Read out Canon EOS 7D shutter count on OS X

Posted on February 6, 2011 by twam

If you own a Digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera you might want to read out the shutter count. For my Canon EOS 7D this can be done very easily using gPhoto2. gPhoto2 is a free open-source tool which supports more than 1300 cameras. As it is written for Unix-like systems it can be compiled for OS X very easily. If you have Homebrew installed, you can install it easily via the terminal by running

brew install gphoto2

Homebrew will install some libraries and gphoto2. Now we can switch on the camera and connect it by USB. If we ask gPhoto2 to query all support config options by

gphoto2 --list-config

we might receive an error like

An error occurred in the io-library ('Could not claim the USB device'): Could not claim interface 0 (m). Make sure no other program or kernel module (such as sdc2xx, stv680, spca50x) is using the device and you have read/write access to the device.
*** Error (-53: 'Could not claim the USB device') ***

This is because OS X starts the Picture-Transfer-Protocol daemon which occupies the device. We can quit the daemon by

killall PTPCamera

If we now try again to readout the support config options by

gphoto2 --list-config

we should receive a list like

/main/actions/bulb
/main/actions/uilock
/main/actions/syncdatetime
/main/actions/autofocusdrive
/main/actions/manualfocusdrive
/main/actions/eoszoom
/main/actions/eoszoomposition
/main/actions/eosviewfinder
/main/settings/datetime
/main/settings/reviewtime
/main/settings/output
/main/settings/evfmode
/main/settings/ownername
/main/settings/artist
/main/settings/copyright
/main/settings/capturetarget
/main/settings/capture
/main/status/model
/main/status/ptpversion
/main/status/batterylevel
/main/status/lensname
/main/status/serialnumber
/main/status/shuttercounter
/main/status/availableshots
/main/imgsettings/imageformat
/main/imgsettings/imageformatcf
/main/imgsettings/imageformatexthd
/main/imgsettings/iso
/main/imgsettings/whitebalance
/main/imgsettings/whitebalanceadjusta
/main/imgsettings/whitebalanceadjustb
/main/imgsettings/whitebalancexa
/main/imgsettings/whitebalancexb
/main/capturesettings/exposurecompensation
/main/capturesettings/autoexposuremode
/main/capturesettings/drivemode
/main/capturesettings/picturestyle
/main/capturesettings/shutterspeed
/main/capturesettings/meteringmode
/main/capturesettings/bracketmode
/main/capturesettings/aeb
/main/other/d402
/main/other/d407
/main/other/d406
/main/other/d303

Now, we can read out one of these config options, e.g. the shutter count, by running

gphoto2 --get-config /main/status/shuttercounter

which results in

Label: Shutter Counter
Type: TEXT
Current: 4930

The 4930 fits perfectly to the number of pictures I made with my Canon EOS 7D.

123 thoughts on “Read out Canon EOS 7D shutter count on OS X”

Sridhar Iyer on March 11, 2011 at 23:15 said:

Thanks a lot for the great tutorial.. I was looking for a utility to do this.. will try this out on my linux box.

Reply ↓
Jonathan on April 16, 2011 at 18:48 said:

Great article!! It worked really well with my 7D. I was a bit worried about my shutter count, but I'm only at 1/5th of the shutter life after a year. Not bad!

Reply ↓
Ian on May 3, 2011 at 00:35 said:

I am just about to take your tutorial for a spin, but was wondering what needed to be done to reconfigure my mac after the killall PTPCamera command. Something like runall PTPCamera?

Reply ↓
twam on May 3, 2011 at 10:00 said:

@Ian
No, you don't need to start PTPCamera again. This is done automatically by OS X when a PTP compatible camera is plugged in.

Reply ↓
ursula on May 7, 2011 at 13:07 said:

Great article - sounds like you are one of the few people have found a way to get this shutter count for a canon eos 7d. this doesnt read to me as though it will work for a simple person like me working with windows and just trying to find a way to give out info when selling my camera. am i missing something?

Reply ↓
Derek on May 14, 2011 at 05:59 said:

Hi, I tried the command for getting shutter count on my 7d which successfully gave 'Current:16'. But I was just wondering why after taking several photos again then rerunning the command again, it still gave the same number. Any idea what I am doing wrong? Thanks .

Reply ↓
Sinan E. on May 17, 2011 at 12:19 said:

I have done what you have told via ubuntu and here is the result: 5012.

I reset the file numbering in the camera and took another photo

here is the final result:

root@sinan-HP-Pro-3010-Microtower:/home/sinan# gphoto2 –get-config /main/status/shuttercounter
Label: Shutter Counter
Type: TEXT
Current: 5013

works brilliant!
thanks!

Reply ↓
Vadim Blagodarnyy on May 31, 2011 at 23:12 said:

Thanks Tobias! This method worked perfectly for my 7D and also my girl's 7D camera
First camera showed 41,000+ after year of use, and second was about 12,500+

Reply ↓
Nikon d5110 on July 23, 2011 at 03:35 said:

Just tried this out and it works brilliantly. Thanks!

Reply ↓
paul on August 11, 2011 at 21:24 said:

What's wrong about the shutter count on the 7d itself?
Menu > Battery Info > shutter count
it shows the same number for me as i got with your tutorial.

