How Many Shots?

Dale.

Dale.

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Dale.
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I got to thinking last night, my R7, that I've owned for almost 4 years now, has just ticked over 10k shots, most of those on the electronic shutter. At a guess, I'd say maybe 4k are on the actual shutter.

Then my R5ii, I've owned that since September last year and that's not done 1k yet and all on the electronic shutter.

I dread to think what my 350D has, my first DSLR and then a 40D after that, back in the days when I just took photos, without any thought. Both those will be 100k plus.

There's cameras on used gear sites with 500k(or more).

I don't set out now unless conditions look good or as in the case of wildlife, I go out at least once a week but often, that's just learning a place or species and when I do settle down, I can be sat for hours and not take a single image.

I'm guessing pros take a lot more compared to a hobbyist but it did get me thinking, what might be considered average for a hobbyist? Genre might dictate this too, I'm lucky if I take 10 wildlife images a week and even when I do set out for a landscape, I might not even take my camera out of the bag.

There's a certain joy to taking a photograph, all the thinking and considerations involved but sometimes, it's just nice to pocket my little M5 and just take photos on a walk round the village for example and just take photos. There's something satisfying in taking photos, the sound of the shutter etc but I feel I'm missing out on that, as when I set out for my genres, as mentioned, I may not take an image.

So, how many do you take over a given period of time?
 
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When we have a day out I can sometimes take in the region of 100 pictures but it's more usually single digits to 30 or so. So, a roll of film maybe. We went on a cruise a couple of weeks ago and I took something like 940 but included in that was 50 panoramas which will probably add up to more than the single shot total.

Panoramas are a reasonably new thing for me and some days I do take more pictures as part of a panorama than I take single shots.
 
I use a wide mix of cameras some of which are not easy to track shutter counts on. I did check several of them a few years back, but can't find the data now.
It certainly varies widely sometimes I'll be out with the camera for hours & not take any. On one occasion with the local airshow I know I took over 4000 in one day, then came back for more on the second day.
Between my four large format cameras the average is well under 1 per year, hopefully that will rise a bit soon.
 
My Lightroom catalog shows an average of approximately 300 images annually. I probably take ~4 times that, but many/most never even get imported. I generally don't take a picture unless I think it will be at least as good as one I already have in my portfolio or if it will be new/different..
 
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I think it's pretty hard to say in general because of the different subject matter & different cameras used tbh

A day shooting street or some event/show might be somewhere up to 100 maybe. Somewhere local for sunrise I might only fire off a handful of frames. I've had a weeks caravan holiday in Weymouth/Cornwall etc & only came home with a couple of hundred in total. A roll of film can sometimes be in the camera for weeks (or longer with 120) - yet I shot a full roll at pride last year in an hour or two & done 3 rolls of 120 in 11 days in Wales last September :)
 
I tend to restrict the shutter to single figures when photographing perched birds but when going for the birds in flight I max out at 20 fps unfortunately that is the max on the Z8, feel you get many different images for birds in flight even when photographing the same species, I tend to just keep my finger on the trigger as no longer have to worry about a 24 roll of film:). Russ.
 
It hugely varies depending on what I'm taking photos of which in some cases can mean very few photos such as landscape or scenic shots while trying to get an action shot or motorsports can be thousands per day.
 
Depends for me too on what I am photographing
This time of year am doing macro insects often focus stacking twenty at a time so can easily take hundreds in a morning
Haven’t done a shutter count yet on my R5 but on previous cameras from Canon 550D to 7D 2 was in excess of 70K from shooting wildlife zoo and macro
 
It all depends on the subject. Singles frames for stationary subjects, more as the speed of action increases, up to 40 fps for fast sports action, where one match can be several thousand frames. But I don't think the number matters anymore with the electronic shutter and the ease of finding the best frame per sequence.

There was a time when more frames slowed me down at the culling stage as I dithered over picking the best frame, but that went away after a while.
 
TimHughes said:
It all depends on the subject. Singles frames for stationary subjects, more as the speed of action increases, up to 40 fps for fast sports action, where one match can be several thousand frames. But I don't think the number matters anymore with the electronic shutter and the ease of finding the best frame per sequence.

There was a time when more frames slowed me down at the culling stage as I dithered over picking the best frame, but that went away after a while.
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This is what I find, it's great being able to put the camera into 20fps and be able to pick out the shot that has the exact timing I want. What I like about newer cameras is they nail most shots so it's easier to pick out the one I want whereas on older cameras during a burst I'd have to balance the fact that the shot that has the timing I want might not be quite in focus or choosing one that is in sharp focus but not quite the timing.
 
I have 2 custom settings, one for Stationary shots and the other for Burst shooting, trouble is I forget which I'm in. I must look in the VF more closely.
 
I guess it depends on the genre/style that I'm shooting, and if I'm using film or digital.

With a lot of street photography, I'm shoot first and ask questions later, where possible I try not to analyse or think too hard when photographing. The time for think is before and after - so I tend to come back with a lot of pictures if it's been a good day!

At one point, I was regularly making 2k+ photos in a day, not done that for a long time though.
 
To quote from a book, which I read so long ago I've forgotten both the title and the author...

