Continuous mode in shutter priority

BaseballShooter

New member
I shoot outdoor sporting events. For best results need to shoot at at 1/1600 sec or faster. In the scene mode, the sports setting handles most sunny days. As the sun sets and on cloudy days I have tried to shoot in shutter priority setting ISO to a level that gives me decent depth of field. When I shoot continuously I find the first exposure to be good and the next one or two very dark. Often, no more than two or three shots are taken before the continuous shooting stops on its own even though I am holding the shutter release button down. What am I doing wrong or what do I not understand?
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
Your camera has a certain amount of memory that it uses sort of like a scratchpad... As the camera fires, it stores data of that image in that memory and then begins transferring that data to the disk/memory card... there is a rate at which this process takes place... The camera can fire and transfer data faster than your memory card can accept it and write the data to the card... The camera manages this by what is called "buffering"... It's sort of like a traffic cop...the traffic cop starts telling your camera to stop firing until I can get the previous shots written to the memory card.

You can ameliorate this buffering process by setting your camera to write smaller JPG images... Of course, as you shoot in smaller JPGs, you sacrifice image quality and post-processing flexibility.

You should also check that your memory card is the fastest version card that works in your camera Memory card makers are always increasing their card speeds.
 

Bikerbrent

Senior Member
Welcome aboard. Enjoy the ride.
We look forward to seeing more posts and samples of your work.

Fred cover what I would have said. Also, reducing the frame rate will give you a longer shooting period.
 

nikonpup

Senior Member
​try auto iso. You can try dx mode, that will give you another fps. Try afc mode with different focus point and see if that help.
 

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
Welcome to the forum, i think i would investigate auto iso if i was you,i have no idea of that cameras ability but normally correctly exposed iso3200 is better that a under exposed iso 1600.
 

nickt

Senior Member
For many situations, I like to shoot in manual mode with auto iso. I pick a shutter speed safe for the job and an aperture I like. The iso will do what it has to do to make the exposure correct. If you are shooting jpg only, you should not be slowing down unless your memory card is really crap. Shooting raw, yes it will slow down and a fast card will help. Look for the R number (estimated room in buffer) in the lower right of the viewfinder. If it gets to 0, your buffer is full and you will have a slowdown. Another possibility is if you are shooting in focus priority. Your camera will stop if it does not make focus when in focus priority. You don't mention if you are shooting in af-s or af-c. You can set the priority mode for each. Check menu a1 and a2. Second shots dark can mean you are possibly in bracketing mode or maybe your action moved into a darker area and your aperture was already wide open and could not accommodate. Manual mode with auto iso will fix that.
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
You don't mention if you are shooting in af-s or af-c. You can set the priority mode for each.

This is really important. You need to set these settings for every mode IF you always want to shoot in either af-s or af-c. Otherwise, when you change modes, you might revert to the default settings which might be af-s with focus priority. For example, you might start out in Manual Mode with AF-C with release priority but later decide to switch to Shutter Priority. It's possible Shutter Priority might be set to AF-S with focus priority, and that can cause a hiccup if trying to shoot quickly. Just be aware changing the setting in one mode doesn't affect the others.

I make use of U1 and U2. Those you can choose to set however you want. My U2 is set for BBF in Manual Mode with Auto ISO. My ISO is capped around 6400. If you cap your ISO too low, your camera won't be able to expose properly (especially overexpose) in certain situations depending on your settings.

My aperture is set for f/8 and the shutter set for 1/1000", AF-C with release priority. I don't remember offhand how many focus points I have enabled, but those are saved as well.

When I switch to U2 from a different mode, all these settings are stored in the camera and are accessible immediately.
 
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