Using gphoto2 the commandline tool allows me to read the shutter count of the weathercam. gphoto2 can be easily installed on linux based systems as well as on macOS using brew.
On macOS you have to install brew first to then install gphoto2 using
brew install gphoto2
Connect your Canon EOS 1000D using your mini-USB cable and power it on.
Open Terminal and type
gphoto2 --get-config /main/status/shuttercounter
It will then show you the current shutter count.
Label: Shutter CounterType: TEXTCurrent: 89768
The EOS 1000D has a declared shutter life of 100 000. But only few of them really reach this number. Most of them are starting to fail for other reasons
Some stats about my 3 Canon EOS 1000D that has been used so far for the weathercamPi:
#1: about 110000 shutter releases
#2: about 80000 shutter releases
#3: exactly 89768 shutter releases (currently in use)
#4: 1689 shutter releases (the “new one” that will replace #3 as soon it’s starting to fail)