Buffer Constipation

Hello everyone, I am new to the forum and have found a lot of great info and help in it.
The question I have to day is regarding my camera's buffer constipation.

I have a Nikon D71000. Just upgraded from the 7000. With the increased file size and no upgrade on the camera buffer, the buffer gets full really quickly (5 frames) in continous mode with a 14 bid color depth. If I adjust the crop factror to 1.3 it improves a little bit (6 frames) and if I drop the bit depth to 12 I get possible 7 frames.

My question is how much am I going to miss the info that gets dropped between 12 and 14 bit depth.

I tried shooting BIF in JPG High quality but the files are pretty much uncorrectable in post processing (though my buffer almost had diarrhea, it could hold close to 20 frames).

How do you guys deal with the small buffer size?

Thanks everyone.

The buffer will fill faster if the card's write speed is slower than the camera's. Is it possible you have a limitation there that could be addressed?

Unfortunately this is a problem with your camera model. D7000, D71000 buffer depth is very limited and will not increase with faster SD cards because the camera does not support it. This model is not really suitable for action photography given shallow buffer depth.

If you want a Nikon camera body that shoots fast and doesn't have serious buffer limitation your choices are limited to D3/D3S/D4 or maybe D800 with grip in crop mode (you need to use a fast CF card such as SanDisk extreme pro series)

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Originally Posted by arash_hazeghi

If you want a Nikon camera body that shoots fast and doesn't have serious buffer limitation your choices are limited to D3/D3S/D4 or maybe D800 with grip in crop mode (you need to use a fast CF card such as SanDisk extreme pro series)

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The D800 has essentially the same problem, because while it can indeed write fairly fast it produces huge files and the result is the same. About 5 or 6 shots and you go into standby mode while the camera clears some buffer space!

The D3 and D3S are significantly better and can handle 15-20 shots in a sequence before slowing to a crawl. They don't take as long to write the entire buffer to the card either, so it is quite a noticeable improvement in practice. For many things that is enough for a single burst. But for action that changes rapicly (basketball comes to mind), it can still be very aggravating.

The D4 is a charmer. It will shoot something like 50 shots at full speed before it so much as has a hiccup, but even then it doesn't bind up and stop! It just slows down a little and keeps on shooting.

Hi Floyd,

I don't have a D800 myself but I hear from people it can take more than 5-6 NEF file (lossless compressed) with a fast premium CF card such as a SanDisk extreme pro (160 MB/sec). What kind of card are you using ?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by arash_hazeghi

Hi Floyd,

I don't have a D800 myself but I hear from people it can take more than 5-6 NEF file (lossless compressed) with a fast premium CF card such as a SanDisk extreme pro (160 MB/sec). What kind of card are you using ?

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That is probably true, as I'm not using the fastest/newest cards.

Regardless, the question is not if it will be a problem, just one of exactly how significant it will be compared to the other Nikon bodies.

The ultimate effect is that for any work where there will be a chance of overflowing the buffer, I use the D4 rather than the D800. It's an interesting combination of cameras. If I could only have one body it would have to be a D4. But in fact I use the D800 for about 75% of what I do.

At 6K the D4 is a little out of my budget right now. Would I be happy with a D3S? KEH has one for 3K.

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Originally Posted by Joaquin Barbará

At 6K the D4 is a little out of my budget right now. Would I be happy with a D3S? KEH has one for 3K.

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The D3S is, for high ISO work, as good as the D4. It's only 12 MP vs the D4 with 16 MP and the D800 with 36 MP. The size and speed of the buffer are not what the D4 has but it is significantly better/faster than other models. At $3K it a very good deal if the buffer is more important than the 36MP of the D800.

And KEH is very reputable. The are very conservative when rating used equipment.