"A 5D has the same life span as a D70?? Spend 2000 on a body and it only lasts for 100,000 exposures? That's appalling! "....LOLOLOL....
......no offense just had a laugh for a moment.
100,000 exposures is A LOT..I mean AAAA LLLOOOTTTTT of exposures. Most still, portrait and wedding photographers wouldnt shoot this many in a year or even two years. So we have to put this into perspective. Panoramic photography is different. We shoot thousands more exposres than these kind of photographers.
There are major differences in these two cameras. The D70 is not in the same league as the 5D. For one thing the 5D has a magnesium alloy body with that is "environmentaly sealed". And it is a full frame sensor at 12 mp.
The canon 5D is what you would call a "pro level camera targeted to the semi amature or semi pro photographer". The Mark II at $8000 is built like a tank and is meant to be serviced for replacement parts. Even a $1000 service bill would be worth paying for this kind of camera. And you can get good warrenties for this kind of thing.
The D70s is strictly a consumer level camera. Mostly due to its plastic construction. It is only a $700 camera. I wouldnt think things are built as robust for that price.
To be clear the shutter can be replaced. I really meant it costs too much and you may as well get a new one...but that is up to the owner.
I had a quote of $300 for a "re build" of the camera from a nikon service company in Miami. When the shutter is toasted there are other things in the camera that need service as well. At this point you should have the re build done or else you will just be wasting your money. Its a total re build or get a new one kind of thing.
I tried to find an "official" shutter rating but could not. I did find it somewhere a long time ago when I bought my first one. A search at Nikonians.org revealed everything from 50,000 to 150,000....LOL.......But I swear I read it was 150,000 but I cant see how that is really true due to what others have said regarding the time before failure. It seems most experience this at around 50,000 to 60,000 exposures.
But the question is "how many exposures do you really take per week/month"?
In my case I use 3 bracket sets and shoot 6. Thats 18 exposures per node shot. If I take 2 seperate sets of the scene at different exposures then thats 36 exposures per scene ( 2 nodes of the same scene). A lot of my jobs require up to 12 panos per tour but most are around 6 nodes plus stills. I shoot about 5 to 10 jobs per week. So I would say on average I shoot about 10,000 exposures per month. But sometimes I shoot about 15,000 depending on the number of jobs and the amount of exposures per job.
Now I should say that I do overshoot for my jobs. BUT I have never....never had to go back and re shoot a job. This is the reason....get the shots while you are there. Besides sometimes you can't re shoot a job. You have only one chance to get it right. And a re shoot means lost money and time...somthing I prefer to avoid.
So for me the life span of a D70s is about 8 months. My first D70s lived for about 35,000 before the shutter failed. However I had only one and had to change lenses twice at each job. The camera became very dirty inside and some "stuff" got into the shutter mechanism which caused premature failure. Otherwise I could have gone to 50,000 before failure. I also was using an air bulb to blow off the mirror and CCD.....very bad thing to do. The shutter has very fine "leaf bumpers" that absorb the shock of the shutter opening against the camera body on the inside. If you use air these can become "ruffled". When the shutter opens against these it causes trauma to shutter and eventually knocks it out of whack hence the failure. By the way "failure" means the shutter will "lock up" when activated at slow shutter speeds. As the problem gets worse you will finally get lock ups about every 5th exposre no matter what shutter speed. At this point your shutter is very near death.
Now this I think my situation is at the extremes. Most of you probably dont shoot this many exposures per month. But I could be wrong.....
I now have two D70's. One for panos and one for stills. This way I dont have to change lenses.....ever. So the camera stays clean and the life span is significantly increased. The exposures are split between two cameras and not changing the lens prevents stuff from getting into the camera. I have a third D70 I use for changing lenses with. The other two are my "work" rigs and never get the lens changed. The third one is actually my first camera that is now locking up continuously because it has about 60,000 exposures on it. I use it for "fun stuff.....family outings....taking beach pictures etc.
The D70s IS A VERY GOOD camera. It takes great exposures. For the price vs features it can hardly be beat. For the average amature this camera will last years.
If you are just starting out using a DSLR this is the camera to get ( or the Canon 20D....dont know about the shutter specs but it is in the same class). It has all the functions you need and a lot of pro level settings like shutter speeds up tp 1/8000...etc.
General Lee
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