Astrophotography bad for your camera?

[roarke80]

Hi, I read somewhere that a DSLR has a certain lifetime in terms of the number of shutter clicks it can do, since I'm planning on doing unguided astrophotography for the moment I'm going to be taking a LOT of shots and am worried if this might reduce the lifespan of my camera which I also use extensively during the day. Any experience or thoughts on this please? Many thanks!

[butlermike]

Most if not all cameras now have a lifetime of well over 100,000 shutter actuations 'guaranteed' as standard.

DSLR astro work is usually long exposures rather than lots of exposures so its likely astro work won't add that high a number onto the shutter.

[Rossco72]

Well the number of shutter activations is usually 100000 or even 150000 which is quite a lot.

With guided you actually use less because you are taking long exposures. Unguided you will be taking more. If you are tracking you might get 20-30 seconds a go. If you are fixed the you could be talking about at few as 2-3 seconds per exposure!

Can you provide a little more detail on what you plan to do?

Cheers

Stuart

[Cath]

http://www.olegkikin.com/shutterlife/

[Black Knight]

http://www.olegkikin.com/shutterlife/

That's amazing. There really is a website for everything isn't there!

[Leveye]

Most cameras will get about 150k and up to 250k shutter clicks and with programs like APT and hack programs like CHDK you can keep track of your shutter count. I have had my canon 60D for 3 years now and i'm up to 14k so thats about 4,600 shutter clicks a year and that should get me hopefully over 10 years before i would either have to replace the shutter or by that time i have saved enough for the new latest and greatest camera. Clear skies!

[roarke80]

Well the number of shutter activations is usually 100000 or even 150000 which is quite a lot.

With guided you actually use less because you are taking long exposures. Unguided you will be taking more. If you are tracking you might get 20-30 seconds a go. If you are fixed the you could be talking about at few as 2-3 seconds per exposure!

Can you provide a little more detail on what you plan to do?

Cheers

Stuart

Thanks for your replies. I've got a tracking mount but no guiding system so was planning to do basic unguided AP. I understand I can maybe do 20 seconds on my Eq3 - 2 but would probably need a lot of shots, so just worried about damaging my camera as I use it alot during the day as well.