How does FPS & Buffer Effect Your Photography?

D3s & D3x photos courtesy Nikon

I’ve received a couple of emails and even a call asking about my posting of a couple days back and reference I made to the D3 and D3x. I made the reference that “I switched from the D3 and its 9fps, big buffer to the D3x and its 1.8FPS and smaller buffer.” It is a little confusing and perhaps a body attribute that photographers don’t take into consideration, so let me try to explain what I’m talking about and how I employ it.

When photographing action such as warbirds screaming around a pylon at Reno Air Races, the goal is to capture the shot showing the action in a still image while having critical elements tack sharp. You could translate this to photographing birds in flight where you must have the eye(s) sharp. Using important techniques such as panning and making the most of your AF system, one can approach the problem by simply blasting away, letting the camera rip and in that process knowing that one of the 30 some odd images, the perfect action and sharpness will be captured. With this strategy you want a camera that cranks the FPS (frames per second) and has the large buffer. The D3s fits the bill perfectly (formerly the D3 with buffer upgrade)!

The other old tried and true method is the much more technically challenging technique of Peak of Action. Peak of Action is best described by a bouncing ball. When the ball is bouncing, it travels down, stops for less than a heartbeat and then bounces back up and then stops for less than a heartbeat before traveling back down again. Those moments when the ball stops for less than a heartbeat, that’s Peak of Action. The goal then is while you’re panning with your subject and making sure its in focus, when you see that Peak of Action, you make the one click. When using this technique, the 1.8FPS of the D3x works perfectly. You only need the one frame to make the image.

What I did at the Reno Air Races is go back to the “old” way of making the image in order to get the amazing image quality of the D3x to produce one of a kind aviation 24×30 prints. I sacrificed the ease of blasting away to make the shot to the stressful one click get the shot method. Neither method and neither body is right or wrong, they are both valid techniques and valid bodies. I simply wanted to make amazing prints so switched bodies. I hope this helps explain it all better.

Photo captured by D3x, 200-400VR on Lexar UDMA digital film