Reply ↓
twam on August 12, 2011 at 18:58 said:

@paul
If I remember correctly, this shows only the shutter count since the last battery change.

Reply ↓
Raman on August 23, 2011 at 02:00 said:

Thanks for very useful info

I bought brand new camera but my image count started from 8000+. I searched the web to know how to get actual shutter count. most of the techniques didn't work except this one. it gave me exact shutter count. I used it on ubuntu in virtualbox.

thanks again

Reply ↓

Hi, doesn't work for me...

the problem it's me off course, I have no experience with these kind of stuff, programming and such.
when typed into the terminal (brew install gphoto2) it says this to me (quite long):

any help?!?

==> Installing gphoto2 dependency: libgphoto2
==> Downloading http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/gphoto/libgphoto/2.4.11
File already downloaded in /Users/Giacomo/Library/Caches/Homebrew
==> ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/Cellar/libgphoto2/2.4.11
[...]
checking for ltdl.h... yes
checking for lt_dlinit in -lltdl... no
configure: error: 
libgphoto2 requires the ltdl library, included with libtool
[...]
Error: Failed executing: ./configure --disable-dependency-tracking --prefix=/usr/local/Cellar/libgphoto2/2.4.11
Please report this bug: https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew/wiki/Checklist-before-filing-a-new-issue
It looks like an autotools configure failed.
Consider re-running the install with '-vd' to keep 'config.log' around:
    brew install -vd libgphoto2
Gist 'config.log' and any error output when reporting an issue.
Remember to include your config information: brew --config

Reply ↓

twam on August 27, 2011 at 18:07 said:

@Jack
You could try to install the ltdl library first (there seems to be some problems with dependencies) or file a bug on the given URL

Reply ↓
Jack on August 27, 2011 at 18:13 said:

how do I do it?

Reply ↓
twam on August 27, 2011 at 18:20 said:

@Jack
There seems to be no brew package for the lib. 🙁 I tried to install it on my system again and it is still working. So, you really should file a bug. Go to https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew/wiki/Checklist-before-filing-a-new-issue and go through the checklist first, then file the bug.

Reply ↓
Jack on August 27, 2011 at 18:48 said:

i did it....instead of using brew I installed it using sudo and worked great...
I just installed macports then gphoto2 and now works like a charm

12482 clickys ehehe

thanks anyway for your help!

Reply ↓
James Rudd on October 28, 2011 at 18:10 said:

Great, struggled with X-Code on App Store, not running Lion, but checked DVDs that came with Mac and hey presto under optional applications.

Followed everything and worked like a dream, 65939 - quite a few since January!

Recommended

Reply ↓
John on November 10, 2011 at 11:23 said:

Hi Tobias,
Just wondering, would this work with windows 7 or xp OS?
please advsie.
Thanks
JOHN

Reply ↓
twam on November 10, 2011 at 12:23 said:

@John
I don't know if there's a windows port of gphoto, but if not, you could install you could install a Ubuntu or something similar in a virtual machine.

Reply ↓
SideshowJeff on November 13, 2011 at 03:02 said:

Worked well on my Canon 60d. If you're getting messages saying unable to lock the camera then type -

sudo killall gvfs-gphoto2-volume-monitor

and try again.

Seems to count the number of photos but the shutter actuations when switching in and out of liveview don't seem to accumulate.

Reply ↓
Sarah on November 17, 2011 at 04:22 said:

Thank you SO much. I've been looking for the ability to check my shutter actuations forever. This method worked perfectly. I'm totally in your debt.

Reply ↓
Vanessa on November 24, 2011 at 00:51 said:

Yeah seriously I have been looking for this exact thing for so long now. It worked straight away on my Canon, so thanks again for that!

Reply ↓
Sanjay on December 25, 2011 at 07:56 said:

Tobias,

Thank you for a great program, although I have no programming experience and am stuck. I managed to install homebrew and download gPhoto2 and unzip it in my downloads folder. I'm not sure where to go from there. I typed in "brew install gphoto2" in a terminal that I opened from Utilities folder but I'm assuming that was the wrong thing to do as it did not work. If you could provide some explicit step by step instructions I wold be eternally grateful.

Warm regards - Sanjay

Reply ↓
twam on December 25, 2011 at 10:34 said:

@Sanjay
After installing homebrew, you don't have to download gphoto2 and unzip it by yourself. This is done automatically by homebrew when typing 'brew install gphoto2'. A step-by-step intruction to install brew can be found here: http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/

Reply ↓
Joseph on December 27, 2011 at 22:57 said:

Awesome. Worked on my T1i and XSi as well.

Reply ↓
Rob on December 28, 2011 at 23:09 said:

Works freakin great!!! Thank you

Reply ↓
David on December 31, 2011 at 07:16 said:

Thanks mate, worked perfectly on my XSi.

Reply ↓
Roar on January 1, 2012 at 07:16 said:

Anyone have ported this program to Windows yet? I tried running Ubuntu LiveCD but it does not connect to the internet to download the gphoto2 files. I downloaded it manually but I can't find a way to install it. Anyone have any ideas? Thank you in advance...

Reply ↓
Mark on January 1, 2012 at 10:55 said:

I'm getting an error, can anyone help?

