20D shutter lifetime

50,000 is typical for consumer grade EOS bodies - and the 20D is a consumer body.

If you want more, the new $8000 1Ds Mark II has a shutter rated for 200,000 cycles.

Shutter replacement runs about $250, assuming parts are available. If your 20D shutter dies in 10 years time, you may not be able to replace it, but that applies to any camera I guess.

50,000 cycles is the same as about 1400 rolls of 36 exp film, which shot at a roll each day, every day, would take you almost 4 years to shoot (and at least $10,000 to purchase and process).

For 95% of users, shutter lifetime will never be a problem. For the other 5%, a $250 replacement cost shouldn't be an issue.

but i don't get it. a nikon D70 has a shutter lifetime of 150.000 as far as i know. you die with the camera on your neck. why 50.000? if i am doing serious work in 6 months my camera will be out. let's say i will be a good sport photographer. let's say i will take aproximately 300 shots per day (one day more, one day less). in 365 days i will take 109500 shots. and i don't think that here in romania i will find a place to replace the shutter and if i will it would probably cost me 500$ not 250$. so why would i buy a 20D to use it a half a year?

If you are a sports photographer that will be shooting at least 300 frames a day you should be buying a pro camera to begin with.

Actually the 50,000 figure is marked with a ? as a guess in the reference you cite. I don't think Canon have formally given a figure, but have suggessted that the life should be double that of a 10D (again no formal figure). I think the guess should probably be at least 100,000 rather than 50,000, based on observed lives of 10D bodies to date.

I recently read somewhere about an old Nikon with over a million shots on the original shutter that was still going strong.

I will stipulate that its unreasonable to expect "consumer" cameras to last that long. But a life expectancy for a shutter mechanism of no more than 50,000 shots is truly pathetic no matter how anyone tries to sugar coat it.

50,000 shots is WAY more than most consumers will ever take with a camera.

I think I read somewhere that the average consumer shoots a couple of rolls each year. Even if you shoot 100 rolls each year a 50,000 cycle shutter will last you 12 years.

All shutter life specs are estimates. I know of a couple of EOS D30 bodies which wore out their shutters in 30,000 cycles and I know of an EOS-3 that went for over 400,000 cycles. The specs are just an estimate. Nobody knows for sure how long any given shutter will last.

I'm sure some shutters may last for a million cycles (just like some Volvos may run for 1 million miles), but they're the exception.

so you suggest that i should expect the shutter life to be at least 100000 shots (at least 150000 i am expecting)

Kodak estimated that the average film camera owner shoots 5 rolls a year. Canon reckons that the average digital owner shoots 5x as much as a film camera owner. 25*36=900.

I've observed friends of mine who own digital cameras but are not really photographers. They'll get groups together and take "say cheese" shots, and do the occasional shot of a landmark or something. In the mean time, with candid people shots, multiple angles, focal lengths, filters on said landmarks, etc, I've probably blasted through 2, 3 or 4 rolls of film in the same time period. Relative to "serious" photographers, people simply don't shoot that much, even when with a digital camera shots are "free".

"so you suggest that .."

We suggest that you use it till it breaks ;-)