D5300 Buffer - Cannot obtain 100 shot buffer w/ JPEG

Hey, guys.

First of all, I'd like to thank you all for providing such a helpful resource. I'm a long time lurker and new member, and I look forward to being a part of the community.

I'm having some trouble obtaining the 100 shot buffer w/ JPEGs as indicated on this official Nikon site, towards the end of the page:
Nikon | Imaging Products | Specifications - Nikon D5300

According to that page, I should be seeing r100 with any size and quality combination of JPEGs.
However, I can't even get r100 when selecting 'Small' as the image size and 'Basic' as the quality setting.

With 'Small > Basic' I am seeing r62 and with 'Large > Fine' I am only seeing r9 (when according to Nikon, that r9 should be r100! =-0).

My ISO is set to 100, 'Long exposure NR' is set to 'OFF', 'HDR' is set to 'OFF', 'Active D-Lighting' is set to 'OFF', 'Auto distortion control' is set to 'OFF' and 'Print date' is set to 'OFF'.

This is, of course, with the 'Release mode' set to 'Continuous H'.

Nikon does not specify what speed of SD card you have to be using to obtain the r100 buffer size, only that it needs to be of a particular brand.

The SD card that I am using is a 32GB SanDisk Extreme 80MB/s (SanDisk is one of Nikon's approved SD card brands).

So, I am completely baffled as to why my buffer size is absolutely no where near the advertised r100. I mean 62 is getting pretty close, and if it were r62 @ Large>Fine I would probably be able to live with that. But to have to go to Small>Basic to get even two thirds of the way to Nikon's advertised buffer size leads me to believe that I am doing something wrong or that there is something wrong with my card or camera.

Any input that you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your time =)

(I do plan on calling Nikon Support, when they re-open on Monday, if I cannot get this issue resolved by then, and I will keep you all posted of the outcome)

You're confusing 'buffer' with Maximum Continuous Burst.

If you have a fast enough card, you should be able to hold the shutter button down and fire off 100 frames, the buffer writing to the card before it fills up. The buffer only tells you how many more shots it can absorb before it disengages the shutter. But shooting JPEG on an 80Mbps card, that won't be an issue.

I have to admit, when I first read your response I didn't think there was anyway that that r9 could really empty so fast that I could get off 100 shots... But I just gave it a try and got off 94 shots before getting spooked and removing my finger from the shutter release (having never done such a long continuous burst on any of my cameras before, it was kind of freaky and sounded pretty intensive on the camera lol).

[On a side note, I'm awfully tempted to try it again as it didn't seem like it was anywhere near stopping at 100 shots... in the first half a dozen shots it went down from r9 to r6 and then for the remaining 90 shots or so it sat right at r6 without changing for even a moment.]

So it would appear as though you are right! And I thank you very much for your speedy reply and input.
However, to be fair to me, since on that official Nikon page you can see that Nikon labels it "Buffer capacity", I think it's Nikon that is confusing "buffer" with "maximum continuous burst"; shouldn't that section of the page be labeled "maximum continuous burst" as opposed to 'Buffer capacity"?

Either way, thanks a bunch. I don't think I'll ever have to fire off that many shots in a row!

Nikon isn't confusing anything. Buffer capacity means just that.... how many more shots the camera can take before the buffer gets down to r0 and locks the shutter out until enough memory is written to the memory card to release the shutter again.

If you shoot raw, you'll not get 100 continuous shots in a row because raw files are much larger and it takes the camera more time to write those larger files to the memory card, which results in filling the buffer up faster.

I really don't want to argue but I have to admit I'm a bit confused.
When I refer to it as being the 'buffer' in my initial post I'm apparently confusing 'buffer' with 'maximum continuous burst', but when Nikon refers to it as 'buffer capacity' and not 'maximum continuous burst' they aren't confused about anything =-/
So I can only conclude from these statements that 'buffer' is not synonymous with 'maximum continuous burst' but that 'buffer capacity' is apparently synonymous with 'maximum continuous burst'.

Either way, the semantics aren't worth debating and I truly thank you for your help.

How fast the buffer is cleared depends on your memory card's write speed. If you get a slow enough card, the buffer starts to fill up fast and the shutter stops.

There's no way the camera can 'test' the speed of the card in order to calculate maximum continuous burst. This will also involve things like Active D-Lighting, Auto Distortion and other settings.

Welcome to the forum

If you fill out your profile we can better answer any questions that you might have.
You can do that at http://nikonites.com/profile.php?do=editprofile

Some useful links
http://support.nikonusa.com/app/ans.../nikon-product-manuals-available-for-download
Nikon | Imaging Products | Digitutor


Thanks

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zumaneil said:

I have to admit, when I first read your response I didn't think there was anyway that that r9 could really empty so fast that I could get off 100 shots... But I just gave it a try and got off 94 shots before getting spooked and removing my finger from the shutter release (having never done such a long continuous burst on any of my cameras before, it was kind of freaky and sounded pretty intensive on the camera lol).

[On a side note, I'm awfully tempted to try it again as it didn't seem like it was anywhere near stopping at 100 shots... in the first half a dozen shots it went down from r9 to r6 and then for the remaining 90 shots or so it sat right at r6 without changing for even a moment.]

So it would appear as though you are right! And I thank you very much for your speedy reply and input.
However, to be fair to me, since on that official Nikon page you can see that Nikon labels it "Buffer capacity", I think it's Nikon that is confusing "buffer" with "maximum continuous burst"; shouldn't that section of the page be labeled "maximum continuous burst" as opposed to 'Buffer capacity"?

Either way, thanks a bunch. I don't think I'll ever have to fire off that many shots in a row!

Click to expand...

Based on what you are saying here it never got close to filling up the buffer even after 100 shots. That is a good thing. If that was on jpeg Small then try it again on Jpeg Large and see it the buffer gets full.

That was actually on Jpeg Large>Fine. Which is really impressive!
Thank you both for the help =)