Counting Shutter Clicks on a Nikon DSLR

If you are interested in how many times your shutter has gone off in your Nikon DSLR, you can look at the EXIF data of your most recent picture. The information is embedded there, but it may not be very obvious how to find it. The following has been checked on a D40X, D50 and D300.

If your latest photo is a NEF, open it with Adobe Photoshop. Then go to File > File Info... > Advanced. Expand the schema http://ns.adobe.com/exif/1.0/aux/ . The field aux:ImageNumber contains the shutter count. (If you try opening a JPEG from the camera, that field is not available in Photoshop.)

If your latest photo is a jpeg, and you have a Mac, open the photo with the free EXIF Viewer. The shutter count is in a field called "Camera Actuations".

If your latest photo is a NEF, but you do not have Adobe Photoshop or money to buy Photoshop or any additional software at all, you can convert the NEF to JPEG using ViewNX (which is free) and then open it with EXIF Viewer, and the information will be there, still called "Camera Actuations".

People with Windows seem to often use Opanda for the same purpose.

I have not been able to localise this kind of information in Nikon's own software.

If you have a Mac, the shutter count can be found in Preview: Tools > Show Inspector > I > Nikon.

About D50

My first DSLR was a D50. I changed it for a D40X (later complemented with a D300). The move D50 > D40X was a step both up and down.

• The D50 has less pixels than the D40X. This is not necessarily a problem, but for cropping photos, the additional pixels on the D40X really help.
• The D50 has a control panel with shooting data on the top, just like the D300 and other more expensive cameras. The control panel display can be convenient, but the same information is of course accessible in the D40X in other places - like the big monitor on the back and in the viewfinder. The control panel makes the camera bigger.
• The D50 has vertically positioned focus points, something I used all the time. Sometimes I rotate the D40X to portrait mode just to get the focus points righ.
• The D50 has an auto-focus motor for lenses without built-in motor. If you only have lenses with built-in motors, this is of course no big advantage.
• The D50 does not accept SDHC memory cards, which means it is limited to 4G cards. On the other hand, the images are smaller, so that never turned into a problem for me.
• Settings like white balance and ISO are easily accessible on the D50, but you have to know where to look for them. On the D40X they are easier to find, but less easy to use. Neither camera is particularly good in this respect, if one compares with the D300.
• The D50 is heavier than the D40X, which is extremely small and light - at least for being a DSLR.
  

All in all, I do not miss the D50, in spite of its advantages. It was a good entry level camera, but everything it did well, my D300 does even better.

D50 vs. D40X & D300

There are two things I consider incredibly important in a camera:

1. It should be good.
2. It should be light.

My first Single Reflex Camera was a Nikon D50, which was a good compromise. It was fairly good and fairly light. However, this year I decided to upgrade in both directions. Therefore I got a D40X, which is incredibly light as SLRs go, and then a D300, which is really good.

The D40X I use when I travel or go on hikes, and the D300 I use when I want to actually take good pictures.


D40X with AF-S DX VR 18-200 f/3.5-5.6G lens. Light and powerful.

For a comparison between these and other Nikon DSLRs check for example Nikonians' comparison chart and Imaging Resources' reviews, which have some interesting performance information regarding auto-focus speed.