Richmond, US
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> digital cameras are not designed to last forever
True literally. At least these days we upgrade them before they would otherwise wear out.
> can only be used for a certain number of activiation
This is no more true of a D40x than it was of an FM2n. Both have a design lifetime: the amount of use that the shutters will bear before they simply wear out and are no longer mechanically accurate, etc. And in fact, the D40x and the FM2n have about the same design life: 50,000 cycles. You're more likely to get close to that limit with a digital body, but in fact the mechanical lifetime is about the same. For perspective, 50k cycles is a 36-exposure roll of film every single week for 26 years. Here's a digital perspective: I shoot more frames than most amateurs, partly because I do a lot of sports and partly because I shoot a lot. I fairly often end up squeezing a D3 for 9 fps, something you literally cannot do on a D40x (2.5 fps, right?). Even with that, I am averaging about 20k frames per year. I see a lot of amateur bodies that do 3-4k per year. 4000 frames is still 75 per week, every week, and at that rate 50k won't be approached for > 10 years.
Even when the lifetime does get up there, it doesn't turn into a pumpkin. Eventually, like a car with an odometer at 150k miles, something will fail, and then you decide whether or not it's worth fixing. Replacing a shutter costs about $400, pretty much regardless of which body it is - my FM2n needed a new shutter years ago and that cost about $300, about $400 in today's money. A close friend had a D3 shutter replaced a year or two ago, and that cost $425. On a D3x, of course you'd replace it and go on. On a D100 (which is presently worth maybe $200 in toto) the usual reaction would likely be to either buy another used D100 or get a D3100 for slightly more than that $400.
> Are we coming to the end?
Judging by your comments over the past few years, I'd guess you are not one of the sort to be shooting with wild abandon, and I'll guess that your D40x probably has under 10k frames on it. And in that case, you're not only not coming to the end, you may not really even at the end of the beginning, to paraphrase Winston Churchill...
If you have Photoshop (or, I think, Elements), do File -> File Info; then go far right and look for the Advanced tab. Click that, then look at Schema, then aux:ImageNumber. That tells you the number of cycles since shutter replacement. _____
Brian... a bicoastal Nikonian and Team Member
My gallery is online. Comments and critique welcomed any time!
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