I could only find old posts about this so do not understand why it is not working now.

Using latest version of gallery.
Using a copy of 'Basic' template.
Plugin 'Hitcounter' is enabled.

Nothing is showing.
I reverted to the default basic template but that does not show any hits or hit counter either.

Manually inserting the php code for a 2009 forum post does output a number but why doesn't the hitcounter work by default for the default basic template?

2009 forum post
http://www.zenphoto.org/support/topic.php?id=5963

"echo getHitcounter()"

Andy

You indeed have to insert the code yourself to display the number of hits.
Not everything works "out of the box". If you want your theme to be different you'll have to code it yourself.
Fortunately, almost anything is possible but requires some reading ;-)

Ok thanks. Reading the old posts it looked like it would become standard in later releases.

The plugin is standard in so far that it is an official plugin included in the release. But as fretzl said not all functions are already built in in themes. Hitcounter display is available on the backend though if enabled.