bwhatnall wrote:Might be a little off topic, but is it possible to take a camera beyond its rated shutter click number. I had a D50 as my first camera, and it was rated to 20,000 clicks, I took it to about 35,000-40,000 clicks before I sold it, and it was still going strong, with optimum image quality
The rating of the shutter is not so much about image quality but more about the wear and tear on the shutter. I would not expect image quality to suffer at all as the shutter wears. It is just going to fail at some point.
I would also expect that in the majority of cases the shutter to outlast the rating, much like most products survive much longer than their warranty. The manufacturer needs to put a stake in the ground as to how long they think it might last and then use a much less value as the rating. Sure, some cameras may fail before reaching that point but most cameras will outlast it. The average will be higher and some cameras, like yours, will significantly outlast it. It is even possible that your 35,000-40,000 is the "average" for the shutter and Nikon when with 50% of that.