I installed XCode and Homebrew via terminal. If I enter "gphoto2 --list-config" I get "gphoto2: command not found"

Reply ↓
Mark on January 1, 2012 at 11:01 said:

Sorry, nevermind. I used your ‘brew install gphoto2′ and it works great. Thanks!

Reply ↓
Michael on January 5, 2012 at 00:09 said:

Thanks for this information. Worked a charm for me on my 7D too.

Reply ↓
Vtp on January 9, 2012 at 02:06 said:

THX!! this is soooo super awesome!! works for my 550D !! And this is way safer than ML which dont dare to try on my brand new 550d...

Reply ↓
Vtp on January 9, 2012 at 02:25 said:

ummm.. on my 550d it appears that the shutter counter does not refresh itself until you turn off the camera and turn back on.. but this is good enough for me 😀 .. serial number gives me a negative ten digits which does not match the one printed on the bottom of my cam, tho i could be fooled and given a refurbished one,, dont really care.. lens name is right on my EF 50mm f1.8 II.. also model gives me a ten digits number i have no idea whats going on..

Reply ↓
Vtp on January 9, 2012 at 02:27 said:

@Mark
shouldnt it be gphoto2 --list-config ?? u r lacking a -

Reply ↓
Gunjan on January 25, 2012 at 18:16 said:

I am bit suspicious about this. Or may be my understanding of 'available shots' is different
/main/status/shuttercounter = Gave me 905
/main/status/availableshots = Gave me 43963

As we know 7D shutter life is 150000 shutters, so shouldn't it show 150000 - 905 = 149095

Reply ↓
Alex on January 28, 2012 at 12:11 said:

Hi Tobias, ist ja nett, ein Mensch mit Geschmack und nur fünf Kilometer entfernt. Danke für die Infos.

Reply ↓
Felipe on February 8, 2012 at 17:56 said:

Stupid ? ...sorry for the redundancy. I am trying to install this on my macbook pro osx

what does this mean: (Make sure to run this inside a stand-alone terminal, not something like Emacs Shell)

I downloaded the zip & got a install_homebrew.rb file
when i tried installing it all i got was a "notepad" page filled with code...

what is up..?

Reply ↓
twam on February 8, 2012 at 20:49 said:

Felipe:
what does this mean: (Make sure to run this inside a stand-alone terminal, not something like Emacs Shell)

Open the Terminal program, which you can find under Utilities in the Application folder. Then type in the command given and press return.

Reply ↓
Felipe on February 9, 2012 at 00:02 said:

Hi Tobias,

now it's asking me for a password in the stand alone terminal. what would that be ?

Reply ↓
Sergey Vasilevskiy on February 16, 2012 at 09:14 said:

For Windows, try http://www.eoscount.com. It uses Canon SDK (EDSDK) to communicate with the camera and read the shutter counter property.

Reply ↓
James R on March 7, 2012 at 12:08 said:

Thank you. Worked perfectly with my 7D - Had to reinstall Xcode from the installation CD though.

Reply ↓
Scott Goodson on April 26, 2012 at 04:19 said:

This worked even for a 5D Mark III. Unfortunately it helped me confirm that the "new" unit has been used before.

Reply ↓
twam on April 26, 2012 at 10:05 said:

@Scott Goodson
Thanks for the Information! This is the first I plan to test as well as my 5D Mark III arrives 🙂

Reply ↓

I installed the gphoto2. Not sure if it was done properly. Also, my mac is not recognizing my 7d in Finder when I plug it in. The camera is accessible in EOS utility.
I am running 10.7.3 on a MacBook Pro. Here's the detail from my Terminal app. There are several errors. I have no idea what they mean. I'm a bit over my head. Thanks so much for your assistance.

Allen-Berman-4:~ allenberman$ brew install gphoto2
==> Installing gphoto2 dependency: pkg-config
==> Downloading http://pkg-config.freedesktop.org/releases/pkg-config-0.25.tar.g
######################################################################## 100.0%
==> ./configure --disable-debug --prefix=/usr/local/Cellar/pkg-config/0.25 --wit
[...]
checking whether the C compiler works... no
configure: error: in `/private/tmp/homebrew-pkg-config-0.25-yWej/pkg-config-0.25':
configure: error: C compiler cannot create executables
[...]
Allen-Berman-4:~ allenberman$ gphoto2 --list-config
-bash: gphoto2: command not found

Reply ↓

twam on April 27, 2012 at 09:38 said:
Allen B:
```
checking whether the C compiler works… no
configure: error: in `/private/tmp/homebrew-pkg-config-0.25-yWej/pkg-config-0.25′:
configure: error: C compiler cannot create executables
```
You compiling of gphoto2 fails. It looks like you did not install you C compiler correctly. You might want to double check, that you installed Xcode properly.
Reply ↓
Allen B on April 27, 2012 at 19:39 said:

Thanks for your help. Unfortunately, I don't know what Xcode is. I just followed the directions for installing HomeBrew and gphoto2. Is Xcode and additional script that I need to install? If so, how?

Reply ↓
twam on April 27, 2012 at 19:46 said:

If you read the directions for installing HomeBrew carefully, you should have installed Xcode. 🙂 It's the developing environment from Apple.

