FAQ: Why can't I take photos at the full 3fps?

[DragonStar]

Question: When I try to take photos in continuous mode I can't take photos at the full 3fps. If feels slower, more like 1.5 or 2 fps.

Answer: There must be several factors all right to get the full 3fps.

First focus must be perfect, to get the maximum frames you should ultimatly be in manual focus mode. That said, with good focus available (and good light), you can still get it using autofocus.

Secondly, you can't have a shutter speed that's lower than a third of a second. It may sound stupid, but if you're trying to shoot photos with a shutter speed of 1/2 then you will never get 3 frames in a second, it will take a minimun of 1.5 seconds to take three frames at this shutter speed. (sounds obvious, but can be overlooked).

Thirdly, make sure noise reduction isn't turned on (under Record settings - Long exposure NR). Turn it off, otherwise the camera wil try and reduce the noise after every photo. This will DRAMATICALLY increase the time it takes for a photo to be processed before the next one is allowed to be taken.

Lastly, once the buffer is full the maximum frame rate will be reduced. It will now be up to the speed of the memory card to see how fast your next photo will be. 80X memory cards are good because they can clear the buffer very quickly, allowing you to keep shooting at almost 3fps second pretty much constantly when using all but RAW mode.

[Matt. K]

I believe that the camera shoots faster when you're shooting RAW images because the camera does not have to do any processing. It writes them to the flashcard faster. It's one of the things that makes the D70 special.

[Onyx]

Heh, fun with 3FPS. I expended half a gig in JPEGs outside the Bellargio, Las Vegas in like 2 minutes shooting the water fountain. Continuously from near full to empty.

[birddog114]

Onyx,
You're in Las Vegas, great spot and lot of fun, try to take few shots in the evening shows along the Las Vegas Blvd, only one important thing: make sure you have your cam with you once you leave the area, don't leave it in the prawn shop.
Area 51 is my favourite spot that I went there everytime I stopped by.
Have a good fun, eat well and enjoy!!!!
Hope to meet you soon.

[Onyx]

Thx Birddog, this city lives up to all its reputation - good and bad. The gambling, the tacky establishments, the sleaze, the quickie wedding chapels, the food ($8 all you can eat buffets), etc.

[Capturedview]

I noticed my D70 was not getting anywhere near 3fps in continous shooting. The noise reduction sure does slow you down.

[the foto fanatic]

Continuously from near full to empty.

That American beer is only 25% strength - switch to spirits!

[Matt. K]

Capturedview
The noise reduction effectively doubles the time it takes to make an exposure. Switch it off.

[Capturedview]

Capturedview
The noise reduction effectively doubles the time it takes to make an exposure. Switch it off.

Already done

[tasadam]

Man am I HAPPY



I thought about reading the manual to see if I could find the answer to this, but figured someone, somewhere would have alerady figured it out.
So I look on the forum and here's the answer!

I noticed I could get 3 FPS on RAW but only for 3 frames - those 5Mb files sure are chunky... (and have you seen how much less time it takes a D70 to write 3 RAW files to the camera compared to a D100 with 3 TIFF files? The D100 sits there writing for AGES - really unusable)

But when changing to JPG files I noticed it slower. I figured out it was some kind of processing thing, the way the camera is dealing with the data, but didn't think of noise reduction.

I only read halfway thru the 1st post on this topic when I spun round, scruffed the D70 and turned off NR. Peered out the window, focused on the 1st thing it could find that was bright, pressed AF-L (my solution to manual focus for multiple frames) and happily shot like crazy - WOW!

Thanks to the contributors of this post

AND Don't forget about the right thumb to stop the thing trying to focus after each shot! (providing subject is still)

Cheers
Adam