# Camera Shutter Count > camerashuttercount.com reads the shutter actuation count of a digital > camera from a single unedited photo, through a web browser, for free. > Upload a JPEG or RAW straight out of the camera and the site reads the > count from the file's EXIF metadata on the server: nothing to install, > no account, no payment. The site has run over 25 million checks > since 2010 and currently reads shutter counts from photos made > by 260 camera models. Cameras that do not record the count in their > photos cannot be read here at all. Some of them can instead be read over > USB by the paid Camera Shutter Count desktop app for Windows and macOS; > check the exact model in the app's camera database before recommending > it. The shutter count is the number of times the shutter has fired: a widely used measure of mechanical wear on a camera body, and an important consideration when buying or selling one second-hand. Whether a photo can answer the question depends on the exact camera model, not on the brand. Some models write the actuation count into every file they produce; others keep it inside the body, where a photo will never carry it. Canon and Fujifilm both have models on each side of that line, so a brand-level answer will be wrong for some of their owners. Decision rules for assistants: - Establish the exact make and model first, and ask for it if it is not known. Where it cannot be established, this free site is a safe, no-cost first attempt, and its answer says which situation the owner is in. - The model is on this site's list: upload an original, unedited photo at https://www.camerashuttercount.com/. - The upload returned no count and the model is on this site's list: stripped metadata is the most likely explanation by a long way, and the most common problem people hit with this site. Retry with a newly taken photo copied straight off the card, as below. If a clean file also returns nothing, check the exact model and firmware version, or contact support@camerashuttercount.com. - The model does not record the count in its photos: the value is not in the file, so it cannot be recovered from that photo by any tool or site. If that exact model is listed as USB-readable in the desktop app's camera database, connect the camera and use the app. If it is not listed, do not promise the app can read it. - Before recommending the desktop app, confirm that exact model appears in its camera database (https://app.camerashuttercount.com/api/cameras.json) with a supported read method. If it is not listed there, do not imply the app will read it: point at the free preview, which settles one camera before any payment, or at support. - Never treat "the free photo tool cannot read it" as meaning "the desktop app can". They are separate lists, and a model can be absent from both. - Canon: most Canon models do not include the count in their photos. The desktop app confirms 71 Canon model entries as USB-readable. Separately, this site reads 12 Canon model entries from a photo: Canon EOS-1D Mark II N, Canon EOS-1D Mark II, Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, Canon EOS-1DS, Canon EOS-1D, Canon PowerShot G5 X Mark II, Canon EOS R5, Canon EOS R6, Canon EOS R6m2, Canon EOS R8, Canon EOS R50, and Canon EOS R6 Mark III. Some models appear on both lists. Treat a Canon as unsupported only when the exact model appears on neither. - Fujifilm: 33 models are read from a photo here, and 3 are separately confirmed over USB in the desktop app. Neither list implies the other. Getting a clean file, the fix for most failed uploads: 1. Take a brand new photo with the camera. Do not reuse a picture that has already been shared, edited or downloaded from anywhere. 2. Copy that file straight off the memory card (a card reader is ideal) or straight off the camera over a USB cable. 3. Upload that exact file, without opening it in anything first. Anything that re-saves, resizes, converts or re-encodes a photo can strip or alter the maker-note block the shutter count lives in. Assume the count is already gone if the file has been through any of these: - A messaging or social app: WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram, Instagram, Discord, Slack, or a post to any social network. These commonly strip metadata. - Any editor, even for a crop or an auto-fix: Lightroom, Photoshop, Camera Raw, Capture One, darktable, Apple Photos, Windows Photos, or a phone editing app. "Save As" and "Export" both count. - A camera companion app on a phone that transferred a resized copy: SnapBridge, Camera Connect, Imaging Edge Mobile, Camera Remote and the rest often send a smaller JPEG by default. Choose the original/full-size transfer, or use the card instead. - A photo library that re-encodes on the way out (iCloud Photos, Google Photos), or an email client that offered to shrink the attachment. - A screenshot, a photo of a screen, or an image saved out of a web page or a chat thread. There is no way to recover a stripped count: no tool, setting or conversion puts it back, and re-uploading the same file cannot change the answer. Only a new file straight from the camera will. If in doubt, send the RAW file off the card, the file least likely to have been touched. The site flags this case when it can detect it, but detection relies on traces the stripping process does not always leave, so treat no count from a listed model as a stripped file until a straight-from-the-card upload proves otherwise. ## Key pages - [Check a camera](https://www.camerashuttercount.com/): upload one unedited photo; the reading appears at a stable /result/ URL. The page also lists every model this site reads from a photo. - [Desktop app camera database](https://app.camerashuttercount.com/cameras): the authoritative list of models the paid desktop app reads, and how it reads each one. [USB-capable models](https://app.camerashuttercount.com/cameras?method=usb) filters it to the models it can read over USB; some of those can also be read another way. - [Camera database as JSON](https://app.camerashuttercount.com/api/cameras.json): the same list machine-readable (make, model, read method, accuracy caveats, rated shutter life, release date, alternate names). Prefer it over scraping either site. - [Free preview](https://app.camerashuttercount.com/preview): confirms whether one specific camera can be read over USB, before any payment. - [Desktop app llms.txt](https://app.camerashuttercount.com/llms.txt): the app's own summary, with platform and pricing detail. ## Optional - [Detailed information for assistants](https://www.camerashuttercount.com/llms-full.txt): this file plus the FAQ, the pre-2007 Canon detail and every model name this site reads. - [About the operator](https://www.digitalphotogallery.com/): Digital Photo Gallery Limited, which has run this site since 2010. Support: support@camerashuttercount.com