Reply ↓
ian russell on July 21, 2012 at 18:49 said:

Took me a while to figure out, but it worked perfectly. i have 2 -7d camera's and in order for me to do the second one, i just had to restart terminal and start at process

gphoto2 --list-config
killall PTPCamera

then so one, and it worked great!!
thanks..
ian

Reply ↓
Cliff on August 6, 2012 at 18:17 said:

If you are using Mountain Lion with homebrew you might have a few problems. I had to follow the instructions here first: https://gist.github.com/1860902

That got homebrew to the point where "brew doctor" gave no errors.

Then I had to do "brew install libtool".

After that, "brew install gphoto2" finally worked.

Reply ↓
tomi on September 15, 2012 at 22:46 said:

Thanks for the article! It really helped to me to get started with gphoto2 and camera API's. Couldn't figure out that daemon part myself.

Reply ↓
SIlas on September 16, 2012 at 07:52 said:

I tried this, but once everything is installed and I try to run any command on gphoto2 nothing happens. no command from the command list of gphoto2 work.
Any help on this?

Thanks for the tutorial. I hope to finally know how many pictures I still got left in my 2y old 7D.

Thanks Again.

Reply ↓

This is foreign to me, so excuse my lack of understanding. I believe that my problem is that the package is not placed in a location where the compiler can find it to do the install, but I may be way off. This is the printout in terminal:

ssds-Mac-Pro-2:~ jackfoote$ brew install gphoto2
Warning: Could not locate developer tools. Consult `brew doctor`.
Warning: No developer tools installed
You should install the Command Line Tools: http://connect.apple.com
Warning: It appears you have MacPorts or Fink installed.
Software installed with other package managers causes known problems for
Homebrew. If a formula fails to build, uninstall MacPorts/Fink and try again.
Warning: Could not locate developer tools. Consult `brew doctor`.
Warning: Could not locate developer tools. Consult `brew doctor`.
Warning: Could not locate developer tools. Consult `brew doctor`.
==> Installing gphoto2 dependency: libusb
Warning: Could not locate developer tools. Consult `brew doctor`.
Warning: Could not locate developer tools. Consult `brew doctor`.
/usr/local/Library/Homebrew/superenv.rb:61:in `check': unhandled exception
	from /usr/local/Library/Homebrew/superenv.rb:43:in `setup_build_environment'
	from /usr/local/Library/Homebrew/build.rb:101:in `install'
	from /usr/local/Library/Homebrew/build.rb:42:in `main'
	from /usr/local/Library/Homebrew/build.rb:12
	from /usr/local/Library/Formula/libusb.rb:17
ssds-Mac-Pro-2:~ jackfoote$

Reply ↓

twam on September 24, 2012 at 12:43 said:

@DJ Sprat
Looks like you forgot to install the developer tools within Xcode. As said in the error message, try to run 'brew doctor' and fix everything it suggests.

Reply ↓
Silas Otero on September 28, 2012 at 01:38 said:

Well tried one more time, this time around I had the Canon software installed onto my Mac, and it worked, not sure if this is the reason why it was not working previously, but, I would leave this as a tip.
Make Sure you have Canon Software installed, before trying.

Going to try this on my G12 and my XTi.

Thanks Again.

BTW: my 7D has 46176 shots in little over 2 years. 😀

Reply ↓
Brian on November 2, 2012 at 05:22 said:

I just read and followed your directions after searching all over the web for a Mac 7D Shutter count method. I only use terminal about twice a year usually related to my digital cine cameras, but your instructions were very good. I realized that I got one error because I didn't have X-Code installed (at least I think that was what it meant) went the Apple App store and got my free copy. So after installing that it went pretty much as documented. The only hitch was I had to start X-Code and agree to licence which had all of the open source agreements. I just copied and pasted your commands into the command line and it went just like you said.

So I have 15,458 shutter count. I am the second owner so that doesn't seem too bad.
Thank You Twam!

Reply ↓
Danny on December 10, 2012 at 14:05 said:

Awesome link 🙂 it worked 🙂 and now to explore more on this .. thank u 🙂

Reply ↓
Josee on December 10, 2012 at 22:40 said:

Thanks for this info as I am trying to find a way to know what the shutter count is on my 7D for a while.
Not familiar with doing stuff with terminal... Followed instructions... Got this message :

talbotj:~ talbotj$ install Xcode
usage: install [-bCcpSsv] [-B suffix] [-f flags] [-g group] [-m mode]
[-o owner] file1 file2
install [-bCcpSsv] [-B suffix] [-f flags] [-g group] [-m mode]
[-o owner] file1 ... fileN directory
install -d [-v] [-g group] [-m mode] [-o owner] directory ...
talbotj:~ talbotj$ brew install gphoto2
Warning: Xcode not installed
Most stuff needs Xcode to build: http://developer.apple.com/xcode/
==> Installing gphoto2 dependency: libusb
sh: - : invalid option
/usr/local/Library/Homebrew/superenv.rb:63:in `check': unhandled exception
from /usr/local/Library/Homebrew/superenv.rb:43:in `setup_build_environment'
from /usr/local/Library/Homebrew/build.rb:105:in `install'
from /usr/local/Library/Homebrew/build.rb:43:in `main'
from /usr/local/Library/Homebrew/build.rb:12
from /usr/local/Library/Formula/libusb.rb:17

I'm on OS X 10.6.8 and cannot upgrade for now. Tried installing Xcode, but it doesn't seem to be available for my system's version...

