Tech Check Continuous Shooting
Make sure you capture the decisive moment with this setting
What is Continuous Shooting?
It’s a drive mode that allows your camera to shoot a series – often referred to as a burst – of images in very rapid succession.
When would I use it? As a general rule, you’d use it to capture a series of images of something that happens really fast, such as a bird taking off, or an athlete running at speed. You may not need all the images, but one of the frames could be better than all the rest. How fast does a camera take the sequence?
This depends on the camera’s frame rate. For example, Nikon’s Z 5 has a frame rate of approximately 4.5 frames per second (fps), whereas Nikon’s D500 has a much faster high speed rate of 10.7fps. It also has different frame rate settings you can choose, such as continuous low speed, and quiet continuous.
How do you focus when you are shooting continuously?
If you’re shooting a fast-moving subject and following the subject, it’s generally best to switch to the camera’s continuous AF mode, so that the autofocus system is always trying to keep the focus locked onto the subject. However, there may be situations where pre-focusing on a fixed point and switching to manual focus, so that the focus point doesn’t change, will yield better results.
Wouldn’t it just be best to always use continuous shooting?
The downside of continuous shooting is that you’ll end up with a lot of photos and, because focusing isn’t always perfect on a fast-moving subject, you will end up with some that aren’t sharp. Therefore, if you don’t need to use it, it’s best to stick with the camera’s default mode of taking one shot each time you press the shutter button.