It’s hard to imagine that a little over a year ago I got my Canon 20D digital SLR camera. I updated my spreadsheet where I track the total files downloaded from the camera and guess what… since May 2nd of last year I have taken 42,597 photos with it! I know that sounds a little… okay a lot obsessive especially when you divide that number by the total days and it comes out to 112 images per day.
Now in my defense I will say that it is rather easy to rack up a lot of photos per day when shooting sports in burst mode. What would be depressing would be to come up with the number of “keepers” that I got out of te 42,000+ photos I took. Fortunately, it would be a rather difficult exercise to determine that because if I had I am sure it would be quite low.
The great thing about digital is that you can take lots of photos and throw away what didn’t work out so it encourages experimentation. Because of that freedom to experiment we can learn from our mistakes. So I don’t look at the throw aways as a waste of time. I had to look through each one and in the process learned about what worked and what didn’t. I feel that my keeper ratio today is higher than it was a year ago, but it depends on the subject. If it’s something new for me I will shoot a lot more to make sure I get a sufficient amount of usable photos.
There is a downside to taking so many pictures, however. The heart of an SLR is the mirror and shutter box. The mirror directs light from the lens into the eyepiece so the photographer can see exactly what it looks like through the lens. When a picture is taken the mirror flips up and the shutter curtain opens to allow light to hit the sensor.
These are mechanical parts and depending on the camera have a limited lifespan. In the case of my 20D the life expectancy of the shutter mechanism is 50,000 clicks. Not far from where I am currently at. And based on the fact that I will no doubt maintain my 40,000+ clicks per year pace I knew it was time to treat myself to a birthday present. A new Canon 40D, which I used for the first time tonight. Nice camera. Rated for 100,000 shutter actuations. I guess that means I will need to pick up the pace a bit if I want to get a new camera next year. 
