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.
 
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