So I'm stuck there as I have no clue what to do next.

Reply ↓
twam on December 10, 2012 at 22:52 said:

@Josee
Xcode must be download from the Apple Website and installed (not in the Terminal). I don't know if it is possible to download a version compatible with OS X 10.6.8 🙁

Reply ↓
Josee on December 10, 2012 at 23:23 said:

@twam
I will take a look on my Snow Leopard installation DVDs... I think I saw this.

Thanks!

Reply ↓
Josee on December 22, 2012 at 20:32 said:

It finally worked! I Installed Xcode 3.2.6 (it was on my installation CDs that came with my computer) and I was able to know the shutter count! Thanks so so much! Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Reply ↓
DPRKPHOTO on December 24, 2012 at 13:45 said:

Fantastic information - Thank you.

Now I guess I'd better get saving for a new shutter.

Label: Shutter Counter
Type: TEXT
Current: 156740

Reply ↓
Matt on December 27, 2012 at 06:39 said:

Great tutorial.

I have an interesting issue. Running 10.8.3, xcode, homebrew, and gphoto2 installed. When I run the following command...

gphoto2 --list-config

I get the following error.

gphoto2(57352,0x7fff762c7180) malloc: *** error for object 0x7fbd9a40c4a0: incorrect checksum for freed object - object was probably modified after being freed.
*** set a breakpoint in malloc_error_break to debug
Abort trap: 6

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Reply ↓
Matt on December 27, 2012 at 06:56 said:

@Matt

Nevermind, I figured it out. Even though I had xcode installed, I also needed Xcode command line utilities as well. Once installed, I was able to pull the count. Thanks again.

Reply ↓
Steven on January 6, 2013 at 08:11 said:

My shuttercount is at

Label: Shutter Counter
Type: TEXT
Current: 149114

what should i do? Do i have to buy a new sensor?
Label: Available Shots
Type: TEXT
Current: 82889

Reply ↓
twam on January 6, 2013 at 12:26 said:

@Steven
If everything works, enjoy your camera, if not you probably need a new shutter 🙂

Reply ↓
Matt on January 14, 2013 at 03:58 said:

Quick and easy. Thanks!

Reply ↓
James Cooper on January 16, 2013 at 12:39 said:

I'm quite confused by "shutter counter" and "availabe shots!"
My Shutter counter returned the number of 3367
but Available shots returned 38751!

could not be confused more..................

Reply ↓
paul on January 18, 2013 at 02:04 said:

dear Twam, I would pay you to find out the shutter count of my supposedly new cannon 5d mark 111. Believe me for the average person what your describing is just not possible. Ive tried to follow your instructions many times and got no where.
What is brew doctor?
what is x code?
how do I bug or not bug!!!
Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Why is this so hard its my camera, why's the shutter count such a secret!!
sorry, but could you explain how to do this, again, as if you were talking to a very small, very stupid child.
thanks,
p

Reply ↓
twam on January 18, 2013 at 09:51 said:
@paul
Hi Paul!
1. This only works in Apple computers.
2. Install Xcode. This can be found within the AppStore
3. Open a terminal and type in
```
ruby -e "$(curl -fsSkL raw.github.com/mxcl/homebrew/go)"
```
  to install homebrew. Afterwards run
```
brew doctor
```
  and it will tell you if you need anything else to do. Probably you will need to install the Xcode Command Line Tools. You’ll need to enable them under Preferences > Downloads within Xcode.
4. Again in the terminal window type
```
brew install gphoto2
```
  to install gphoto2.
5. Plug in your camera
6. In the terminal run
```
killall PTPCamera
```
  followed by
```
gphoto2 --get-config /main/status/shuttercounter
```
Reply ↓
Piotr on February 4, 2013 at 00:12 said:

For me it was easier to install Gphoto2 under Ubuntu - virtual machine VMWare on my Mac. Finally I could confirm my new 5D M3 is really new.

Reply ↓
Ryan McMaster on February 23, 2013 at 18:13 said:

Howdy,

Great program. Gives me: *** Error (-1: 'Unspecified error') ***

For debugging messages, please use the --debug option.
Debugging messages may help finding a solution to your problem.
If you intend to send any error or debug messages to the gphoto
developer mailing list , please run
gphoto2 as follows:

env LANG=C gphoto2 --debug --debug-logfile=my-logfile.txt --get-config /main/status/shuttercounter

Please make sure there is sufficient quoting around the arguments.

THis one only crops up with my 5dII. Works great with my 7d 1Dx and 5dIII

Reply ↓
Marcio on March 6, 2013 at 00:53 said:

Hi all!

I getting the following error when trying to access my 7D using gPhoto2.

*** Error ***
An error occurred in the io-library ('Could not claim the USB device'): Could not claim interface 0 (Permission denied). Make sure no other program or kernel module (such as sdc2xx, stv680, spca50x) is using the device and you have read/write access to the device.
*** Error (-53: 'Could not claim the USB device') ***

I tried to access as root, but I got the same error. Any ideias?

Thanks.

