Way to use your D7100 for sports

[goodguy]

With all the positive stuff we hear about the D7100 one complaint keeps popping and that's the camera performance in burst mode.
Well for those who own the camera or buy this camera expecting it to be a sport camera they will be disappointed as the buffer of the camera isn't too big but I tested my camera and found a very simple way to get a lot more then the rated 6 pics burst in RAW and then hit the buffer limit.

We all know about the 1.3 crop option and that it will bump the camera speed from 6 to 7 FPS and to my surprise I found another advantage to this function.
If you set camera to Fine JPEG in 1.3 crop not only I get the 7 PFS burst but I got a MUCH longer burst from 6 pics in regular RAW DX mode to 19-22 pictures, the buffer also cleared much faster.

So this camera is still not a sport animal but for those who need a longer burst then the rated 6 FPS and are willing for this occasion not to shoot in RAW you are getting quite the machine.
To be honest I don't shoot sports so I don't need all this but for those who do I hope this info will be helpful.

 

[Tailgunner]

Is RAW really needed for Sports photography? I mean RAW files retain more Highlights and Shadows as well as the ability to adjust White Balance in Post but if the camera is set up right, you should be able to get it close in camera. This would allow you to use Jpeg which in turns equal more available shots. We're talking 33 shots (Jpeg Large Fine) vs 5 RAW 14 Bit Lossless Compressed. I'd rather have a Jpeg shot than no shot at all.

 

[Solarflare]

Yes, Sports are usually photographed with JPEG because you have to shoot a ton of pictures and the picture quality is less important than being able to shoot a lot of pictures.

 

[goodguy]

I didn't know sports is done in jpeg but it does make perfect sense.
In my experiment which I run few times I got very interesting results, in the best I got 22 pictures and while shooting 7fps, the camera sounds like a real machine when its gunning down in this rate and it keeps going a lot, MUCH more then I will ever need.
I think this turn this already amazing camera to an even better camera.

 

[Tailgunner]

Yes, Sports are usually photographed with JPEG because you have to shoot a ton of pictures and the picture quality is less important than being able to shoot a lot of pictures.

Thanks, it just makes more sense.