High/Highest fps - Challenges of Recording Behaviour

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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.

Leopardess Mphongolo rolling on her back rd_June2022-1043.jpg
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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!

Grysbuck in mopane jesse D5_180-400 TC June2022-55122.jpg
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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
Stenbuck ram with chewed leaf heat haze June2022-4762.jpg
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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

bushbuck ram play fighting rd_June2022-5832.jpg
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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

Buffalo drinking_detail_June2022-51390.jpg
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Maximize Opportunities is my modus operandi in encounters with subjects. Capture as many images as one judges to capture the proverbial moments. My motto and advice is thus to leverage the advanced features in our modern cameras to the maximum. This dictum applies especially to high framerate to capture as many nuances as possible.

This is also the place to highlight the benefits of Pre Release Capture. However, In actual fact, in the case of frame rates in Nikon MILCs - namely the Z8 and Z9 - there's still considerable room to improve this state of the art of technology. The lack of RAW file support for frame rates (in all modes) faster than 20fps is Nikon's primary deficiency. The ideal will be 120 fps HE*RAW to record the more fleeting events.

Besides any number of examples as shared above, scientific evidence clinches the strategy to use the highest possible frame rates. The behaviours of Flying birds underscore why one should leverage such unprecedented frame rates. I singled out this article by Jason Odell, because it collates pertinent zoological data https://luminescentphoto.com/blog/2...frame-rate-for-photographing-birds-in-flight/

In this table Odell compiled behavioural data from the scientific literature for a range of bird species using powered flight. These reveal that many birds perform a complete wing cycle within 0.1sec. Small passerines, such as chaffinches, can average wing beats of 18 cycles / sec. This excerpt presents much of the range:

1686048283795.png



His graph below explains why 20 fps is required from many species with faster wing beat cycles. Obviously, not only 60fps but 120 fps is so useful to 'Capture the Moment' - Besides freezing the ideal wing position, setting the highest frame rate reduces missing nuances in positioning as two or subjects interact, or the splash of water or puffs of dust or feathers etc in interactions (eg predators and prey)

1686048330871.png
 
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In this table Odell compiled behavioural data from the scientific literature for a range of bird species using powered flight. These reveals many birds perform a complete wing cycle within 0.1sec. Small passerines, such as chaffinches, can average wing beats of 18 cycles / sec. This excerpt presents much of the range:
very interesting information, @fcotterill !
last month I shoot about 4000 photos of fighting bee-eaters and was wondering how much in going on in that 20 frames time becasue in each following frame they were in the other pose!
So, one second is 1000 milliseconds and shutter speed of 1/1000sec must be one millisecond. We se 1/2500-1/3200 for bee-eaters but there is still time between the frames (clear, for writing to the card, focusing, ect) And it is a lot of time between the frames ... (in bee-eater world at least) Actually, I need 30 frames for fighting bee-eaters! 😅

I was asking myself how fast or slow our own movement is... So, often we use high frame rate not for the capturing the moment but for freezing our own shake! I assume that Tin Man Lee being in the fog or in the rain lowered his shutter speed. The burst will increase the chance of getting the sharp and not shaken picture with lower shutter speed. Each of us knows how slow she or he can go with particular lens taking in account the movement of the animal. Well, how fast the going lion can be? I think I was using about 1/160 with a good result. With sitting animal even 1/60sec. But if I handhold a heavy telephoto lens than my hands start to shake. So, I must do burst. There is no other way.

I was thinking that actually I can use 1/20sec as slowest shutterspeed because with 1/15 for example, there will not be 20 frames but only 15. I hope, my math is ok :rolleyes: :LOL:
 
I think more is better, but there is still an element of chance and also diminishing returns to a degree. At 5 fps one would still overlap with 20 fps every 4 frames. With good luck it is certainly possible that one of those shots is the winner, but also the faster would increase the odds. So if one desired to catch a wing exactly on the lowest part of the downbeat, it would take far more than 20 to insure that.
 
