D50 slow on continuous shooting

[Blob]

I'm disappointed with the shooting speed of my D50. Using a 512mb SimpleTech SD memory card, writing at 10mb/sec instead of the standard 2mb/sec), I am only getting 1.6 frames per second instead of the advertised 2.5. My Panasonic FZ15 shot much faster and it didn't have the 32mb of onboard memory.

Is there a subset of controls to increase the number of frames per second? I am using a Nikon 24-85 3.5-4.5G lens and even in the bright outdoors the response is slow.

[K1W1]

Are you using RAW or JPEG?
Whenever I've played with continuous I've used jpeg / fine and got the 2.5 fps or there about without any problems.
I have a 60x 1 GB generic (Apacer) SD card.

[D70FAN]

I'm disappointed with the shooting speed of my D50. Using a 512mb SimpleTech SD memory card, writing at 10mb/sec instead of the standard 2mb/sec), I am only getting 1.6 frames per second instead of the advertised 2.5. My Panasonic FZ15 shot much faster and it didn't have the 32mb of onboard memory.

Is there a subset of controls to increase the number of frames per second? I am using a Nikon 24-85 3.5-4.5G lens and even in the bright outdoors the response is slow.

Are you shooting in RAW/NEF or JPEG? What is the shutter speed?

So the Simple Tech card says its 66X... Correct?

[Blob]

I'm shooting in JPEG usually in "P". The SimpleTech card is 65x, it's worked flawlessly since I got it 1 year ago.

[K1W1]

On the times I've tried continuous I have used A and S.
Have a look at the EXIF info for the photos you have taken. The shutter speed needs to be above 1 / 250 sec to get the maximum speed.
Maybe you shutter speed has been too slow.

[Blob]

Thanks, I'll try with a shutter speed of 1/250 or higher.

[Claus S]

do you have flash on? that will limit the shots per sec.

[Balrog]

For absolute fastest shutter speeds you can try switching to manual focus, manual exposure, no flash, set shutter speed faster than 1/250, and then just hold down the shutter release. This basically takes away all variables that could cause slowdown (AF/AE/flash recycle/shutter)... if it's still slow then you have a problem. Also, the card speed shouldn't matter while you're working in-buffer - i.e. you should get an initial burst of 2.5fps no matter what card you have. It's only after that that the write speeds start to matter.

[nefertiti]

Hey Blob,

I think I found your solution:

In the menu, set your long exposure NR to OFF. I had the same problem until literally 5 minutes ago. Needless to say, I am very much relieved!

Try it...hope that works for you.

[Blob]

Eureka! Nefertiti you've fixed my problem. I turned off the long exposure and now it shoots much faster in continuous mode.
Thanks to everyone for their help, the more I learn operating it the more I realize how little I know, (but that's half the fun).

Blob

[Balrog]

Ah .. nice that your problem's fixed; but tell me something .. what kind of shutter speeds were you working at? Long Exposure NR shouldn't affect anything if you're faster than around 1/30th of a second...

[Blob]

That's the strange thing, I tried shutter speeds above 1/250 in manual mode with out the flash in the broad day light and still the frame rate was no better than 1.5/sec. I'm not sure why but turning off long exposure increased the frames per second. I wonder if a fimware fix will address this.

[Balrog]

That's interesting ... could the D50 be doing dark frame subtraction all the time, when that option is on? Even then, it shouldn't interfere so much, at least past 1/250th... looks like a firmware bug, I think.

[rozeltf]

How do you time the burst mode? Is there some EXIF data or a camera setting?
Thanks


I'm disappointed with the shooting speed of my D50. Using a 512mb SimpleTech SD memory card, writing at 10mb/sec instead of the standard 2mb/sec), I am only getting 1.6 frames per second instead of the advertised 2.5. My Panasonic FZ15 shot much faster and it didn't have the 32mb of onboard memory.

[Balrog]

How do you time the burst mode? Is there some EXIF data or a camera setting?
Thanks
The old-fashioned way - hold down the shutter, count the clicks, and measure time on a stopwatch. Divide the clicks by the time to get the framerate.