When the mirror or shutter break down.

The first component to likely fail is the shutter, but there is no fixed
number.  I'm sure Canon knows the approximate life, but it's not something
you'll find in the specs.

Mark

    Which limit are you talking about?

1)    Number of shots before some part of the camera fails

2)    Number of shots before the storage medium is full

3)    Number of shots before the filenames start repeating?

4)    Number of shots before the battery needs recharge?

    For the first -- I have no idea.  I've not had one long enough
to experience a failure -- and with DSLRs, the failure *could* be in the
lens, so you simply swap to another lens and keep shooting.

    For the second factor -- it depends on the size of the medium,
and the settings for storage format.

    On the Nikon D70, at medium/fine setting, it *claims* to hold
522 shots starting from an empty 1GB Compact Flash card.  My personal
experience -- the only time I have actually *filled* a 1GB CF card, it
held 705 shots at that setting.

    At Raw, it claims 97 shots on the same card, and at RAW+Basic
(RAW plus a small JPEG) it claims 85 shots.  I've not actually filled a
CF card with these, so I don't know how much more you can get.
Obviously, you could hold proportionally more with a 2GB or a 4GB CF
card or microdrive.

    I don't have access to a 350D, so I'll use another which I do
have as an example: On the Kodak/Nikon NC2000e/c, the biggest PCMCIA
hard disk drive which I have found claims to hold 327 shots starting
fresh -- and there is no control of storage size -- there is only one
RAW format.

    For the third factor:

    In the D70, The filename has three letters, an underscore, four
digits and a ".JPG" extension.  Thus, for *this* camera, you get 10000
shots (0000-9999).

    For the Kodak conversion of the N90s (becoming the NC2000e/c),
There is the same four-digit field, but it increments by 10 per shot,
leaving intermediate numbers for the files for voice annotation (which
is built into the camera).  (It also has the nasty habit of resetting
the upper digits to zero whenever you change media, and continuing from
the frame couter (made for film) in the body for the lower two digits
(0-99, entered as 000-990).

    For the fourth factor -- I've gotten about 600 shots from a
single charge for the Nikon D70 -- with a lot of them being flash shots.
Lots of flash shots will reduce the number per charge.  Lots of time
viewing the results on the LCD will similarly reduce the number of shots
per charge.  I suspect that the Ultra-Sonic motors in some of the newer
lenses will also draw either more or less power per shot than the
mechanically-coupled lenses which I use.

    The Kodak/Nikon mentioned above has built-in batteries, and
tends to need a recharge about the point that the 340 MB disk drive gets
full.  There is no way to swap in a fresh set of batteries.

    Perhaps a bit more detail as to which limit you are looking for?
Most of the answers which I have seen have assumed that you are talking
about the number of shots before failure, and the 350D is certainly too
new for this to have accumulated statistical information.

    Enjoy,
        DoN.

SLRs were not originally designed for the punishment of digital
photography where far more photos can be taken than with film.  I would
expect bodies based on pro 35mm cameras to provide a longer life than
those based on amateur cameras.

Is how it feels in your hand any guide?
(as in "built like a tank").

David

I have been informed that Canon reckon that the shutter should be replaced
in any EOS camera around 20-25000 shots.

A colleagues D30 shutter failed at 21476. Cost ?144GBP to have the shutter
replaced by Canon.

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