Thanks Elena.
This is an intriguing arena with so many variables and questions. I'm somewhat old school so still cling to faster shutter speeds, but tamp down after the insurance shots. Brad Hill has published many statistics of hit rates in his tests with different lenses, although the slowest possible depends on the photographer. Also the position, rig weight and support etc all influence what's feasible for shutter speed(s).
Synchronized VR with the Nikon Z system is yet another useful feature to exploit. I never cease to be amazed at what's now possible handholding my 800 PF!
Recall Shooting Functions also gives some insurance to capture a very rapid switch in behaviour, if the camera is at, say, 1/250.
 
Interesting information. Thanks for posting.
I get confused with a lot of what is going on with burst rates and shutter actions. My main camera body is a Canon R7 and in electronic shutter mode 'rolling shutter' is a problem. I use electronic first curtain. Maybe the next development will be a form of global shutter for mirrorless bodies. AFAIK stacked sensors are good but only equate to mechanical shutter.
 
I’m amazed at how much some critters can move about between the frames shot at 20 fps. I don’t care what others do, but I’m not going back. It’s easy enough to delete pics when nothing or nothing much changes between the frames. But I even see the benefit shooting people at 20 fps because of how quickly they shift their eyes about.
 
There are other advantages of shooting 20 fps which include being able to make not entirely horrible vids from the burst - while having great images as well. I am not content I will get the same result by pulling a frame even from a 8.3k 60p HQ N-RAW N-log footage -- but I will try.


So as to give the impression of dynamic movement -- I want to be able to pick the Moment - just before the leopard climbing a tree places his paw

20230310 - 150119 - _Z900439 - NIKKOR Z 400mm f-2.8 TC VR S -¹⁄₁₆₀₀ sec at ƒ - 4.0 - ISO 1600 ...jpg
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Not the shot ONE 20 fps frame later
20230310 - 150119 - _Z900440 - NIKKOR Z 400mm f-2.8 TC VR S -¹⁄₁₆₀₀ sec at ƒ - 4.0 - ISO 1800 ...jpg
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Same again
20230310 - 150117 - _Z900408 - NIKKOR Z 400mm f-2.8 TC VR S -¹⁄₁₆₀₀ sec at ƒ - 4.0 - ISO 2000 ...jpg
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Not the "after" -- although the after does show the claws extending and in this case is a little more interesting
20230310 - 150117 - _Z900409 - NIKKOR Z 400mm f-2.8 TC VR S -¹⁄₁₆₀₀ sec at ƒ - 4.0 - ISO 2000 ...jpg
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Well not the image 2 shots after -- although ...... AND this is why 20fps is so grand.
20230310 - 150117 - _Z900410 - NIKKOR Z 400mm f-2.8 TC VR S -¹⁄₁₆₀₀ sec at ƒ - 4.0 - ISO 2000 ...jpg
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Interesting information. Thanks for posting.
I get confused with a lot of what is going on with burst rates and shutter actions. My main camera body is a Canon R7 and in electronic shutter mode 'rolling shutter' is a problem. I use electronic first curtain. Maybe the next development will be a form of global shutter for mirrorless bodies. AFAIK stacked sensors are good but only equate to mechanical shutter.

There are stacked electronic shutter cameras.

 
I'm all for as many FPS as I can get as long as the camera lets me dial it down when I don't want them (I'm looking at you R5 :p).

My current camera does 30FPS in Compressed RAW and for most things that are moving I just leave it on 30FPS. There are always some exceptions to that. One would be when I'm shooting ducks in flight I've found that 15FPS gets me all the keepers I need and 30FPS is just non-productive. There are certain ducks (most notably buffleheads IME) that if shot at 10 or 20FPS will only get 2 wing positions during their normal flight (of course wild bank turns and acceleration/elevation changes are exceptions) and if I haven't lucked out and got the wings up, wings down alternating positions I end up with a sequence of only mid stroke wing positions. 15 or 30FPS changes the positions where I end up with 4 positions and therefore can pick my wings up and wings down which I prefer as keepers.

