50D super slow burst on AI servo

Hi all, I have been using my 50D for a while now and all has been great except when I use AI servo, I notice my burst is nowhere near what canon claim as the frame rate. On one shot focus, it's as quick as.
Anyone else come across this? I notice it with all 3 lenses I own (listed below) I am using a scandisk 8GB extreme3 card. It's actually frustrating, but I thought I was at the limits of the camera, or the focus whatever, until I saw this thread Read down the bottom. It appears his camera has a problem

2nd Q, Will the camera benefit from a faster generation of card than the E3 speed?

Do you have it set on high speed continuous? Check this post if that's the problem.

Now if it's slow shutter speed, that's completely different...

Is it very dark? If the camera has problems focusing between shots, it will slow down.

Memory cards have no impact on how fast a camera can shoot FPS (if it, however, limit how many continuous shots may be taken).

Canon says that in Servo, the cameras will rarely, if ever, shoot at full FPS. The camera has to calculate where the action "will be" thus slowing down the rate. And make sure that the camera is set to continuous H, or the intermediate.

i just got my 50d last week and noticed the same thing.

i turned my 40d to the exact same settings, and it fires faster than the 50d on AI Servo...

The various NR modes can impact frame rate, IIRC. High ISO NR is notorious for this.

i have it turned off on both cameras.

annietex wrote in post #9187942
Do you have it set on high speed continuous? Check this post if that's the problem.
Now if it's slow shutter speed, that's completely different...

Yes, I am aware of the two modes. Slow shutter speed? not sure what you are getting at? I understand if I'm shooting at .5 second exposures, I'm not going to get 6 frames a second

apersson850 wrote in post #9188205
Is it very dark? If the camera has problems focusing between shots, it will slow down.

No, I'm talking about nice sunny day action shots, however it "feels" like it must be a focus thing. Last time I noticed it was when I was shooting my sons cricket team. Even when batting (subject not really moving) my shots were no where near the full shot speed. I was using the 100-400 in this case. I would expect it to do it with the nifty, and even the 17-85, but there appears to be no difference in speed between the lenses.

nphsbuckeye wrote in post #9188401
Memory cards have no impact on how fast a camera can shoot FPS (if it, however, limit how many continuous shots may be taken).

Canon says that in Servo, the cameras will rarely, if ever, shoot at full FPS. The camera has to calculate where the action "will be" thus slowing down the rate. And make sure that the camera is set to continuous H, or the intermediate.

I realise the card has no impact on the initial FPS burst, that is why it was put down as a second question. I am after a new card, so I was wondering if anyone who has this camera can confirm if the extended continuous shooting will be improved with a faster card. No use me buying a uber fast card if the Extreme 3 speed is enough for my particular cam.
If the camera is quick enough to overpower the extreme 3 in really long bursts, then I will invest in a faster series card.

If I leave it to one shot, it is as fast as I would expect, but if it is on ai servo, I'm talking slowing down to 1 or 2 a second rate, just like the guy in that thread I linked to. It's obv. either by design, or it's a problem. I'd like to figure it out either way before it runs out of warranty.

But what bothers me is it doesn't matter if I'm using my 100-400 or the cheapo nifty 50, same problem.

Maybe I should make a quick video of it tomorrow to show?

RGS. That IS interesting. So with the same lens, same settings, and all other setting being as equal as they can be, your 40D is quicker in ai servo than your new 50D?

pixelbasher wrote in post #9188590
RGS. That IS interesting. So with the same lens, same settings, and all other setting being as equal as they can be, your 40D is quicker in ai servo than your new 50D?

yep....

even went through ALL the custom functions and made sure they were identical.

How slow is your 50? At a guess how many a second are we talking, and how many on the 40D? Just trying to get a picture (scuse the pun!) on how fast is "normal"

I'm also trying to work out "how slow is slow".. 1 FPS, 3 FPS, 5 FPS???

my guess would be 2-3 fps

No problems with my 50D in high speed burst mode.

It sounds like you guys are pulling a lightrules or there is something wrong with your cameras.

yogestee wrote in post #9191367
I'm also trying to work out "how slow is slow".. 1 FPS, 3 FPS, 5 FPS???

I mentioned it already. Mine sounds very similar to RGS.

itzcryptic wrote in post #9192791
No problems with my 50D in high speed burst mode.
It sounds like you guys are pulling a lightrules or there is something wrong with your cameras.

That's what I'm here to find out and yes, like I said before as well, It's set to high burst, so no "lightrules issue". You say you have no problem, but just how fast does yours shoot at when in AI servo? Both of us report around a 2 fps rate (if I'm lucky) but ONLY in AI servo.

I don't have a lot of examples of long bursts in AI Servo. Right now, I have found a 7 frame sequence. The time stamps indicate 3 were taken in 1 second and 4 in another.

I don't know if I would notice a reduction to 5 or 4 frames a second, but I think I would notice only getting 2 or 3 frames per second.