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Frame rate/burst speed problem with D60?

Justin
Enthusiast

Can anyone tell me if any settings would affect the frame rate of a D60?  I recently purchased a D60 and I am only getting about 3.6 frames per second on high speed burst, and a little less than 3 on the low speed burst.  I am testing it on manual with a high shutter speed.  I tested a demo camera in the store and it seemed to fire much faster.  I have no memory card in it right now, but when I tested the demo camera in the store it didn't have a memory card in it either.  I have not changed any of the default settings since purchasing it other than the date and time.

Thanks

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Yes. That's why I mentioned setting the Tv to something high.  Imagine if the camera set itself to Tv of 1 sec (exaggerate for making a point) then it can only take one frame per second or less... Also, the default setting might be having the noise filtering for high ISO turned on (check it on the camera).  The high ISO filtering is very very slow...it will bring the camera burst speed to a crawl.  When there is low light, there is higher ISO and thus more filtering.

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Diverhank's photos on Flickr

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17 REPLIES 17

You had in your first post that you were shooting on manual with a high shutter speed, so I'm not sure what changed, but at least it's working.

It was the high ISO filtering that slowed the frame rate down.

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Diverhank's photos on Flickr

In my case, the camera is in manual mode, no high ISO reduction or LE noise reduction. Still, high burst mode is faster in good light conditions than low light.

 

A simple test:

>Set the camera in manual mode (even focus in lens to prevent autofocus)

>Set shutter speed to something higher than 1/250

>Disable high ISO reduction

>Disable LE noise reduction

>Set drive to Burst High

 

Cover the lens, press and hold shutter button. Notice the speed.

Now uncover the lens, point to something bright and do it again. The speed is clearly faster.

 

With live view, burst mode speed has no difference at all. Weird.

 

The question is, why that happen? Why the amount of light influences in burst speed?

This only happens in very low light conditions. Similar to a dimly lit room in a house at night. Maybe a large room lit by one 60 watt bulb. By my own tests the lighting conditions where this fps reduction starts to appear is roughly equal to  1/100 f/2.8 at ISO 3200.

 

This slowed frame rate in low light is due to a new metering system called iFCL which was first introduced on the Canon 7D. 

 

More info here:  iFCL metering

 

To work with the iFCL metering sensor, cameras that use iFCL metering also feature a specific metering algorithm. These cameras always measure focus with all AF points, regardless of the selected AF mode. During the exposure reading the cameras look to see which points, in addition to the selected point, have achieved or almost achieved focus.

 

 

In Liveview the AF points are not being used and there is no low light slow down.   

 

In addition to Liveview, another solution is to meter a brighter scene using Tv or Av and then press the * button for AE Lock. This stops the metering system and allows the camera to shoot at 7fps again. (the * button doesn't work in Manual mode so don't bother trying it in Manual)

 

 

 

 

 

Mike Sowsun

Thank you very much.  Smiley Very Happy

Check bottom of page 81 owners manual 60D.

The specified frame rate is based on a certain testing parameters Canon used which Canon doesn't clearly say...the assumption is that the fastest card was used, low ISO, no noise filtering, high shutter speed, etc...designed to give favorable results.  Having said that, the claimed frame rate can be achieved by consumers like us as long as you know what is expected...

 

The manual page 85-87 mentions the rate somewhat.  It does say if you use high ISO filtering the rate will be greatly affected...It hinted also that picture style and other factors may affect the rate.  If you record RAW + Jpeg, the burst rate is 7, meaning you can get about 5.3fps for a little more than a second before the built-in buffer fill up then the speed greatly depends on the write speed of your card.

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Diverhank's photos on Flickr

I am trying to figure out why the camera in the store would fire at a faster frame rate than mine.  I am not testing with a memory card because the camera in the store did not have one, yet it still fired faster.  I am testing by using a stopwatch, and firing the shutter for 5 seconds, and then dividing that time by five.  I am getting 18 shots in 5 seconds = 3.6 per second on the fast speed.  The difference between 3.6 shots per second and the 5.3 seconds that is advertised in the specs is very noticeable.

 

 

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