I also have a Custom recall button set to around 1/250-1/400s (I change this periodically) with wide open aperture and Auto-ISO. This for my perched birds that aren't doing much. This recall also drops the FPS to 10 or 15 (again I change this from time to time) from my usual 30FPS. This allows me to keep my main settings dialed in for action where I don't want to fiddle with an extra button, I just half press my shutter, engage AF and fire if an unexpected action sequence happens or a BIF comes out of nowhere.

I really don't know what my upper limit would be...there would certainly be a point where I wouldn't run the camera at max FPS as much as I run my current one at the max of 30FPS. I wouldn't run a camera all the time at 120FPS. But I'd certainly make use of it from time to time (maybe for the entrance of osprey, kingfishers and terns into the water and for passerines in flight). If I had an OM-1 I'd probably run it at 50FPS as much as I run my current camera at 30. I did have some fun trying the Z9 in precapture at 60 and 120FPS for songbirds flying to and from my feeders. If I could get those speeds with raw files I'd try it a lot more.

It is all a progression...I was fairly happy shooting D500 at 10FPS but at the same time I owned 1DXII at 14FPS and A9 at 20FPS. One starts to think...oh 20FPS is getting me all I need but then I got a camera that does 30FPS and you start to see all the subtle changes you were missing even at 20FPS. Getting that perfect head angle, eye angle, body angle, wing position and foot position takes more FPS than you think. Sure you can find a frame with a perfect position at 5FPS sometimes but it really helps get more of them more often at higher FPS.

Even though I shoot at a high 30FPS a lot of the time I'm still fairly controlled with my bursts....most of the time I take fairly short bursts...0.25s to maybe 2s. I also have a great culling program my friend wrote (similar to Photomechanic) designed to cull from the memory card and then only ingest the picks onto your hard drive. I can fly through 2-3K images in just 10mins or so as he uses the built in previews to cull from and you can move file to file instantly. Culling is a breeze these days.
 
Maximize Opportunities is my modus operandi in encounters with subjects. Capture as many images as one judges to capture the proverbial moments. My motto and advice is thus to leverage the advanced features in our modern cameras to the maximum. This dictum applies especially to high framerate to capture as many nuances as possible.

This is also the place to highlight the benefits of Pre Release Capture. However, In actual fact, in the case of frame rates in Nikon MILCs - namely the Z8 and Z9 - there's still considerable room to improve this state of the art of technology. The lack of RAW file support for frame rates (in all modes) faster than 20fps is Nikon's primary deficiency. The ideal will be 120 fps HE*RAW to record the more fleeting events.

Besides any number of examples as shared above, scientific evidence clinches the strategy to use the highest possible frame rates. The behaviours of Flying birds underscore why one should leverage such unprecedented frame rates. I singled out this article by Jason Odell, because it collates pertinent zoological data https://luminescentphoto.com/blog/2...frame-rate-for-photographing-birds-in-flight/

In this table Odell compiled behavioural data from the scientific literature for a range of bird species using powered flight. These reveal that many birds perform a complete wing cycle within 0.1sec. Small passerines, such as chaffinches, can average wing beats of 18 cycles / sec. This excerpt presents much of the range:

View attachment 62766


His graph below explains why 20 fps is required from many species with faster wing beat cycles. Obviously, not only 60fps but 120 fps is so useful to 'Capture the Moment' - Besides freezing the ideal wing position, setting the highest frame rate reduces missing nuances in positioning as two or subjects interact, or the splash of water or puffs of dust or feathers etc in interactions (eg predators and prey)

View attachment 62767
And then there are the hummingbirds... One of the local species hovers with wingbeats of almost precisely 60 wingbeats/sec, so a burst at 20, 30 or even 60 frames/sec will capture a long series of images with the wings in exactly the same position (fascinating to watch in the viewfinder), while the wingbeats of the other species are not nearly as synchronized with the electronics so a variety of wing positions is likely. What fascinates me about either bird is that slow shutter speeds will often result in a perfectly sharp head while the wings and body show very significant motion blur.
 
