fcotterill
Well-known member
We hear recurring debates about the costs vs benefits of high frame rates. Pertinently for wildlife genres, are high frame rates only relevant to bird photographers? Are they necessary for large mammals, for example, considering these subject tend to more relatively slowly? Perhaps not, considering the costs in high numbers of recorded images, carrying more storage, and post processing overheads.
This debate is nearly as old as the proverbial hills, well more precisely it goes back to the advent of motorized film cameras. Since then, many photographers have reaped the benefits of increasing fps in ILCs, and particularly the steady improvements in frame rates of digital ILCs: as mechanical shutters were perfected to reach the highest possible ceiling of frame rates. It's remarkable today, to remember how cameras, such as the Nikon D3, set an upper benchmark. This was not that many years ago! https://www.richardpeters.co.uk/tri-coloured-heron-fishing/
Electronics has overtaken the latter, particularly with big jumps in the data processing speeds of electronic shutters. I keep my Z9 is on HE* RAW 20fps almost always, and the D6 is always on 14fps. In each opportunity of my encounters with lions and leopards, caracals especially, I have routinely taken many hundreds of images. Several of my leopard sightings have ended up with 3-4000 frames. If it's a sleeping cat, obviously common sense means one holds back, and waits for more interesting behaviour.
Beyond their role as useful props, some examples are relevant to discuss more details. This leopardess was lolling on her back but she would turn her head, so I took sustained 20 fps bursts with the Z9, but in only a few frames was she looking directly into my lens; and she was moving her paws in the process. So only in these captured nuances did a handful turn out to stand apart from the rest.
The recently debated video by Tin Man Lee is another great example. There are undoubtedly many many other shared examples. Nonetheless, above and beyond his hyperbole, in this video, I say it's beyond any doubt the photographer was 100% correct to use 20 fps and capture as many frames as feasible in the encounter with a male lion. It always pays to maximize captures, photographing strategically so as not to miss nuances in expressions and behaviours etc; well at least IME photographing African wildlife in savannas over the past 4 decades. I have a similar strategy especially when in unusual encounters with any wild animal in rare conditions, such as misty conditions, backlighting or against a majestic backdrop. Captures at high fps may be in shorter bursts, or sustained buffer fills depending on how the scene is changing.
The same strategy applies to how we can leverage high fps to freeze the optimum frame for ear flicks, nictitating membranes, and many other behaviours - eg the swing of an elephant's trunk. In this encounter with the shy nocturnal Grysbuck, shooting in fleeting windows of opportunity through gaps in the mopane jesse bush, I managed to capture a mere 200+ frames of the tiny antelope, particularly when the frame stopped in a clearing to feed. This was with a D5, as there was no time to change the 180-400 TC on to my Z9!
However, the Z9 froze the critical moment in this Stenbuck chewing a leaf. Note how the heat haze over the thin basalt soil is just starting to interfere with the practicality of a 800 PF, taken at 0852 on a winter morning in Kruger NP
The same arguments apply to action settings with swirling dust or splashing water. This also applies to large mammals as much as it does to birds and other subjects, such as marine mammals. In the case of this Limpopo Bushbuck ram playfighting. I have watched and photographed many bushbucks in at least four African countries, but this behaviour still rates as a unique sighting. But, I still missed the moment of a branch flying up between his horns! This sequence was taken at a fair distance from my vehicle, but fortunately it benefited from the tighter framing of the 800 PF
Beyond freezing this Dagga Boy as he swung towards the stream bank, the highest possible frmae rate captured the splash and the water drops as he lifted his muzzle
This debate is nearly as old as the proverbial hills, well more precisely it goes back to the advent of motorized film cameras. Since then, many photographers have reaped the benefits of increasing fps in ILCs, and particularly the steady improvements in frame rates of digital ILCs: as mechanical shutters were perfected to reach the highest possible ceiling of frame rates. It's remarkable today, to remember how cameras, such as the Nikon D3, set an upper benchmark. This was not that many years ago! https://www.richardpeters.co.uk/tri-coloured-heron-fishing/
Electronics has overtaken the latter, particularly with big jumps in the data processing speeds of electronic shutters. I keep my Z9 is on HE* RAW 20fps almost always, and the D6 is always on 14fps. In each opportunity of my encounters with lions and leopards, caracals especially, I have routinely taken many hundreds of images. Several of my leopard sightings have ended up with 3-4000 frames. If it's a sleeping cat, obviously common sense means one holds back, and waits for more interesting behaviour.
Beyond their role as useful props, some examples are relevant to discuss more details. This leopardess was lolling on her back but she would turn her head, so I took sustained 20 fps bursts with the Z9, but in only a few frames was she looking directly into my lens; and she was moving her paws in the process. So only in these captured nuances did a handful turn out to stand apart from the rest.
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.
The recently debated video by Tin Man Lee is another great example. There are undoubtedly many many other shared examples. Nonetheless, above and beyond his hyperbole, in this video, I say it's beyond any doubt the photographer was 100% correct to use 20 fps and capture as many frames as feasible in the encounter with a male lion. It always pays to maximize captures, photographing strategically so as not to miss nuances in expressions and behaviours etc; well at least IME photographing African wildlife in savannas over the past 4 decades. I have a similar strategy especially when in unusual encounters with any wild animal in rare conditions, such as misty conditions, backlighting or against a majestic backdrop. Captures at high fps may be in shorter bursts, or sustained buffer fills depending on how the scene is changing.
The same strategy applies to how we can leverage high fps to freeze the optimum frame for ear flicks, nictitating membranes, and many other behaviours - eg the swing of an elephant's trunk. In this encounter with the shy nocturnal Grysbuck, shooting in fleeting windows of opportunity through gaps in the mopane jesse bush, I managed to capture a mere 200+ frames of the tiny antelope, particularly when the frame stopped in a clearing to feed. This was with a D5, as there was no time to change the 180-400 TC on to my Z9!
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.
However, the Z9 froze the critical moment in this Stenbuck chewing a leaf. Note how the heat haze over the thin basalt soil is just starting to interfere with the practicality of a 800 PF, taken at 0852 on a winter morning in Kruger NP
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.
The same arguments apply to action settings with swirling dust or splashing water. This also applies to large mammals as much as it does to birds and other subjects, such as marine mammals. In the case of this Limpopo Bushbuck ram playfighting. I have watched and photographed many bushbucks in at least four African countries, but this behaviour still rates as a unique sighting. But, I still missed the moment of a branch flying up between his horns! This sequence was taken at a fair distance from my vehicle, but fortunately it benefited from the tighter framing of the 800 PF
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.
Beyond freezing this Dagga Boy as he swung towards the stream bank, the highest possible frmae rate captured the splash and the water drops as he lifted his muzzle
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.
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