Drop an unedited ARW from your DSLR-A560 into the browser tool and it reads the shutter count locally, with no upload. The value sits inside a 20,480-byte MakerNote container that has to be indexed rather than looked up, and the tool now walks that index to read it. Checked against ExifTool on two real A560 files: both returned the same number in this tool as in ExifTool’s Shutter Count. ExifTool remains a good second opinion — and on this body it prints two counters, so it is worth knowing which one the tool shows. The exact location of the value, the optional ExifTool command and what the number means on a 2010 body are below.
Check Shutter Count →Sony announced the Alpha DSLR-A560 on 24 August 2010 alongside the A580, and the two are the same camera with different sensors: the A560 carries a 14.2 MP Exmor APS HD CMOS, the A580 a 16.2 MP one, and essentially everything else — body, 15-point AF module, tilting screen, video modes, burst rates — is shared. They were the last conventional reflex bodies in the consumer A-mount line; the translucent-mirror SLT-A33 and SLT-A55 arrived the same month and took over from there.
Two things make the A560 more interesting than its price suggested at the time. It was among the first A-mount DSLRs able to shoot Full HD video — AVCHD 1920×1080 60i at 17 Mbps, or MP4 — and it kept a genuine optical pentamirror finder while doing it. It also offers a 7 fps Speed Priority Continuous mode, unusually quick for an entry-to-mid body of that generation, which matters here because burst shooting is the fastest way to put actuations on a shutter. Like every A-mount body it has SteadyShot INSIDE sensor-shift stabilisation, so stabilisation works with any A-mount lens, including Minolta AF glass going back to 1985.
| Specification | Sony Alpha 560 (DSLR-A560) |
|---|---|
| Announced | 24 August 2010 · alongside the DSLR-A580 |
| Sensor | 14.2 MP effective APS-C Exmor APS HD CMOS |
| Mount | Sony A-mount |
| Stabilisation | SteadyShot INSIDE — in-body, works with every A-mount lens |
| Viewfinder | Optical pentamirror · approx. 95 % coverage · approx. 0.80× magnification |
| Autofocus | 15 points, 3 cross-type |
| LCD | 3.0-inch, 921,600 dots, tilting |
| Sensitivity | ISO 200–12800, extendable to 25600 |
| Shutter | Focal-plane, 30 s – 1/4000 s |
| Burst | Up to 7 fps in Speed Priority Continuous · approx. 5 fps through the viewfinder · approx. 3 fps in live view |
| Video | AVCHD 1920×1080 60i (17 Mbps) or MP4 · AF-S only in the 1080 mode |
| Storage | SD / SDHC / SDXC and Memory Stick PRO Duo |
| Weight | Approx. 599 g, body only |
| RAW format | ARW — carries the shutter count, see below |
| Shutter durability | No figure published by Sony — commonly estimated at ~100,000 (est.) |
| Browser tool support | Shutter count read in the browser · matched ExifTool on two real A560 ARWs |
Sony moved the hiding place several times across the A-mount and E-mount generations, and the A560 sits in the middle scheme of the three below — the same one as its sister A580, the SLT-A33/A35/A55 and the first NEX bodies.
Every A560 ARW carries a Sony MakerNote tag 0x0020 that is 20,480 bytes long on these bodies. ExifTool names that block MoreInfo, and it is not a flat structure: it opens with an entry count and a total length, then an index of four-byte records, each pairing a block ID with the offset of that block's data. The shutter count lives in the block whose ID is 0x0201 — 368 bytes, which ExifTool calls MoreInfo0201 — at offset 0x0125 inside it, as a 32-bit little-endian value. Only the low 24 bits are the counter: ExifTool masks it with 0x00FFFFFF, so a reader that takes all four bytes as one number can print something absurd.
The same block holds a second counter, ImageCount, at offset 0x011b. ExifTool marks both fields invalid for the DSLR-A450, A500 and A550 — those older bodies instead use offset 0x014a, a single field that ExifTool's own source comment describes as doubling as the image count. On the A560 the two are separate fields and need not agree. The browser tool reports ShutterCount (0x0125), not ImageCount.