Reply ↓
- twam on March 6, 2013 at 09:36 said:
  
  Sounds like you haven't killed the PTPCamera program.
  
  Reply ↓
- Marcio on March 6, 2013 at 09:59 said:
  
  Sorry... I forgot to kill PTP before using gPhoto, and now I can read the shutter counter of my 7D.
  
  Thanks!
  
  Reply ↓
- Arnold on March 13, 2013 at 13:20 said:
  
  Or remove memory card!!
  
  Reply ↓
Dave on March 24, 2013 at 06:26 said:

Thanks very much for posting this method. You relieved some worry over how much wear and tear my Canon 7D has accumulated over the past 3 years.
Your instructions and the software components all work fine under Mountain Lion 10.8.2.

Reply ↓
Alex T on March 26, 2013 at 11:32 said:

Thank you very much! Excellent, easy to follow post even for a novice! On my first few attempts the code wasn't working until I realised I had not updated my XCODE, this was highlight in red in the terminal, as soon as I updated XCODE it worked perfectly.

Label: Shutter Counter
Type: TEXT
Current: 8249

Reply ↓
Axel von B on March 26, 2013 at 23:39 said:

Hey Tobias, many thanks for that great article, I never use the Terminal, but following your instructions was really easy, it worked with my new EOS 6D.

All the Best!

Reply ↓
Raul on March 31, 2013 at 18:48 said:

Thank you very much for explain and share this!! I couldn't imagine other way to know the shutter counter without this perfect tutorial!

Greetings from Spain.

Reply ↓
Sandy on April 1, 2013 at 21:00 said:

Thanks so much. Worked perfectly on my 5D MK 3
Label: Shutter Counter
Type: TEXT
Current: 2736
Sandra's MacBook-Pro

Reply ↓
Jimmy Schaefer on April 3, 2013 at 02:13 said:

I don't think this is very accurate. It's told me I've only used 70,090 on my Canon EOS 7D. Which I've had since day one of release. When going on EOSShuttercount site over a year ago I was as 200,000+ I even took 100 more shutters and it's not moved or counted them.

iMac 27inch (late 2009) i5
OSX Mountain Lion (10.8.3)
Canon EOS 7D
Canon T3i

Reply ↓
- mike on April 15, 2013 at 20:37 said:
  
  try closing your terminal and turning camera off. I even changed batteries. I took a ton of photos and when I tried again the camera shutter count was accurately adjusted. works great.
  200,000 plus actuations is a ton, even since day one of the cameras release.
  
  Reply ↓
Andreas Brakhage Carstensen on April 18, 2013 at 15:16 said:

Thank you very much! works perfectly on my 5d3, I've been looking for this for a long time!

Reply ↓
Rod Diaz on April 20, 2013 at 16:41 said:

Thanks very much! worked perfectly on our newly purchased refurb 7D. This is such a useful tool for verifying the amount of usage of one of these "used" devices. Ours only had 869 on the shutter counter, practically brand new. Canon factory refurbished is definitely the way to go!

Reply ↓
Matt on May 1, 2013 at 12:12 said:

I never leave comments normally for things like this. But this time you have done the "impossible" and I am writing to say you are a legend. Although the original thread started over two years ago I don't care. I used this guide and found that my 5D3 had just over 30k shutter actuations.

Cheers,
Matt

Reply ↓
Jay Hoque on May 2, 2013 at 22:57 said:

Thanks for a great tutorial. Having searched high and low for a program that works with a 5D3, I had no choice but to learn about gPhoto2, homebrew, xcode etc. I'm not a developer, just tinker around with coding as a hobby, so after installing everything was not sure what to do until I found this tutorial.

Worked a treat. Easy to follow and effective. 🙂

Thanks to you I now know my shutter count is on 13631. Which sounds accurate as it was very rarely used. I bought it when it was on 13369 (according to EOSCount)

Thanks.

Jay

Reply ↓
Tomek Rys on May 12, 2013 at 16:58 said:

I have use this procedure for my 6D. It works well. "shuttercounter" shows resonable number but .... it is exactly the same as on camera: Menu/4th-key/Battery data/Number of pictures taken (free translation from Polish). The main question therefore is if "shuttercounter" shows total number of shots on particular camera or on battery inserted to the camera? Why - I do not believe that there were no test shots on this body e.g. in a factory.

Reply ↓
Gunjan on June 26, 2013 at 03:40 said:

Extremely helpful.
I used this to see how many clicks it has after I bought my 7D from canon refurb store. First one came out with 3200 and I returned it, second one came out with just 54!

BIG help..

Reply ↓
- Jim on August 28, 2013 at 23:10 said:
  
  I wouldn't have bothered unless there was another problem with the camera. 3200 isn't exactly high in a camera with a shutter that's rated for 150,000. I've seen 7D's go to 400,000 without shutter failure. Mine has ~120,000 and is going strong after 3+ years. Plus you can't be sure that Canon didn't just reset the second one before sending it to you. It is possible.
  
  Anyway, according to gphoto2 my 5D Mark III refurb came with under 100 shutter actuations as well, though again, who really knows what they did in the factory?
  
  Reply ↓
Martin on July 15, 2013 at 17:43 said:

Thanks! I used Macports as I already had that installed. After updating my existing packages, a
sudo port install gphoto2
worked like a charm along with the rest of your instructions.

