EB-1 wrote:
Since one of our family cars has exceeded the warranty period we should rebuild the engine when it is still working fine? I don't think so.
If the US is like the UK, for your warranty to be honoured by the manufacturer, you'd need to be able to prove that you'd had the car (preventative) serviced at the appropriate designated intervals...
I would have to agree with EB-1, that if it's a family car, you can keep up with normal maintenance to keep it running, but replacing the water pump just because you hit the warranty isn't what most of us actually do.
For a working car - heck, top fuel dragsters rebuild the entire engine after 5 seconds of actual work time. (a little more for idle, etc..)
For my 3 working camera bodies, I replace my shutters every 6-9 months for two reasons:
- I have enough down time that I can send them off
- I go through 300,000+ clicks every 6 months on each of them.
My first Mark2N had over 400,000 shots in its first 6 months of life - sent it in at 9 months with 470,000 shots - still going strong, but pre-emtive to not experience failure during work hours.
I'm not going to do a preemptive shutter replacement at 200K...it's a mean time between failures. Not a guarantee. Not only that, but 1Ds II shutters that make it to 200K tend to last a LONG time. If it makes it to 300K, I might send it in. Though, at my rate, it'll take nearly 5 years to get there. (I bought this body at 189K, and I'm shooting at a rate of roughly 20K per year). If I get any hint that Canon may stop servicing the 1Ds II, I will also consider sending it in for a shutter replacement at that time. I'm not too concerned at this point, as the 1Ds II has only been out of production for 2 years. Anyone know how long they tend to service cameras after they go out of production?
I only once let one of my vans go past the mileage for changing the cam belt. It cost a new engine ( I think the bill came to close £2k) instead of about £150
Oh yeh! and + the hire of another vehicle for a week and the tow in.
I've had several 1-series bodies go past 300,000 actuations before Canon replaced the shutters and only then after they recommended it...no shutter failure. The 200,000 number is a MTBF rating, and average estimate based on abusive testing. It's kind of like getting your oil changed; the oil is not automatically bad at the 3000 mile mark (or whatever service interval you have). Don't sweat it, but when you send your body in for a clean & lube like I do each year on all my gear, have them change the shutter if you're worried.
a friend of mine who is a SWAT cop has a saying: "Two becomes one, one becomes none." He has backups for everything.
When I'm working, I have an extra camera in the bag. That way, I won't need to wait on CPS to replace a shutter before I can finish the work.
MTBF means just that: there is no counter in your camera, counting down to destruction. One camera is going to croak at ten shots, another will go ten million. No way of knwoing which is which until you try them.
Since I have many bodies and shoot less than a pro I have already exchanged my body for the new series before the shutter becomes "Old." But for a high volume shooter like Richard, who depends on his cameras for income, routine maintenance (and for him the shutter qualifies) is a part of keeping your kit in order. When I had a $100K+ of Film/TV field sound recording equipment I would take ever opportunity to pre-maintain equipment so it wouldn't fail on the job.
There's a way to "amortize the probability" of the shutter replacement to check the value of preventive maintenance. Obviously a shutter will fail at some point so the value of a shutter at 200K clix can be only a fraction of replacement cost.
So add to $311 replacement to $800 sensor repair and you have a choice to spend $1111 (or junk the camera) to "fire until failure" to preserve about $100 of use left (assume 1/3 life left). Spend $311, now, or at an inconvenient time to protect the fraction of wear left?
