[dghlsakjg]

Yeah, but that’s like saying your mechanic shouldn’t take test drives because every mile driven shortens the life of the car.

The shutter, which is replaceable, is normally rated, for 200k-1mm actuations MTBF.

Even taking a reference photo every day won’t truly impact shutter life.

Anecdotally: I have a 20 year old Canon 1D that is 50% over it’s rated shutter life, and that camera was used for photojournalism (used HARD) for most of its life.

[caseyohara]

Most (all?) mirrorless cameras these days have an electronic shutter too, so it's not like it would put any extra miles on the mechanical shutter.

[dghlsakjg]

You need to have perfect dark to take the reference image, so even on the mirrorless ones you end up having to close the mechanical shutter to get it done.