Reply ↓
Aaron on July 17, 2013 at 04:48 said:

I tried some of the suggestions here and found that gphoto2 app to either be very difficult to install or really poor instructions.

I ended up finding http://eoscount.com
It does cost about $2.23 to get the shutter count, but it was a breeze and took about 3 minutes vs. the hours I spent last night trying to get gphoto2 to work.

eoscount worked great on my 7D and 5D mk III. Money well spent.

Reply ↓
Bjørn on August 19, 2013 at 23:50 said:

great. after updating my xcode and installing homebrew it worked like a charme.
reading the shuttercount on my 6D now is easy .-)

Thank you for that!

Reply ↓
Jerry on August 21, 2013 at 19:44 said:

I had some problems installing this at first but, like some others, I found xcode on my mac installation disc (I'm still running 10.6.8 so couldn't download from apple). Even though I got a note that said it needed updating it still worked and I got the shutter counts for both of my cameras. I just bought a used 7D and it shows only 5375 (surprised to find it that low). It also showed correct serial number for 7D but the serial number doesn't match up for my XSi even though I know the serial number on my camera is right because I bought it brand new from Costco several years ago. Seems the command lines for some of the items in the list are either wrong or pertain to something other than what it appears they should be. At any rate, happy to be able to get this and many thanks. btw, I'm about as technically challenged as they come so if I got it anybody should be able to. The xcode was the thing I was missing so if you're having problems make sure you have that and be very careful to type in command lines correctly. Easy to miss a space or character if not careful.

Reply ↓
Carolina on September 22, 2013 at 01:52 said:

THANK YOU for this! I've spent so many hours trying to get a shutter count on my 60D and this was the only tutorial that worked. Much appreciated!

Reply ↓
sumssums on September 25, 2013 at 18:09 said:

Hi, unfortunately it doesn't work for me. How can I delate all this programs now?
Thanks. sumssums

Reply ↓
- twam on September 25, 2013 at 18:25 said:
  
  Have a lookt at https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew/wiki/FAQ#how-do-i-uninstall-homebrew
  
  Reply ↓
Ananda on September 27, 2013 at 05:22 said:

This worked like a charm. Thank you so much for putting this together! I ran it on my Canon 5D MIII, which I just bought from a eBay seller- shuttercount = 1 =)

Reply ↓
luca on October 4, 2013 at 11:57 said:

Thanks a lot!
Very clear and it worked perfectly.
However there´s a minimal difference between file number and shutter counter: 6800 to 6806. Maybe due to shooting when battery was almost gone and no picture was saved.
I tried it also on my G11 but Canon unfortunately doesn´t provide any info regarding shutter count...
Last but not least: Homebrew rocks!

Reply ↓
yoyoower on December 12, 2013 at 07:15 said:

I've got refurbished D6. Ran Xcode, homebrew, gPhoto.....AND just checked the shutter
it only got 400 clicks !!! yay!!! Thanxxx

Reply ↓
GV on December 27, 2013 at 21:34 said:

After upgrading to Maverick, it stopped working with this error
gphoto2 --list-config
dyld: Library not loaded: /usr/lib/libltdl.7.dylib
Referenced from: /usr/local/lib/libgphoto2.2.dylib
Reason: image not found
Trace/BPT trap: 5

I am trying to update xcode and see if that fixes. Gphoto org has made their product line up bigger and honestly more complicated for one time users like me who just care about shutter count!

Not successful yet, will post if I can fix it.

Reply ↓
- GV on December 28, 2013 at 01:44 said:
  
  New Xcode installation followed by brew lib update did the trick. Its working again on Maverick now
  
  Reply ↓
Will on January 5, 2014 at 04:30 said:

Hey guys, I just got an old XTi and yes it is used :-D. I just spent the last three days dtrying to figure out how to get the shutter count and was just about to do the 400plus hack when I found this site and thought "7D? hmmm, well maybe". I'm using linux but figured it should work, and it has with one exception, I still don't have the shutter count. The "available shots" is also useless since itdoes some wild fluctuations based on how many I take and a restart of my machine but it always starts at 15683 and gets higher. The check for shuteer count returns "Label: Camera Status Information".
Can anyone here (if you are still around) help. I would really appreciate it. This has been the only post that has gotten any real result so far I just wished it cold give me exactly what I wanted.

Reply ↓
- Robert on January 25, 2014 at 12:42 said:
  
  Hi there!
  
  I have the same issue with my Canon 5D/original/.
  
  It recognises the camera and the long list is coming up with the :
  
  Detected a 'Canon: EOS 5D (normal mode)'. ...and under the listing
  Detected a 'Canon:EOS 5D (normal mode)'.
  /main/settings/ownername
  /main/settings/capturesizeclass
  /main/settings/iso
  /main/settings/shootingmode
  /main/settings/shutterspeed
  /main/settings/zoom
  /main/settings/aperture
  /main/settings/exposurecompensation
  /main/settings/imageformat
  /main/settings/focusmode
  /main/settings/flashmode
  /main/settings/beep
  /main/actions/syncdatetime
  /main/status/model
  /main/status/datetime
  /main/status/firmwareversion
  /main/status/driver
  /main/Driver/list_all_files
  
  ...but, I don't have all the listings including the shuttercounter.
  