None of this is encrypted. It is simply not a plain MakerNote entry either: reaching the counter means parsing a container's index, finding the right block by ID, then indexing into it by byte offset — three steps, none of them a tag lookup. Those are exactly the steps the parser on this site takes.
0x0020, walks its MoreInfo index of (tag, offset) entries to block 0x0201, and reads ShutterCount as a 32-bit value at offset 0x0125, masked to 24 bits. The result is labelled Sony MakerNote 0x0020 MoreInfo0201[0x0125]. On 27 October 2026 a CI run compared it with ExifTool 13.59 on the full-size release files in the repository: both DSLR-A560 ARWs read 1,736 in this tool and 1,736 in ExifTool’s ShutterCount. In the same run the A450, A500, A550, A580, NEX-3 and NEX-5 also matched ExifTool exactly on two files each. Until that change the tool only decoded the encrypted 0x9050 block that later Sony bodies use, so A560 files returned model and EXIF but no count. More A560 sample files are still welcome at samples@shuttercount.app.
| Sony generation | Where the count lives | Browser tool |
|---|---|---|
| DSLR-A230 / A290 / A330 / A380 / A390 / A850 / A900 | MakerNote 0x0020 (FocusInfo, 19,154 or 19,148 bytes) → offset 0x0846 | See each model’s page |
| DSLR-A450 / A500 / A550 | MakerNote 0x0020 (MoreInfo, 20,480 bytes) → block 0x0201 → offset 0x014a | ✓ Read in the browser · A450, A500, A550 matched ExifTool on real files |
| DSLR-A560 / A580 · SLT-A33 / A35 / A55 · NEX-3 / 5 / C3 | MakerNote 0x0020 (MoreInfo, 20,480 bytes) → block 0x0201 → offset 0x0125, with ImageCount at 0x011b | ✓ Read in the browser (ShutterCount only) · A560, A580, NEX-3, NEX-5 matched ExifTool on real files |
| The SLT, NEX, ILCE and ILCA generations from about 2012 | Encrypted MakerNote 0x9050, model-specific offset | ✓ Read in the browser |
You do not need ExifTool to get the count — the browser tool reads it — but it is the reference this site checks against, and a useful cross-check when a sale depends on the number. ExifTool is the free, open-source metadata reader whose Sony module documents the MoreInfo container. It runs locally, reads the file and changes nothing.
The reply is two lines, for example:
If nothing comes back, add -a -G1 to list every tag ExifTool found with its group, and look for Shutter Count and Image Count among the Sony MakerNote tags. An empty result almost always means the file has been through an editor, or is a JPEG that was re-compressed. An untouched out-of-camera JPEG usually carries the same MakerNote container, but the ARW is the reliable choice.
Sony published no shutter durability figure for the A560, and none for the A580 either. The ~100,000 number attached to these bodies across the web — including in some pages on this site — is an estimate based on what DSLRs of that class and period were generally understood to manage, not a specification you can hold Sony to. Read the table below as a rough yardstick against an estimate, not as a countdown against a warranty.
| Actuation count | Share of the ~100,000 estimate | Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| 0 – 10,000 | 0 – 10 % | Very low use — typical of a hobbyist body |
| 10,000 – 40,000 | 10 – 40 % | Low to moderate use |
| 40,000 – 75,000 | 40 – 75 % | Moderate to heavy for this class |
| 75,000 + | 75 %+ | Heavy — price it as a body that may need the shutter unit |
Two habits push A560 counts higher than the age of the camera would suggest. The 7 fps burst is the obvious one: a body used for children, pets or sport can pass 40,000 while a body used for holidays sits under 5,000 after fifteen years, so the count tells you far more about the previous owner than the calendar does. The other is Speed Priority being an easy mode to leave selected by accident.
Video pushes the other way. Recording AVCHD or MP4 clips raises the mirror and holds the shutter open for the length of the take instead of cycling the blades per frame, so a body used heavily for video may show a modest count while having plenty of hours on it — worth remembering, because the A560 was bought by a lot of people specifically for its Full HD mode.
