7D continuous shooting vs 550D

my 550D/T2i is rated for what, 3.5fps? and the 7D is rated for 8fps...

in the non-specialty shooting modes (M,Tv, Av) all i can seem to get is 2 frames at a time. ive cranked the quality down to small (S) and the shutter speed up (both in M and Tv) and set the focus to AI (both of them) as well as one-shot and thats it. 2 frames continuous...

if i pick the 'sports' specialty mode it will crank off 9 shots continuous but ive been told the specialty modes really are a poor compromise...

how does the 7D perform? i would assume that it doesnt suffer from the consumer end of the line limitations...

speed of memory card?

RockSolid wrote in post #14597006
speed of memory card?

class 10 ought to be fast enough! lol

make sure you alo and highlight priority are off. make sure your card is fast enough. I had t2i and it does shoot the rated 3.5fps for about 5-7 raw and about 15 jpeg if I recall correctly.
7D is a different beast. it not only has faster fps, it also has a much larger buffer, and faster processing and write speeds, esp since it takes a cf cards, most of which are faster than SD cards.

I took note on another thread that the "Long Shutter Speed Noise Reduction" feature being other than "Disabled" was the culprit.

You said you cranked the SS so that may not be your problem...But I thought it worth mentioning.

There are a number of things that can cause continuous shooting rates to slow down.

You need to use a high enough shutter speed. Using flash, depending upon settings the camera might pause while the flash recycles. As Kevindar mentioned, disable Auto Lighing Optimizer and Highlight Priority. If using a high ISO and strong noise reduction, that might slow it too.

These effect the 7D, too. Also, 7D slows for some metering.

The size of your image files shouldn't make any difference in fps. You should be able to set the max/fine JPEG or RAW.... However, the buffer will fill and limit the number of images that can be taken, before the camera slows or pauses to wait for it to clear. RAW files are larger, so fewer can be taken before the buffer fills. The speed of the memory card you are using effects how quickly the buffer clears, not how fast fps will operate.

Check your camera manual... if you download a pdf of it, search with "continuous shooting" phrase and you might find some other comments about what to do and what not to do.

AI Servo and One Shot shouldn't effect fps. (The difference with at least some Canon is that in AI Servo the focus and metering is constantly updated.... In One Shot the focus and metered settings stay the same after the first shot.) AI Focus isn't really a focus mode at all, isn't recommended.

Using a single AF point, the center one, will be the most effective way to track moving subjects in AI Servo, but also shouldn't effect your fps, unless there is some way to set your camera to not fire unless focus is achieved (which I think would only work in One Shot anyway).

Well... another thing you'll want to make sure you have correct on the 7D:

lowspeed-burst vs. highspeed-burst.

If you forget to set it to H-burst... well, you'll just get 3 fps and wonder why your camera's not working as advertised. Only to be ridiculed much later on POTN for not having the right burst mode selected.

jwcdds wrote in post #14599233
Well... another thing you'll want to make sure you have correct on the 7D:

lowspeed-burst vs. highspeed-burst.

If you forget to set it to H-burst... well, you'll just get 3 fps and wonder why your camera's not working as advertised. Only to be ridiculed much later on POTN for not having the right burst mode selected.

I went to Best Buy last night for a different reason and played with this exact setting! Wow ...

jwcdds wrote in post #14599233
Well... another thing you'll want to make sure you have correct on the 7D:

lowspeed-burst vs. highspeed-burst.

If you forget to set it to H-burst... well, you'll just get 3 fps and wonder why your camera's not working as advertised. Only to be ridiculed much later on POTN for not having the right burst mode selected.

First thing I thought of when reading the OP - Seems to be the most obvious culprit.

Peace,
D.

But the poster is using the 550D, as far as I understand, which doesn't have any High/Low speed.

Highlight priority and Automatic Light Optimizer makes no noticeable difference. But High ISO noise reduction and long exposure noise reduction does. But long exposure noise reduction doesn't kick in until you have time settings of at least one second, so then you don't expect any high frame rate anyway.

Set high ISO noise reduction to off to begin with, and try with that. Select an exposure time of 1/250 s or shorter and no RAW format. Then give it a try again.

Delija wrote in post #14599748
First thing I thought of when reading the OP - Seems to be the most obvious culprit.

Peace,
D.

Ltdave, on my 550D, I get the 3.xx fps with no problem, and on L-fine jpg mode, I can hold the shutter down and it will not stop. Check all the settings mentioned above. I didn't notice if anyone mentioned High ISO noise reduction. That'll slow it down too. If they don't work, and you are using a class 10 card, something's probably wrong.

On my 7D, with large jpgs, I get the 8 fps and it doesn't stop as long as I hold the shutter. I'm using a 60 Mb/s card. Be aware, you will need more cards. If you shoot bursts all the time, at 8fps, you'll fill the card up in no time.

At an airshow last year I managed to get a constant burst for 54 frames with a Duracell class 10 card, set on TV @ 1/500, ISO 100, F8, ALO off, LNR off, Auto WB, No flash, centre weighted metering and large Jpeg only. I shot quite a few bursts that day ranging from 8 to 25 shots mainly and had no problems.
With a similar make and size CF card in a 7D I ripped a few bursts off with a 7D, but I think the longest I shot was 18 frames. 8 fps is really amazing but I really didn't need it. I've not even taken my 5D3 off single shot yet, although I've got another airshow at the end of the month.

jwcdds wrote in post #14599233
If you forget to set it to H-burst... well, you'll just get 3 fps and wonder why your camera's not working as advertised. Only to be ridiculed much later on POTN for not having the right burst mode selected.

What? Ridiculed for not setting the H-burst speed? I can't believe it!

The image recording quality makes little if any difference to framing rate(only to MAX Burst), but NR(which must be applied to the image BEFORE recording)does.

I replied to the OP in another thread(using the same camera with the same problem) to boost his shutter speed...He did and then reported no change in the problem.

Next day he reported back that the culprit had been "Low Shutter Speed NR" being enabled.

Presumably he tried upping the SS with LSSNR still being enabled...With no results. But disabling LSSNR did the trick even though his SS was not low.

Why this would be the case I wouldn't know...Maybe the software isn't smart enough to say "Oh...SS is high enough so I don't need to apply LSSNR" and just does it automatically.

Any rate, I learned something from that thread, so thought I'd pass it along.

Strangely enough I was playing with the exact same thing last night i.e. high-speed shooting. I could only get about 2-3 fps and I did check the shooting mode (hi-speed was on). I did think it was the card (it's only a cheap one) but the ideas for other settings are useful and I'll try them too.