  Can anyone explain this?
  
  Thank you! 🙂
  
  Reply ↓
Jenny on May 3, 2014 at 15:47 said:

Thanks for the tip! Worked for my 5D too.

Reply ↓
Ruud Voest on August 10, 2014 at 17:34 said:

hi there,

I want to try Gphoto2 but after installing Homebrew and Xcode I get this message after running :

gphoto2 --list-config
dyld: Library not loaded: @@HOMEBREW_PREFIX@@/opt/readline/lib/libreadline.6.2.dylib
Referenced from: /usr/local/bin/gphoto2
Reason: image not found
Trace/BPT trap: 5

Can somebody help me out please to get me to the next step by solving this ?
Thanks!

PS: I run OSX Mountain Lion
Xcode 5.1.1

Reply ↓
Vikram Kalyanaraman on November 19, 2014 at 22:52 said:

TM - thanks, this worked perfectly with both the 7D and the 7D Mark II.

Reply ↓
Daniel on December 28, 2014 at 16:52 said:

Thanks - finally a simple step by step way to extract data without some clunky app, to reveal something that really ought to be available right out of the menu!

Much appreciated.

Reply ↓
Andrius on January 28, 2015 at 09:37 said:

Hi,

It was a while until i figure out how to use it 😀

So I checked my three cameras, nothing good...
1. 7D - 326351 🙁
2. 7D - 245511 🙁
3. 5D mark III - 128 🙂

I can't even sell any of 7D...

But thanks a lot for help author!

Reply ↓
Ricardo on June 20, 2015 at 10:03 said:

I just followed the instructions and I got this:

Label: Shutter Counter
Type: TEXT
Current: 68112

Thanks!

Reply ↓
Dude98000 on January 4, 2016 at 09:26 said:

Just did it !!!
I followed all the instructions and worked like a charm. You just have to be patient when installing gphoto2.
I got this for my 5DIII
Label: Shutter Counter
Type: TEXT
Current: 12797
Thanks a lot

Reply ↓
clumzeekrn on March 7, 2016 at 09:39 said:

Wow.. thank you!!!

my 5d mk II
shutter count at [17965]

Reply ↓
Ben on April 28, 2016 at 19:17 said:

Works perfectly. Great step by step article.

Thank you!

Reply ↓
Yehor on May 2, 2016 at 12:28 said:

Great tutorial! Thank a lot! Works great on EOS 450D

Reply ↓
Anton on July 16, 2016 at 18:34 said:

Kinda works.. but displays wrong number of shutter.

Using Macbook Pro with OSX 10.11.5 (El Capitain)
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark III

AntonsMBP:~ anton$ gphoto2 --get-config /main/status/shuttercounter

*** Error ***
Property '/main/status/shuttercounter' not found.
Label: Shuttercounter
Type: TEXT
Current: 467

My last picture name is: IMG_0480

Reply ↓
miguel on February 1, 2017 at 17:02 said:

doesn't work with me 🙁 everything runs smooth until the last step when i run : gphoto2 --get-config /main/status/shuttercounter
...and nothing happens 🙁

Reply ↓
Jurgen on April 25, 2017 at 12:28 said:

Excellent tutorial. Worked first go for me. Thanks!

Reply ↓
david brian on May 1, 2017 at 17:15 said:

thnks works for me in 6D & 5D3!!

Reply ↓
Arun on July 12, 2017 at 07:58 said:

Worked perfectly with Canon 6D, Thank you!

Reply ↓
Michael on June 1, 2018 at 07:34 said:

I get up to this point and then nothing happens..

An error occurred in the io-library ('Could not claim the USB device'): Could not claim interface 0 (No such file or directory). Make sure no other program (MacOS PTPCamera service) or kernel module (such as sdc2xx, stv680, spca50x) is using the device and you have read/write access to the device.
*** Error (-53: 'Could not claim the USB device') ***

Michaels-Mac-Pro:~ michaeloberholzer$ killall PTPCamera
Michaels-Mac-Pro:~ michaeloberholzer$ gphoto2 --list-config

Reply ↓
Dave Clissold on October 4, 2018 at 11:59 said:

I think it might be worth noting that sometimes terminal is a little tempremental with it;s output so to read the output you might need to add an output file to ths command like this

gphoto2 --get-config /main/status/shuttercounter > ~/Desktop/shutter.txt

and I also had to remove the battery afterwards as I had 'Err' on the body of the camera, a dodgy mini usb connection though I think is this problem.

Reply ↓
luciano on December 23, 2018 at 21:53 said:

hi! thanks for this tool.

I have a 400D and /main/status/shuttercounter is not on my config list. Does that means that my camera doesn't have this option or I'm doing something wrong? I can see my availabel shots, but not the counter because is not on the list.

Thank you again!

Reply ↓
james gandolfini on March 4, 2020 at 03:10 said:

crazy that there isn't an easier way.

Reply ↓

twam.info

My computer, physics, electronics & photography blog

Read out Canon EOS 7D shutter count on OS X

123 thoughts on “Read out Canon EOS 7D shutter count on OS X”

Leave a Reply Cancel reply