How To Determine The Shutter Count On Your Olympus Camera

Winter Shadow, Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia (click to enlarge)
Olympus E-M1 Mark II; 12-40mm f/2.8 lens @ 35mm; 1/640th sec. @ f/8; ISO 200

Recently, I watched a Robin Wong YouTube video in which he gave a visual step-by-step "How To" to access the actual mechanical shutter count for Olympus cameras. However, I found the visual-only representation difficult to follow when trying to actually carry out the procedure on my own Olympus camera.  There are quite a few intricate steps so I thought I would convert what he presented to writing with illustrations so if you are interested in doing the same, it will be easier to follow the written instructions rather than one from a video.

I don't know if this works on every Olympus camera but it worked for my OM-D E-M1 Mark II.  Here is the procedure he outlines:

1. Camera is off. Press menu button while turning camera on.

2. After camera is on, release menu button, then push it once more.

3. On the LCD panel, go to the wrench/spanner icon and find the menu item which is the adjustment for brightness and color temperature of the LCD. You might want to actually locate this menu item before you start the procedure as it makes things more expedient.  

Menu > Wrench/spanner > LCD brightness and color temp item

4. Press right D-Pad button which will take you into those settings.

5. Press right D-Pad button again, then press the Info button, then the  OK button.

6. Now revealed on the LCD is an almost blank page.  See below.

7. On the D-Pad press up, down, left, right, shutter button, then up once more. 

8. Page 1 appears with coded letters and numbers. Shutter count is on Page 2. 

9. Press right D-Pad button to go to Page 2. 

10. Shutter count is listed as “MS,” most likely for “Mechanical Shutter?”  Here it is 42,246.

11.  From my quick look on the Internet the other letters "may" (I cannot locate anything definitive for these other code letters) indicate the following:

S:  Number of times the flash has been fired
C:  
U:  Ultrasonic Wave Filter use
V:
B:  Number of times IBIS has been used
L:

If you have definitive information of what the other code letters designate, on Page 1 and/or Page 2, please leave a comment and I will update this with the additional information.

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Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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