On the OM-1 I tend to use 25fps even though I have 50fps with C-AF or 120fps with AF locked. Unfortunately, there are no options between 25-50 or maybe I'd go halfway...33fps? I think I'd be content with 20fps. As for pre-capture, the OM-1 does capture raw; I know the Z8 doesn't, but I wonder, does everyone want 20fps pre-capture RAW with the Z8/Z9, or would they be content with 15fps? I was just curious if there is a challenge with Nikon doing that, if lowering the pre-capture fps would help alleviate it.
 
There are stacked electronic shutter cameras.

Thanks Bill. A stacked shutter is good in that it approximates to a mechanical shutter but it is not equivalent to a global shutter as far as I am aware. Maybe I'm confused again.
 
Thanks Bill. A stacked shutter is good in that it approximates to a mechanical shutter but it is not equivalent to a global shutter as far as I am aware. Maybe I'm confused again.
I agree. I thought you were saying stacked sensors were only mechanical shutters. But you weren't.
 
I shoot the OM-1 @ 20f/s. I find, however, that this is often NOT fast enough on pre-capture so I use 50 f/s (and a lens that supports this rate). The 120 f/s mode is not focusing after every shot so I rarely use it.

Tom
 
I'm all for as many FPS as I can get as long as the camera lets me dial it down when I don't want them (I'm looking at you R5 :p).

My current camera does 30FPS in Compressed RAW and for most things that are moving I just leave it on 30FPS. There are always some exceptions to that. One would be when I'm shooting ducks in flight I've found that 15FPS gets me all the keepers I need and 30FPS is just non-productive. There are certain ducks (most notably buffleheads IME) that if shot at 10 or 20FPS will only get 2 wing positions during their normal flight (of course wild bank turns and acceleration/elevation changes are exceptions) and if I haven't lucked out and got the wings up, wings down alternating positions I end up with a sequence of only mid stroke wing positions. 15 or 30FPS changes the positions where I end up with 4 positions and therefore can pick my wings up and wings down which I prefer as keepers.

I also have a Custom recall button set to around 1/250-1/400s (I change this periodically) with wide open aperture and Auto-ISO. This for my perched birds that aren't doing much. This recall also drops the FPS to 10 or 15 (again I change this from time to time) from my usual 30FPS. This allows me to keep my main settings dialed in for action where I don't want to fiddle with an extra button, I just half press my shutter, engage AF and fire if an unexpected action sequence happens or a BIF comes out of nowhere.

I really don't know what my upper limit would be...there would certainly be a point where I wouldn't run the camera at max FPS as much as I run my current one at the max of 30FPS. I wouldn't run a camera all the time at 120FPS. But I'd certainly make use of it from time to time (maybe for the entrance of osprey, kingfishers and terns into the water and for passerines in flight). If I had an OM-1 I'd probably run it at 50FPS as much as I run my current camera at 30. I did have some fun trying the Z9 in precapture at 60 and 120FPS for songbirds flying to and from my feeders. If I could get those speeds with raw files I'd try it a lot more.

It is all a progression...I was fairly happy shooting D500 at 10FPS but at the same time I owned 1DXII at 14FPS and A9 at 20FPS. One starts to think...oh 20FPS is getting me all I need but then I got a camera that does 30FPS and you start to see all the subtle changes you were missing even at 20FPS. Getting that perfect head angle, eye angle, body angle, wing position and foot position takes more FPS than you think. Sure you can find a frame with a perfect position at 5FPS sometimes but it really helps get more of them more often at higher FPS.

Even though I shoot at a high 30FPS a lot of the time I'm still fairly controlled with my bursts....most of the time I take fairly short bursts...0.25s to maybe 2s. I also have a great culling program my friend wrote (similar to Photomechanic) designed to cull from the memory card and then only ingest the picks onto your hard drive. I can fly through 2-3K images in just 10mins or so as he uses the built in previews to cull from and you can move file to file instantly. Culling is a breeze these days.
Great post. Very insightful! Thank you!
 
