Not just nature, but sports. For my uses, it was dog sports, trying to catch a dog just as it either leaps towards or crests a jump, exits a tunnel, etc.Originally Posted by HDNitehawk
But burst rate is a double-edged sword. Typically, non-burst, I'd know the course a dog would run, prefocus, and time my shutter press. Move to the next obstacle, and prefocus. I might mis-time things and get an okay shot, or not get a usable shot, or I might get a perfect shot. Typically, with a burst, I'd do nearly same. Prefocus, but then as the dog is approaching, press and hold the shutter early. This raises a number of problems. The action is too fast to switch back of forth between MF and AF, and I never did switch to back-button focus, so I'd run the risk of the camera re-focussing on something else during the burst, ruining the shot. The camera would almost never take an image at the perfect time, leaving me with a lot of dog going over the jump, or out of the tunnel images, but it's rare I'd get one timed well that I really liked. A nose peeking out of the tunnel followed by the dog already being a foot outside the tunnel. Meh. A dog's head hidden behind the jump stand followed by a the dog already descending over the jump Meh. And yes, you have to sort through all those images. Viewfinder blackout meant extra time determining when it was safe to move towards the next shot, tracking motion was tricky.
You'd think getting the perfect shot would be enough to stop me from using burst mode, but the pile of "okay" images makes it hard to stop, because the other side is "I have no usable image here."
Perhaps a burst of 30FPS, and I would assume, no viewfinder blackout, would alleviate the timing and tracking issues, but you'd still have a pile of images to sort through, still run the risk of bad re-focus, and most important of all, just holding the shutter isn't fun or engaging. Perfectly timing a shot gives a sense of accomplishment that burst shooting doesn't give.
Reply With Quote