Continuous shooting
Image: This sequence of consecutive images is an extract from a series of 19 taken at 10fps. The AF system kept the player in white perfectly sharp in all but one shot
Like the camera it replaces, the EOS-1D Mark IV has a top continuous shooting rate of 10fps. This is made possible by the two Digic 4 image processors, eight-channel signal readout, DDR2 SDRAM buffer memory, a twin motor system (one for cocking the mirror and the other for shutter cocking), and an active mirror stopper to suppress mirror-bounce and maintain a steady viewfinder image.
With a UDMA (90MBs or 600x) CompactFlash card installed, I found that the 121 maximum burst depth for large JPEG files quoted by Canon is reasonably conservative and I was able to record more than 250 highest quality, large JPEG images, and even 289 on one occasion. However, I was only able to shoot nine raw files before the camera faltered.
Shooting in excess of 280 images involves holding the shutter-release button down for around 28 seconds. During this test I found that even when shooting the action of a football match, I only shot continuously in bursts of 5secs or less, but it’s good to have the option to shoot more. Photographers shooting athletics events, for example, may appreciate the ability to record entire 100m
and 200m events.
Although I am sure the sound of the EOS-1D Mark IV firing continuously would alert a nearby deer to a photographer’s presence, the mirror-movement dampening is much better than that in the Sony Alpha 900.
