Originally posted by simico I think it may also depend on the light conditions. In our very dim lit bedroom metering before each shot in the burst really slowed down continuous shooting to approx. 3fps, with AE lock it was back to 7 fps. Outdoors with lots of light there was no problem getting 7 fps without AE lock.
If getting high frame rate is important then I lock AE, I do small bursts so the light doesn't change between frames anyways, therefore AE lock makes sense.
Thanks everyone for your input. I considered those mentioned issues such as shutter speed, etc. However, ManuH and simico's post explains what I was experiencing. What I described in my original post was indeed indoors and during the evening. I guess I never tried burst shooting under dim light, and was unfamiliar with this factor. I guess I should have thought about the fact that metering would take longer in dim light..