One would be when I'm shooting ducks in flight I've found that 15FPS gets me all the keepers I need and 30FPS is just non-productive.
how true is that! It is very imporant to know the subect. I would also shoot herons with less frames and lower shutter speed.
Actually, for me it is very important to know how fast the object moves. And it concerns not only birds, of course.

The other important variable in this formula will be the focal lenght. The movement of the animal in the frame taken with telephoto lens will be longer than in the frame taken with standard zoom in the same time. Or motion blur will be less visible with wider lens, so to say. That means I can experiment with slower shutter speed on wide angle lens.
That idea actually brough me to video taking. When it is dark and I cannot take sharp photos anymore I can still shoot the video becasue I can use 1/30sec and motion blur is welcome. And here is often something going on in Africa in the darkness ;-)
 
how true is that! It is very imporant to know the subect. I would also shoot herons with less frames and lower shutter speed.
Actually, for me it is very important to know how fast the object moves. And it concerns not only birds, of course.

The other important variable in this formula will be the focal lenght. The movement of the animal in the frame taken with telephoto lens will be longer than in the frame taken with standard zoom in the same time. Or motion blur will be less visible with wider lens, so to say. That means I can experiment with slower shutter speed on wide angle lens.
That idea actually brough me to video taking. When it is dark and I cannot take sharp photos anymore I can still shoot the video becasue I can use 1/30sec and motion blur is welcome. And here is often something going on in Africa in the darkness ;-)

And with 4/6/8k you can now pull reasonably high quality stills. I wonder how stills from 8k look…
 
And with 4/6/8k you can now pull reasonably high quality stills. I wonder how stills from 8k look…
They'll be blurry under the situation described by @ElenaH

That's one of the key differences between stills and video. Stills get their "look" by freezing the moment, which requires no motion blur. Video gets its look from that blur, which is why we shoot at low shutterspeed.

For action (inc movining animals) you either get a good video or good stills, not both.

Oversimplification.
 
And with 4/6/8k you can now pull reasonably high quality stills. I wonder how stills from 8k look…
They can look good but if you have to go out aiming to either shoot video (with low SS) or shoot video for stills (with high SS). Otherwise normal SS used for video (typically 2x the frame rate) will produce motion blurred frame grabs. If you instead shoot video at high SS to freeze action frame to frame you end up with video that isn't great.
 
If I use the pre-shoot option I can only use electronic shutter. <-- I think this is right for the Canon R7 Does the same thing apply to other cameras?
Also the number of shots taken in a burst is per second, I use first curtain so that is 15 about, but if I only hold the shutter button down for half a second it will be about 7. <--- is that correct?
 
If I use the pre-shoot option I can only use electronic shutter. <-- I think this is right for the Canon R7 Does the same thing apply to other cameras?
Also the number of shots taken in a burst is per second, I use first curtain so that is 15 about, but if I only hold the shutter button down for half a second it will be about 7. <--- is that correct?

That’s how it is for my OM1 and how it was for the xh2s.
 
Excellent record of a remarkable interaction.

There's this recent sighting of a young male leopard attempting similar. Dangerous risks! And such interactions are most definitely where the capture record benefits from the flagship features in our modern cameras


There are other advantages of shooting 20 fps which include being able to make not entirely horrible vids from the burst - while having great images as well. I am not content I will get the same result by pulling a frame even from a 8.3k 60p HQ N-RAW N-log footage -- but I will try.


So as to give the impression of dynamic movement -- I want to be able to pick the Moment - just before the leopard climbing a tree places his paw

View attachment 62774
Not the shot ONE 20 fps frame later
View attachment 62775
Same again
View attachment 62776
Not the "after" -- although the after does show the claws extending and in this case is a little more interesting
View attachment 62777
Well not the image 2 shots after -- although ...... AND this is why 20fps is so grand.
View attachment 62778
 
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