# Would you trust a 1Dx body with a million shutter count?



## Mikehit (Mar 23, 2017)

Yep, 1 million confirmed with the dealer.
Shutter replaced twice (latest on Feb this year) and apparently it is in good condition (the pictures of it look OK, not particularly battered) but are they any other weak points?


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## Maximilian (Mar 23, 2017)

Mikehit]
Would you trust a 1Dx body with a million shutter count?
[/quote]
Yep! At least until the next actuation ;-)
[quote author=Mikehit said:


> Yep, 1 million confirmed with the dealer.
> Shutter replaced twice (latest on Feb this year) and apparently it is in good condition (the pictures of it look OK, not particularly battered) but are they any other weak points?


Jokes aside! 
I do not read from your post, how many actuations this last of the three shutters has.
Does this mean this particular one has 1 million or that those three had an average of 333.333 each?

Last replacement Feb this year would make me think that this shutter should have less than 100.000 actuations, but who knows...?

I think this is a really important information. As well as who did the replacement (I guess Canon CPS).

Do you have information on this from the dealer?


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## BeenThere (Mar 23, 2017)

If you could get it for $100, it may be worth the chance. That camera has had an abnormally hard life.


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## keithcooper (Mar 23, 2017)

BeenThere said:


> If you could get it for $100, it may be worth the chance. That camera has had an abnormally hard life.


It depends - I've seen huge shutter counts on such cameras mounted in automated systems, where the camera itself looks like it's just come out of the box.

Definitely somewhere you need far more info if it's not really cheap (and perhaps even more if it is...)


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## Mikehit (Mar 23, 2017)

Maximilian said:


> I think this is a really important information. As well as who did the replacement (I guess Canon CPS).
> 
> Do you have information on this from the dealer?



The dealer says it was done by CPS. They were not able to tell me how old the camera is so unfortunately I can't work out an average per month.
Doing a bit of research, apparently after 1,000,000 count the shutter actuation counter stops working and Canon don't re-set it even on replacing the shutter.

The price sounds very attractive, but the 1,000,000 is a bit of a concern.....


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## Maximilian (Mar 23, 2017)

Mikehit said:


> Maximilian said:
> 
> 
> > I think this is a really important information. As well as who did the replacement (I guess Canon CPS).
> ...


To me this sounds like the shutter count is the summary of all three shutters (but this should be confirmed). 
If so and if the last shutter replacement was in Feb by CPS, then my guess would be that this one is in good conditions. 
If the price is really attractive and the rest of the camera body is looking well, I suppose I'd go for it, if I was looking for a 1DX.
But maybe you or the dealer could get an answer from CPS about the shutter count when they replaced it.
Depending on the country you sometimes have (limited) warranty on spare parts and services (one good thing in the EU).


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## Mikehit (Mar 23, 2017)

Maximilian said:


> Mikehit said:
> 
> 
> > Maximilian said:
> ...



I called CPS and even if I buy the camera they will not give me the service history without the permission of the previous owner but hopefully they would let me know the shutter count it was last replaced, but by then I have bought it.
The camera would come with a 6-month warranty.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Mar 23, 2017)

Its somewhat like milege on a car. You might replace the engine and transmission, but eventually other parts wear out and fail. Virtually everything can be replaced, the sensor tends to die more with age in years, they get more and more noise as time goes by, but you don't need to worry about that. The LCD display might dim over time, its expensive to replace. The switches, particularly the shutter and focus switch, joy stick or any other frequently used ones have limited lives and can be replaced.

As long as the price is right, I would not worry. Somewhere around $1700-1800 seems right to me, if it looks reasonable. You can get a pretty clean one with low actuation s in the $2400 range, the price drops sharply as actuation's go up.


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## Mikehit (Mar 23, 2017)

Hi MtSpokane -the price is in that region which is why I am sort-of interested. I wish I knew how old it was as that could be the deciding factor.


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## tomscott (Mar 23, 2017)

For the 3-500 I would get a lower mileage one. Have to think about how much more mileage you will put on it and the cost of the repairs down the line. $500 doesn't really go far repairing these, ends up more an economical write off which I would suggest is the reason the previous owner moved it on.


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## AlanF (Mar 23, 2017)

Mike
It's a big risk that it could fail on you. £1500 is still a lot of money to gamble on a possibly clapped out piece of kit.
Alan


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## Ryananthony (Mar 23, 2017)

I wouldn't consider it personally. That's a lot of use. I purchased my 1dx about 6 months ago for 1500USD with 250k. From what It sounds like, it was a better deal than I anticipated but I don't think the market for used 1dx is very large. Spending a bit more money on a lower usage one, or sitting on the money so you can jump right away would be my thoughts.


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## wsmith96 (Mar 23, 2017)

Mike,
I'm in agreement with most here. That's a lot of usage on a body. I'd hold out for another deal.

-wes


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Mar 23, 2017)

Mikehit said:


> Hi MtSpokane -the price is in that region which is why I am sort-of interested. I wish I knew how old it was as that could be the deciding factor.



