Originally posted by mtkeller And again, the buffer is completely fine as is. I have yet to see anyone give a realistic example of a situation where a larger buffer than what the K-3 iii has is truly helpful. The most common remark those of us who actually have the camera have made about continuous shooting is that AF.C is so good and continuous high is so fast that we’re getting more images than we want/need and aren’t even touching the max buffer size.
Originally posted by luftfluss I know some folks online - and they make truly wonderful wildlife photos - who basically machine-gun their cameras. I think that is becoming a standard technique for wildlife shooting, not so much waiting for the "decisive moment".
"machine-gun their cameras"? Hey, I resemble that remark!
The reason burst shooting has been standard technique for wildlife is because it's effective. If one waits for the decisive moment, they'll miss it. As mtkeller alludes, most "machine gunners" use short bursts when they anticipate a decisive moment is happening. It's uncommon to miss something spectacular because of a full buffer. That's reality. It's not new to digital either. Wildlife photographers were using motor drives and 250+ exp film backs since they became available. Now, with digital, more people have access to the technique, and it doesn't cost a fortune in film and processing either.
It's the nature of internet discourse for nuanced information to be condensed, regurgitated and simplified until only a conclusion remains. Prediction:- Camera A is capable of taking
x shots before the buffer is full. Camera B can take
x + y. That's valid, but assuming for discussion that 99.9 percent of the time, bursts are fewer than 1/3
x frames, it hardly matters. But this becomes a decision point: A's buffer is inferior to B's. And eventually it becomes: A's buffer sucks.
I've watched it happen with battery capacity. A camera using a battery with capacity of ~400 shots is terrible because it's half the capacity of a competitor. This, despite the fact that most users shoot fewer than one hundred frames in a day, and anyone shooting something important has a spare battery, no matter the capacity.