Fit for purpose

I have had my present camera for longer than any of my previous digital SLRs using it day in day out, although sometimes it seems I spend more time on my Mac than using the Canon 5D Mk11. I don’t want to tempt fate, but it has been unfailingly reliable in all weathers, temperatures and conditions. Sure, I look after it as I would any tool, but I don’t pamper it. I don’t have a back up body, even though I have thought at times I should. So how much work has it done in its two and a half year life?

Well nearly 60,000 shots since Feb 2009. That’s the equivalent of 5000 rolls of 120 film I would have previously put through my Hasselblads, which incidently I used to have regularly serviced at not inconsiderable expense. The Canon, well I have wiped saltwater, dust and mud from its little black body as required but apart from that nothing. No little plastic covers have broken, nothing has fallen off, no connection terminals have corroded, even the finish although a little more shiny than it was has not worn off. It’s amazing. I don’t doubt there are other users that have much higher shutter counts than this. As an affordable workhorse, capable when coupled with the best lenses of generating marvelous quality images, it takes some beating. If one day it were to let me down I would scarcely believe it, very likely assuming operator error. The fact that this performance is not unusual or remarkable, just goes to show how accustomed we have become to mass produced computer/electronic appliances being incredibly reliable. As photographers we have never had it so good as far as equipment is concerned.