The serial number, if you can get it might tell you the approx age, but I would not worry about that, even if it was one of the first. Since its been to Canon for a cleaning and checkup, I'd doubt if any service is going to be required soon, they usually replace anything that is not right.

If you have CPS Gold or higher, any service charges will be reasonable. Canon seems to take good care of 1 series owners. They certainly treated me right the two times I had service for my 1 series bodies.


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## PavelR (Mar 23, 2017)

Problem with sensor getting "too old" depends also on the time of being exposed to a light which is affected not only by shutter count but also by shooting a video especially with the sun in the frame...


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## Don Haines (Mar 23, 2017)

The camera was released in March of 2012.....

1,000,000 actuations is 200,000 per year, or an average of 548 per day..... That is a lot of wear and tear!

The electronics has spent a lot of time powered up.... it will be degraded. The capacitors are not as good as they were before, the A/D circuitry will be noisier, and your sensor will be noisier, check for hot or dead pixels.... and don't forget the wear and tear on the mirror mechanism and all the switches, knobs, and buttons. Sealing will not be what it once was either as gaskets wear out and rubber degrades.

Personally, If I had that camera, I would be trying to sell it too......


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## Ray-uk (Mar 23, 2017)

I think Don Haines has summed it up perfectly above.

It would have to be incredibly cheap before I bought it and even then I would never feel that I could rely on it.


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## Mikehit (Mar 23, 2017)

Thank you all. I think I will pass, especially in light of Don's comments.


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## hbr (Mar 23, 2017)

Agree with Don 100%


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## pwp (Mar 23, 2017)

I recently bought a 1DX with just over 500k on the counter, and it had a new shutter at 450k. The price was at the lower end of the expected range. There are signs of physical wear and tear around the body, but the controls, screens and so on are perfect. Since then I have been working it very hard. I consider it to have been a great buy. It isn't showroom-pretty, but it's performance is indistinguishable from new.

I had been tossing up between a 5D MkIV and a 1DX MkII, and compromised by getting the 5D Mk IV plus the used 1DX. They're a perfect pair with a 7D MkII as a second action body. FWIW the 7D MkII is a match for the 1DX in AI Servo mode, the tracking is just fantastic. Obviously the 1DX pulls ahead with file IQ, particularly when the iso gets past 1600. 

I know plenty of sports shooters who have run 1-Series bodies up over a million clicks, some on the original shutter. I retired my 1D MkIV at around 650k clicks all original, and it functioned like new right up to the sale date. 

-pw


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## Cthulhu (Mar 28, 2017)

pwp said:


> I recently bought a 1DX with just over 500k on the counter, and it had a new shutter at 450k. The price was at the lower end of the expected range. There are signs of physical wear and tear around the body, but the controls, screens and so on are perfect. Since then I have been working it very hard. I consider it to have been a great buy. It isn't showroom-pretty, but it's performance is indistinguishable from new.
> 
> I had been tossing up between a 5D MkIV and a 1DX MkII, and compromised by getting the 5D Mk IV plus the used 1DX. They're a perfect pair with a 7D MkII as a second action body. FWIW the 7D MkII is a match for the 1DX in AI Servo mode, the tracking is just fantastic. Obviously the 1DX pulls ahead with file IQ, particularly when the iso gets past 1600.
> 
> ...



I've had a similar experience with a backup body I recently bought. These things just keep on working and even if you had to replace important parts down the road you'd still be ahead of what clean or new bodies go for.


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## [email protected] (Mar 29, 2017)

Having perpetrated super high shutter counts on a couple 1dx's...

When you see a camera getting tens of thousands of exposures a month, it is quite possibly one being used for intervalometer (timelapse) work. In that case, the wear would be on the shutter, and much less so on the other parts. In that case, the "mileage" analogy would not be appropriate, and it would be the shutter itself that would be of any concern. If, on the other hand, it had been a pro news 'tog's camera, then that same collection of actuations would probably mean the thing looks like it's been sandblasted. In sum, there are actuations, and then there are *ACTUATIONS*. 

If the seller cannot tell you which use the camera experienced, you might be able to roughly guess by the exterior body condition, but I'd want a discount for that uncertainty. 

I sold 2 1dx's last year, both of which I'd bought used. Perhaps half a million shots between them for timelapse. I calculated that the price per actuation on the difference from what I paid and what I sold for to be something like $1.25 per 1,000 clicks. To put that in perspective, buying a new 1 series nowadays and getting 450k clicks out of it before selling it for $2k after a bunch of years would net about $7.50 per 1,000 clicks. Even if you bake in an unexpected shutter collapse (about $450 in extra cost), buying high mileage used seems to be very rational.

-tig


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## Mikehit (Mar 29, 2017)

Interesting comments tiggy.
The camera looked from the photo (and from the company description) to be in very good condition for such a high count so I wonder if it had been used for something 'low impact' like timelapse.


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