about this tool

The tool was created in april 2013 when a dyxum.com user called Micholand posted a way to read shutter count information on the A900. The first tool used the free and opensource application ExifTool by Phil Harvey (Credit to that person!) to extract the required data from SONY ARW and JPG files.
(You can read more about it in this dyxum.com thread about the tool)

Using the ExifTool application also meant that the files had to be uploaded on one of my servers, which meant that with time more and more problems were being caused by the tool (not to mention all the hacking attempts).

The second version was created in the fall of 2018 and featured a simple EXIF decoding implementation in JavaScript - the "programming" language that enables most of the fancy stuff on the web. The documentation provided by Phil Harvey on his website again made this possible.

With that "breakthrough", the tool can now read the data directly on your computer, thus the data never leaves your computer - making it safe for both me, the author, and you the user. A side benefit is that it is lighting fast (the first version had 10+ second waiting times - which is extremely slow by internet standards).

In July 2022 I have discovered that in the meantime my tool appeared on multiple YouTube videos and that certain aspects were found to be lacking. I have moved the tool to a new server and domain name. The tool has also been updated again - but only on the outside - to make it more user friendly.
If you spot any problems or issues - please let me know on borut@shuttertool.com.

The tool is not copyrighted - see the javascript source if you want to re-use the code.
The webpage design IS copyrighted and direct copying is prohibited (mainly due to scammers).

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What does the number of exposures mean?
   On practically all SONY cameras this is the number of times the shutter had to mechanically move in order to produce an image.
2. Why is the number of shutter actuations/movements important?
   Everything that is mechanical will eventually break or malfunction. Most camera manufacturers rate the shutters for a certain number of actuations (like 75.000, 100.000, 150.000 or even more with some pro grade models). This means that as long as the number of shutter actuations is lower than this, the chance of failure is very small.
   On newer models with an electronic shutter, this is no longer a problem as there can be no mechanical failure.
3. Why do I get two numbers?
   On certain DSLTs and DSLRs (A55, A33, A560, A580) the shutter could mechanically move more than once to produce one image - depending on the mode (live preview on DSLRs, panorama, HDR, etc ...) The second, larger, number is the number of actual shutter movements and the first number is the number of finished images.
4. Why does my camera have 0 exposures? / Why doesn't the exposure number increase?
   Newer SONY models have an option to turn on electronic shutter. In this case the number of mechanical movements of the shutter does not increase.
   Try turning the option off in the menu and see if this causes the number to change.

instructions

The only way, this tool can read the data is if the image is in its 100% original state, as made by the camera itself.

In order to achieve this, you should transfer the images to your computer via a card reader or via the USB cable which came with the camera.

If you have the camera at hand, follow this procedure:

1. take a photo with the camera, it can be with the lens cap on, or out of focus, it does not matter
2. a - connect the camera to the computer with the USB cable OR
   b - remove the SD/CF/MS card from the camera and insert it into your card reader
3. navigate to the images on the camera/card with your file manager (Explorer on windows, finder on Mac OS, ...)
   The images are usually found in the DCIM or 100MSDCF or similar folders
4. drag the latest image - usually the one with the highest number - to the "Drag images here" box in the tool
5. The tool should read the proper values

Things to AVOID in order to get a working result

• Transfering the images with special software
• Opening the images with any sort of editing software (this is very important, as SONY stores the shutter data in such a way, that almost all image editors will destroy that data)