Don’t Miss the Winning Shot

In the old days, when cameras used film instead of flash memory cards, professional photographers were easily recognizable by the rapid “click-click-click” of motor drives. Many of today’s digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras provide you with the same ability to capture a rapid sequence of images, but simply require that you hold down the shutter button until you’re done capturing a series of action sequences. This camera mode setting is commonly referred to as continuous shooting mode or burst mode, depending on the camera manufacturer. It’s quite easy to capture some rather amazing images using this feature.

Almost all DSLR cameras offer continuous shooting; lower-end models might shoot two to three frames per second (fps), while some high-end models shoot 20 fps or more. The number of fps and total number of frames that can be shot in burst mode is constantly improving. Some cameras might take only a predetermined number of photos in continuous shooting mode. For others, the actual number of images that are continuously captured is limited only by the capacity of the memory card or the size of the camera buffer.

Because continuous shooting performance may be dependent on the speed at which an image’s data is written to a memory card (write speed), high-performance cards help you get the most out of your DSLR. Faster memory card speeds, which are designed and tested for a certain number of megabytes of data per second (MB/sec.), enable many digital cameras to more quickly read and write images to and from the cards.

When you're trying to capture any moving target -- whether it's a player driving for a hoop during a basketball game, a pelican swooping down to catch a fish, or even a small child’s wobbly first steps -- switching to continuous shooting or burst mode helps guarantee that you'll get at least one winning shot. You can also create montages of several shots that convey the beginning, middle and end of an action sequence – including the peak moments or human expressions that add to the drama, artistry or intrigue conveyed within these exact points in time.

But the value of continuous shooting doesn’t stop there. Taking truly candid portraits often requires getting beyond the “say cheese” moment. With continuous shooting, you keep collecting images after the first reaction when someone knows their picture is being taken. Also, continuous shooting can help when low light requires a slower shutter speed. Pushing the shutter button often creates jitter, no matter how carefully you hold the camera, but in continuous mode you can get jitter-free images after the initial frame.

If you enjoy taking action images or fast-sequence series of shots with your DSLR camera, you should consider using high-capacity, high-performance cards such as those in the SanDisk family of SanDisk Extreme III cards. With high capacities up to 16 gigabytes (GB) and performance levels of up to 30 megabytes (MB) per second, the SanDisk Extreme III family of cards gives you the freedom to shoot lots of high-resolution images at the speed needed to capture fast-paced action shots. Using speedier memory cards also lets you experience quicker transfer of files from the camera to a computer (an action known as read speed), so there’s less time spent waiting for files to offload from the memory card.

More DSLR manufacturers are incorporating SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity, SD 2.0) slots, so using high-performance SD/SDHC cards is recommended. SanDisk offers wide range of high-performance, high-capacity memory cards designed for all types of digital cameras and applications.

Once you’ve purchased a DSLR and your high-capacity, high-performance memory cards, there’s no additional cost to shooting as many multi-frame sequences as you want. Once you’re done shooting, you can just delete the images you don’t like, and save those winning images that capture the right moments. Be sure to check your camera’s instruction manual for details; and don’t be surprised if the manual refers to continuous shooting by another name, such as burst mode, continuous advance, continuous capture, drive mode, motor drive or sequential shooting.

Finally, a few tips for getting the best results out of your DSLR’s continuous burst mode:

• Get a big, fast memory card. Continuous shooting takes up lots of storage space, so it’s worthwhile investing in a high-capacity card, while cards with fast read-write speeds improve performance. Among the benefits: When the camera can quickly transfer an image sequence from its internal buffer to the card, the waiting time before shooting your next burst is reduced.
  
• Pre-focus and track. Pre-focus the camera before starting a continuous sequence, to minimize shutter lag. Try to anticipate where the action is moving, and then track the action as you shoot.
  
• Pull back. Don’t zoom in too closely on your subject when shooting fast-action sequences, because you want to avoid the subject moving out of the frame.
  
• Practice, practice, practice. Get comfortable with how continuous shooting works on your camera before attempting to capture that once-in-a-lifetime moment.
  

For more information on SanDisk memory cards, visit www.sandisk.com.

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