

[mervynyan]

I think camera mechanics are a dying breed.

I don't worry about that, there are always precision tools and repair people around if the price is right. Same thing can be said about old mechanical watches, repair is available but parts are not.

[sc_rufctr]

I'd be more worried about being able to buy and process film at a reasonable price in the future.

[Spleenrippa]

Henri Cartier-Bresson used just over 14.000 rolls in his extremely long career.

Erik.


That was only a weekends worth of film for Winogrand :p

[CNNY]

It is one thing if the parts can be found, but if there will be no one to repair cameras, then what. I think camera mechanics are a dying breed.

Quite literally. See this thread:
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1411049&mode=linear#post1411049

[Steve_F]

I recalled the story of an F5 in Germany a few years back. A quick rummage through google;

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/aviation_photography/print.main?id=124426

Steve.

[DonaldJ.]

not exactly about a leica camera with a million shots, but i have a friend who is a RIT student that said there is a Canon 1D body there in the cage with over a million shots on it with out any work done on it yet.

[sevo]

By design, the Robot shutters they built into their traffic surveillance cameras. The "Elzer Berg" fixed installation speedtrap cameras on one German Autobahn had the reputation of going through several 30m rolls a week...

And of course motion picture camera shutters (which have the same design principle as the Robot shutter) - these do 24 actuations per second, i.e. already about a million for one single full length motion picture that goes through 10hrs of raw footage.

[ederek]

Folks doing Stop Motion and especially Time Lapse photography are really pushing the limits.

For auto lenses such as on a DSLR, the aperture iris is also a concern, as it will open and close for each shot. While imprecise closure can lead to flickering, the actuations can lead to failure (with the iris falling apart in the lens). A technique to remove this iris movement and wear is to set the aperture, then decouple the lens by twisting slightly, and then shoot from there with a decoupled lens.

[segedi]

I had a Canon 10D that I put almost 500,000 shots through. And that's for a camera with a shutter life rated at 1/10th of that!

[kevin m]

It's called "mortality." We all gotta go sometime! :p