"That depends"
"On what?"
"That depends also".

:exit:
 
I went out yesterday, spent a few hours on the river, managed a few shots of a Goosander that just ambled by. No Kingfishers, didn't even hear one.

Later on, I went to check on my new project, nthing happening there but I did pull in at a quiet spot on my way home, where there is Stonechat and Grasshoppwr Warbler activity. Managed a few of the Stonechats. Highlight of the day though was stummbling across a hare with a youngster, managed afew of those, as well as some video.

I'm showing off here, I managed 36 images yesterday, there's an image cull to come but I think I probably got a few keepers.
 
These are only approximate numbers, but since the end of May 2023
5D3 - 1500
XT3 - 8000
XT5 - 49000
Since May 2025
R6ii - 7600

I rarely use continuous drive so the vast majority of these will have been a concious decision to fire the shutter.

These will mainly be people shots, with a few trains, planes and automobiles (and maybe a few buildings) thrown in for good measure.
I would hazard a guess that my V860 has probably fired for 3/4 to 4/5 of these too - no wonder it's looking a bit battered.
 
It depens, I go through periods of 'falling out' with photography and then getting the bug again. For example, I bought the X100VI just under a month ago and have already taken over 2000 shots with it, compare this with my A1 which I've probably shot less than 1000 in 2026. That will change over the next few months as I'm going to three events at Donington and I'll likely shoot 2000-3000 shots at each.
 
Took my first 4x5 film shot yesterday, took about 3 months to get all the gear together and an hour or two setting up to get one picture. :D
 
Mine varies with what I'm shooting. My own stuff is mostly a few shots here and there, maybe a hundred or so is it's a somewhere special, usually more like half a dozen or so. On the other hand at a wedding I'll shoot 600 to a 1000 easy over 2 cameras,
 
My D850 and K-1 which I've had for several years are at less that 20k, I think that the D850 gets more use than the K-1 which tends to be my city visit camera (I can take one of the film cameras with me).

The D500 on the other hand is, I guess, over 100k. Off for its first service. I tend to use CLh for birds regardless of whether in flight or perched, Birds don't stay still for long, and I dislike shots with the membrane over the eyelid and always hopeful of catching a bird taking flight (which I am hopeless at)... I've actually got to the point where I am not looking to cash in on any of my camera bodies and I think I will expire before they do. I do go through the files not long after capture to delete those that are clearly not considered worthy of processing.
 
I mainly use a Canon 6D for my museum photographs, as a volunteer I should point out. An average Friday shoot could add up to 30-40 objects and the photographs might add up to 300-400 shots. That's normally my digital total for the week. If I work two days or more it will expand proportionally. The reasons for the high shots per artefact is that I shoot with flash and each artefact is completely different, size, colour reflectivity etc.. So normally, working tethered, I set the object up on a background, take a shot or two to confirm the framing, set each flash up independently to even out the exposure and minimise shadows, checking exposure using the histogram. Then I take a shot and adjust accordingly. Sometimes I might take a sequence of shots to combine into a slide show, for example if the artefact is like a vase with a continuous decoration all around. I have had sessions where the object is small and very intricate and I've had to do some focus stacking for each frame of the slide show, that might mean a 500 shot session.

All in all, I don't take that may pictures. It's amazing to think how museum photographers managed their output a hundred years ago using plate cameras. Think about Harry Burton, who photographed the excavation of Tutankhamun's tomb, in situ, in a desert! He must have had failures but probably not hundreds. That level of craftsmanship is beyond comprehension nowadays. Never heard of Harry Burton? Check him out.

Ebony netsuke of acrobat performing a handstand. (copyright Bolton Library and Museum Services).

1779809577195.jpeg
 
Being able to cap off 120 fps on some cameras these days has led to some lazy photography where you just point and shoot and 1 or the 500 will do. Always good to go back to film every now and again to get you thinking about the shots again
 
Ed Sutton said:
Almost certainly. Then they'll discuss the merits of different hammer brands. :D
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And the nails and the tape on the nails, but most important the gas, it has a big effect on the performance of the nail gun. Paslode make the best nails and gas.
 
Barney said:
And the nails and the tape on the nails, but most important the gas, it has a big effect on the performance of the nail gun. Paslode make the best nails and gas.
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time to remember the infamous hammer forum from lensrentals ;)

Hammerforum.com — Lensrentals Blog

With the recent camera releases (or maybe Spring fever) I’ve been rather amazed watching various photography forums have major melt downs during the last few weeks. I said something about cameras and…
www.lensrentals.com
 
Dale. said:
So, how many do you take over a given period of time?
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It depends.

I sometimes carry a Sigma DP compact in which case it's a bit like film - only a few shots captured on an outing.

This month I've been doing a project that has resulted in only a dozen shots per session - and roughly two sessions per day over five days.

I was doing some landscape last month and had to walk a few hundred meters to manipulate part of the composed shot. I just set the camera on its intervalometer and let it take shots continuously while I trudged over and did my thing (manipulate lighting on a building) and then after a while trudged back. So 15 minutes with shots at 4 second intervals - 225 images captured to get a single result.
 
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