[FullRangeMan]

Every camera has a number of times that the shutter can be triggered (every time you click it opens and closes). This number varies, can not know the exact time it will stop working. There are rough numbers varing from model to model. Would be best check before buying the approximate number with the manufacturer.

I surprised numbers are much smaller than I thought:
http://www.olegkikin.com/shutterlife/

[thunderbrick]

Based on my experience I think the numbers are conservative.  I don't spend all my time worrying about low shutter life or products costing more than I think they should. 

[Photon46]

The figures reported on this website would seem to be of limited statistical accuracy because the numbers are compiled only from end users who CHOSE to report their shutter use numbers. It is a well known fact that consumers who have a product problem they deem premature or unwarranted are much more likely to comment or complain than those whose are still happily using their product. Like Thunderbrick, I would expect these numbers to be skewed towards the self reporters who had shutter failure.  I looked at the numbers of camera users these estimates were drawn from for quite a few camera and the numbers aren't that large compared to the actual numbers of units sold.

[SET Man]

Hey!

    Sometime the camera company will give you the rated life expectancy but that's is just averaged number. Most cameras these days even lower level ones are likely rated at 100,000+ actuations. That's doesn't mean it will stop working once it reached the rated number. Sure there will be some defected one out there that would fail before that, but that's rare and also this will depend on the environment the camera is used in.

  So, that's the last thing I'm worry about when buying a camera. Talk about shutter life expectancy... my Minolta 7xi film SLR that I bought back in 1991 of which was my main camera until about 2001 still work fine, and my 1966 Minolta SRT 101 that I bought a few years back with it's all mechanical shutter still going strong, and I don't know if it ever got CLAed through out those years.

   Well, with digital these days people are likely to replace their digital camera long before it reached the rated shutter actuation count anyway 

Take care,
Buddy 

[Wind Chaser]

...people are likely to replace their digital camera long before it reached the rated shutter actuation count

Ain't that the truth!