Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Medium Format / Film / Digital Backs – and Large Sensor Photography => Topic started by: ziocan on December 17, 2008, 04:41:16 pm
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Do reconditioned Phase backs get a captures counter reset?
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Do reconditioned Phase backs get a captures counter reset?
Time for a heart to heart. Here it is with 100% honesty:
- A dSLR with a shutter "wears" mechanically during every shot.
- Some CMOS chips lose sensitivity (a.k.a. efficiency) every time they cycle.
Both effects are very very small (especially the CMOS lose of sensitivity), so only after tens or hundreds of thousands of shots do they start to matter.
- A digital back with no moving parts and a CCD does NOT "wear" during an exposure.
The shot count is virtually irrelevant to the condition of the back. It is NOT like mileage on a car or shutter releases on a dSLR. A back with a million shots used only in a studio is going to be in much better condition than a back with a thousand shots which was used on hiking expeditions in the snow and rain. So shot count is not without some merit (on average a back with a higher shot count was used in more situations and carried around more and shipped more and is therefore slightly more likely to fail than one with lower shot count), but it has far far less significance than most customers think.
More importantly a refurbished back comes standard with a 1 year warranty which can be upgraded/extended indefinitely as you desire (at additional cost).
All that said, the answer to the question you actually asked is no. Phase One backs do not have their counter reset.
Doug Peterson, Head of Technical Services
Capture Integration, Phase One & Canon Dealer (http://www.captureintegration.com) | Personal Portfolio (http://www.doug-peterson.com)
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Thank you for your answer.
From my very little knowledge about electronics, the concern on the number of actuations, it is not exactly about the "mechanical" wear and tear, that is practically non existent, but I was wondering if there could be some "stress" that electronic parts may have from heating or something.
The fact that the warranty can be extended/upgraded also on a refurbished product is very reassuring.
Thank you again for the info.
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I was wondering if there could be some "stress" that electronic parts may have from heating or something.
The hard fact is that electronic components with no moving parts are more likely to fail in the early stage of their lives than they are in later stages.