FPS and Buffering has become slow on Canon 1D Mark IV

One thing for sure looking at the brilliant TeamSpeeds' photo's above I would never consider an iso setting of 20000 on an old 1d4, Off the top of my head I don't think that's even possible in its default iso range.. The 1d4 is 10 years old now, it looks for certain the 5d4 is the perfect camera for indoor sport shooting.

My 1d4 suits me for bird photography, I still get some fantastic shots with it. It's amazing that there are still lots around. I see lots around in the birding community.

I would shoot the 1D4 at 12800 during the games in the past. 25600 was really pushing the envelope with the 1D4 and required raw to JPEG and post processing techniques that were tedious for marginal returns. This was 8 years ago too, I am more adept at post processing and managing camera settings to do a bit better than back then, both with exposure and post processing. The 5D4 however, doesn't require alot of work at all.

Tom Reichner wrote in post #18807249
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But some folks' goal is not to get one great shot of each piece of action. . Some folks, like myself, want several great shots of each piece of action. . Any time a bit of action happens, I want a whole bunch of photos of that one piece of action, each being ever so slightly different than the others.

I don't shoot sports, but wildlife action is much the same as sports action when it comes to gear and objectives. . If a deer is running across the scene in front of me, what I want to take away from that opportunity would be at least 5 stellar shots that all have the deer's legs in slightly different positions, and slightly different backgrounds. . When the publishers I sell to require First Rights, or First North American Rights, then I need several shots, so that I can market a unique image to each of the places I want to sell to.

Plus, even if just shooting for my own enjoyment, I want as many quality shots as possible, even when each one is going to be very similar to the others. . I like to have many quality files showing slightly different leg or wing positions.

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No with sports, we do not want several frames where the player is slightly in a different spot or different pose. With sports, you want the best of the burst, nobody in the office cares about the rest, nor does the news outlets. Out of 5 - 7 shots of a dunk for example, I might keep 2, most of the time 1. The others are binned. So do all the other shooters I shoot around, including those shooting for Getty or Sports Ill. Shooting wildlife is not like shooting sports.

A lot of correct answers here, on both sides. For what I do I agree with TeamSpeed. Running and Gunning is probably the best way NOT to get the shot you are looking for - Generally. Basketball is extremely predictable. You know where they are going. No guessing there, like in football or some other sports. So even in high school basketball, you know if they are looking to make a move to the hole and can wait until they make the break. Basketball reminds you of sometimes (painfully) how long a second can be. And yes, high school players generally are slower than college and pros - Freshman like Williamson at Duke are outliers to that rule. So yes it take them longer to clear the distance between the top of the key to the hoop - but that also gives you more time to wait and don't need to be as quick on the trigger. I know you don't want to miss anything... but if you practice anticipating and waiting, you will be a lot happier with the results.

I assume you are wanting to shoot raw to better be able work with the images and fix the issues that come up in shooting in dark HS gyms. The issue you are having is the size if the RAW files. A MK IV large JPEG is a lot smaller than a full size raw file... hence why it takes a while to dump to card. If you want to have raw files to play with, you might want to write to m-raw, which is about a 9 mpx image. In today's world, that seems small. But remember for years all the stuff you saw in Sports Illustrated was coming out to MK IIn's - which was 8 mpx images then cropped. So depending on what your final output is going to be - if it be screen - 9 mpx is more than enough and the files are a lot smaller than the 16 mpx raw files.

Otherwise.... jpegs are a wonderful thing.

Now to confess my full hypocrisy here.... I shot Gymnastics this weekend and it had been a while. I didn't get to go to the practice session, so all the floor exercises were new to me. So to cover my " " I shot all the runs end to end hammer down. Average run was 21-23 frames long with a 10 frame camera. The issue was my unfamiliarity with the what the girls would be doing. I typically do much better than that. Uneven bars.... I basically shot single frame because I could tell what was next.

Moral of the story, the more you shoot, the less you will need to shoot to get what you want. I would have no shame shooting JPG....

Definitely agree, the knowledge of the action you are shooting coupled with your knowledge of your gear will do more for the final results than spray-N-pray bursting.

When I am at a softball game, and I see a parent with new gear and a long lens, I almost know they are going to shoot long bursts. I have seen it so many times. As others get more experience, I only ever hear a few frames fire as the ball cross the plate, or as a catcher gets their mitt ready to catch a pop fly. The more you shoot, the more accustomed you are to the timing of the action. I shoot with both eyes open, one in the viewfinder, the other on the action. I can often fire one shot of the ball over the plate. Took many, many hours of practice, almost like a video game.

Even with baseball and 80-90mph pitches, one can get to a point of being able to fire a single shot.

TeamSpeed, you piss me off , not really you, but your skill at post on high ISO images. I shoot 1D4, and struggle with ISO above 8000 getting usable sharp images... Or maybe I just flat out suck at basketball. I do know I am much better at football, have much more experience there, only started bb again this year (the last time I shot any was in 1979). I have been shooting with a 24-70 2.8L, in gyms that push me to 2.8, 1/1000, ISO 10000 or 12800, and sometimes those are still under exposed. Very frustrating.

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I deleted my post.

No sense writing something if someone is going to come along and contradict me.


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I am sorry that my sports shooting experience and corroboration with other sports shooters clash with your personal view and habits regarding wildlife shooting, causing you angst enough to delete your post.

I could see saving quite a few more wildlife action shots simply because wildlife seems to be more interesting than the same players making a dunk shot over and over again, or the same boxer getting his face slammed with spittle and blood flying.

UTgws wrote in post #18813286
TeamSpeed, you piss me off , not really you, but your skill at post on high ISO images. I shoot 1D4, and struggle with ISO above 8000 getting usable sharp images... Or maybe I just flat out suck at basketball. I do know I am much better at football, have much more experience there, only started bb again this year (the last time I shot any was in 1979). I have been shooting with a 24-70 2.8L, in gyms that push me to 2.8, 1/1000, ISO 10000 or 12800, and sometimes those are still under exposed. Very frustrating.

Venues are slowly converting to LEDs and that makes for better lighting these days. Not everywhere, but slowly we are seeing it in middle and high schools. etc.

Perhaps this thread might provide some tips on processing the 1D4 for high ISO?
https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1239461

Not every photographer has the same requirements, so there is value in multiple opinions and that's lost when posts are deleted.

I have a use case not too different than you Tom and I shoot sports.

I mostly cover high school sports and a large percentage of the games I cover are under contract for the yearbook. The yearbook photos are exclusive use, so I rely on short, peak action bursts to generate more than one keeper, i.e., a unique frame for the yearbook and a 2nd frame for me to sell to the parents or athletes.

I used to delete all of the redundant photos in a sequence and only keep one or two, but I now keep most if there is enough variation as I sometimes sell the whole sequence to a parent.

I use a Sandisk 16gb 160mb/s on my 1Dmk4 and its just fine. However, I don't "machine gun" more than 5 in a row.