a friend of mine told me her canon 10D stopped working and when she took it in to get looked at they told her the shutter was only designed to take 50,000 images..now that is a lot of images but it makes me hesitant to spend money on a high dollar DSLR if it has a limited life span...

10D, 20D, 5D and other "serious amature" cameras have similar shutter mechanism life span. However, 50000 is average, the shutter may fail at 30.000 or 75.000. You can replace the shutter mechanism via Canon service center for around $300. 1-series cameras have more durable shutter, around 100.000 actuations, latest models rated at 150K. On the other hand "cheap" 300D, 350D and others have much smaller figures, around 20K images. Yet, I know people who had to replace shutter on the after 10K-12K actuations and some managed to pass 30K barrier without problems.

Entry level dSLRs in no way a "high dollar" equipment. Look at medium format digital backs for price comparison, $10K-$12K is the entry price, good ones are around $20K.

You get what you paid for. Quality comes with price, high quality = high price.

If I remember correctly, some of the Canons have a counter that when it reaches a specific number, (maybe 50K) then the the counter has to be reset back to zero and then it will work again. Read the instruction manual.

Mike:

That is not correct, ´cause if i stood out on a job and my camera did that, i would sue Canon from here to eternity... off course it can fail, but there is no such feature in the camera.

Sincerely

Jasz

So I followed my own advise and went to the instruction manual for my 1Ds. On page 57, under continuous numbering (which is what I use) it states that once the number reaches 9999, the camera will not operate unless you create a new folder for the new exposures, which will reset the numbering to 0001.

So I guess that I was kind of right and kind of wrong. Thats what I get for trusting the old memory.

a friend of mine told me her canon 10D stopped working and when she took it in to get looked at they told her the shutter was only designed to take 50,000 images..now that is a lot of images but it makes me hesitant to spend money on a high dollar DSLR if it has a limited life span...
Every mechanical shutter has a limited lifespan. The 'professional' models tend to last longer, but even they wear out. This has been true for all cameras for years, but digital shooters do tend to shoot more, and the limits show up more frequently.

Fortunately, replacing the shutter mechanism isn't that expensive.

From doing a google it seems a 10D shutter replacment was around $200.
The 40D has a 100k shutter life, and the higher end Canon's have a 150k+ shutter lifespan.

The shutter design is tested to a certain point. Whether an individual shutter reaches that point or surpasses it depends on a lot of individual factors. Treat that number like an "mean time before failure" figure.

A camera with a high cycle count may or may not be in need of a new shutter. Attempting to do "preventative maintenance" by replacing a shutter before it fails may or may not do you any good--the new shutter may actually fail long before the old shutter would have failed. There's no way to be sure.

That false, its not like the shutter just falls out of the camera. Its mechanical, it wears out over time for sire, but do you know how long it takes to take that many pictures on average? The 5d was rated at 200,000 cycles. Ive had mine for 3 years and have beaten the heck out of it, it works flawlessly. The 1d and 1ds mk3 are rated for 300,000 cycles.