On a camera this old the count is rarely the deciding factor. An A560 is now sixteen years old, and the parts that actually fail tend not to be the shutter: the grip rubber goes sticky, the tilting-screen hinge loosens, dust settles on the sensor, the pop-up flash mechanism gets stiff, and NP-FM500H batteries of this vintage hold much less charge than their label. A high count on an inexpensive body is worth less concern than a mirror that hesitates or a hinge with play in it.
Dropping an A560 ARW into the tool is worth doing when you are checking a listing, because everything it reports comes from the file the camera wrote:
0x0125), not the separate ImageCount.Everything runs in your browser; no file is uploaded. If you want an independent check of the number, the ExifTool command above reads the same field.
From about 2012 Sony moved the counter into the encrypted 0x9050 block, which the tool also decodes; the bodies below were confirmed against full release samples rather than inferred.
Yes. The parser reads the A560’s counter from MakerNote 0x0020, MoreInfo block 0x0201, offset 0x0125, masked to 24 bits. On 27 October 2026 it was checked against ExifTool 13.59 on both full-size DSLR-A560 ARWs in the site’s release files: 1,736 in this tool, 1,736 in ExifTool’s ShutterCount. ExifTool stays available as an optional second opinion.
ExifTool decodes ShutterCount at offset 0x0125 and ImageCount at 0x011b, both masked to their low 24 bits, and on the A560 these are genuinely separate fields rather than two names for one value. For mechanical wear, read Shutter Count — that is the value the browser tool shows; it does not report ImageCount. The A450, A500 and A550 have only the single field at 0x014a.
No. Sony added a Shutter Count entry to the setup menu on later SLT bodies; the A560 has no owner-facing readout. The metadata in the file is the accessible source. An authorised service centre can read the body's internal counter directly, where you can still find one that services cameras this old.
No. The counter comes from the camera body, not from the card, so formatting cannot touch it. What formatting and the File Number setting can restart is the DCF file numbering — worth knowing, because file numbers are often mistaken for actuation counts. A body writing DSC00042.ARW may have fired many thousands of frames.
Nothing published. Sony did not quote a shutter durability figure for the A560 or the A580, so the ~100,000 number in circulation is an estimate drawn from the class norm of the period rather than a Sony specification. Any page giving you an exact rated figure for an A560 is quoting an estimate as though it were a fact.
Running live view does not cycle the blades — only recorded exposures do, and video holds the shutter open rather than firing it repeatedly. What live view does cost on this body is speed: burst drops to roughly 3 fps in live view against 7 fps in Speed Priority Continuous, so the fastest way to accumulate actuations is through the optical finder.
Announcement date and the joint A560 / A580 launch, video formats (AVCHD 1920×1080 60i at 17 Mbps, MP4): DPReview, “Sony releases DSLR-A580 and DSLR-A560” and Engadget’s launch report. Sensor, ISO range, shutter-speed range, burst rates, pentamirror coverage and magnification, tilting 3.0-inch 921,600-dot screen, storage and 599 g body weight: the Sony DSLR-A560 specification sheet, the DPReview specification page and the Imaging Resource review. The 15-point AF module with three cross-type sensors, and that the A560 differs from the A580 only in its sensor: Photography Blog’s A580 review. Location, structure and validity conditions of the shutter-count fields — MakerNote tag 0x0020, the 20,480-byte indexed MoreInfo container and its four-byte block index, the 368-byte 0x0201 block, ShutterCount at offset 0x0125 and ImageCount at 0x011b, the 0x00FFFFFF mask, the exclusion of the A450/A500/A550 from both fields and their use of 0x014a instead: ExifTool’s Sony module, Sony.pm (the MoreInfo, MoreInfo0201 tables and ProcessMoreInfo), and the published Sony tag names. How this site’s parser reads the A560 and the real-file comparison: the parseSonyMakerNote function on the ShutterCount home page and the release-corpus CI run of 27 October 2026 (release-corpus.yml with validate_release_corpus.mjs, ExifTool 13.59). No manufacturer shutter-durability figure exists for the DSLR-A560; the ~100,000 figure is identified here as an estimate for exactly that reason.