How to Check Shutter Count on Panasonic Lumix GX80/GX85

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX80 is a great compact mirrorless camera with some outstanding features like 5 axis in-body image stabilization, an electronic viewfinder, 4K video recording and comes often in a bundle with a very solid and extremely compact zoom lens. The camera was announced on April 4, 2016 and is retailed by Panasonic in different geographic regions with different model names. In the United States the camera is known as the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX85 and as the GX7 Mark II in Japan.

What is a shutter count of a camera and why it is sometimes useful to know it? Well, the shutter count is simply a number that says how many shutter actuations has been made by this camera. The GX80/GX85 have two types of shutter: mechanical shutter and an electronic shutter. Be aware that using the method described below you will be able to read the shutter count of the camera’s mechanical shutter only. As far as I know, there is no way to retrieve the number of electronic shutter actuations from the camera.

The shutter count of a photo camera is a good indicator of the camera’s wear or heaviness of its use. When you are buying a used camera on the secondary market then it’s strongly recommended to know the actual shutter count number. However, some photographers (like me) prefer to use their mirrorless cameras primarily with the electronic shutter for taking photos or using the camera primarily for video recording. In both cases the shutter count will not reflect the amount of taken videos or photos with the electronic shutter. There is no official information about the GX80/GX85’s shutter life or shutter durability. But the same grade DLSR cameras from another manufacturers have capacity of about 100,000 shutter actuations and above.

To find out the shutter count of the Panasonic Lumix GX80/GX85 perform the following steps:

1. Make sure that the camera battery is well charged and both the battery and the SD memory card both inserted in the camera.
2. While the camera is OFF, press and hold simultaneously the PLAYBACK, AF/AE LOCK and RIGHT CURSOR buttons. Keeping all three buttons pressed, now turn the camera ON. When the camera went ON, release all the buttons.
3. Now press simultaneously and hold for a short time the AF/AE LOCK button together with the MENU/SET and LEFT CURSOR buttons. If you are lucky, then a menu screen with a gray background and many long numbers will appear. This step is a little bit tricky and you might need try the combo again for a few times until you get to the internal menu.
4. Once you get into the internal camera menu from the previous step, repeat the last buttons combination (press and hold the AF/AE LOCK button while pressing the MENU/SET and LEFT CURSOR buttons) to get to the second menu screen that is called “CAMERA INFO”.
5. On the “CAMERA INFO” you will see the following numbers:
   • The number next to PWRCNT is how many times the camera has been powered up.
   • The number next to SHTCNT is the shutter actuations count.
   • The number next to STBCNT reflects the number of times the flash has fired.
   • The number next to PSVCNT reflects number of times the auto power off has actuated.
6. Turn the camera off to revert it back to normal operating mode. Congratulations, you have successfully retrieved the shutter count information!

The following video will guide you through the process of reading the shutter counter of your Panasonic Lumix GX80 / GX85: