what is the actual Nikon D300 max frame rate?

[astroskeptic]

Hi,

I'd like to know if anyone has actually measured the D300 frame rate when shooting in 8 fps mode using the battery grip and if so, what rate you measured.

I recently found out about the bracket burst trick of getting more than 6 fps without the grip. Just by listening to the camera sound, it is obviously shooting at a rate higher than 6 fps but I was curious what the actual rate was so I measured it and found it to be about 7.25 fps. I did this by using a microphone next to the camera to record the mechanical sounds during the shoot and then I analyzed the audio waveform to measure the peak-to-peak timings. (BTW, I also measured the non-burst rate and found it to be very close to 6 as expected).

I don't have a battery grip and hence can't perform this measurement to see if the camera actually gets close to 8 fps. (Maybe the rate with the grip is also 7.25 fps and Nikon is "rounding up" the spec.)

Has anyone done a simliar rate analysis with the battery grip and if so, what rate do you get? I'm considering getting the grip and wanted to know if I would get an fps benefit.

Thanks.

 

[KmH]

With the grip Nikon says you get the increased speed if you use the AA battery tray or use the $96 (new) EN-EL4 battery.

I haven't worried to much about measuring the actual frame rate. I'm to busy making images.

 

[Bob Davis]

I've had my Nikon D300 for roughly 2 plus years. Almost never use it in Continuous-Servo AF. Opting to shoot one frame at a time. 99% of the time. But decided to try to get the 6 FPS. So far I don't think I got it. I think at most I get 3-4 FPS.

I have my D300 set to Continuous-Servo AF (C), Dynamic-area AF and shutter-priority (shutter speed 1/250). Shooting in JPG. RAW mode set to 12-bit. Am I missing something? Perhaps I'm not holding down the shutter button 100%? Ideas?

 

[KmH]

I've had my Nikon D300 for roughly 2 plus years. Almost never use it in Continuous-Servo AF. Opting to shoot one frame at a time. 99% of the time. But decided to try to get the 6 FPS. So far I don't think I got it. I think at most I get 3-4 FPS.

I have my D300 set to Continuous-Servo AF (C), Dynamic-area AF and shutter-priority (shutter speed 1/250). Shooting in JPG. RAW mode set to 12-bit. Am I missing something? Perhaps I'm not holding down the shutter button 100%? Ideas?

Nikon is careful to say "Up to" because there are several menu settings that can drag down the fps rate.

They also note that the fps rate can be effected by slow shutter speeds.

Check page 74 in your users manual.

If you have JPEG selected as your image quality setting, having Raw set to the 12-bit or 14-bit depth shouldn't matter.

 

[Bob Davis]

I did look at p.74. What should I be look for? I think I've followed their recommendations.

Also, I asked this in another forum and they said it could have to do with the speed of my CF card. And funny enough the card is slow @ 133x. Probably the slowest speed card available today. They said I needed at least a 300x card or faster. And since I do have a 300x card I will test using that card.

Also if I had noise reduction on that would slow things down too. I don't. Or I don't think so.

 

[KmH]

Page 74 listed the settings that can effect the fps, particularly note #2.

Shooting JPEG I wouldn't expect the buffer to effect a 1 or 2 second burst, but let us know how the 300x card does.

Having a grip on the camera really seems to help. I have 1 with, and 1 without, and I can't get the one without a grip to do more than about 3 fps.