Motor camera: short burst

Hi,

as background, when shooting sports (football/soccer), I'm typically using one of Nikon F3/F4/F5.

They have a "S" (single) setting, where you need to depress the trigger button for each picture. And a "C" (continuous) setting, where the camera takes pictures as long as you depress the trigger button.

So, I'm using "C" most of the time. But, given that I only have 36 pictures on a roll, I often release the trigger too early (in order not to waste pictures) or too late (wasting pictures doing so). I don't mind wasting film with superfluous pictures, but I often find myself changing films while the interesting things are happening (goal or foul).

My question is, is there a camera which "combines" S and C? I'm thinking of a camera where pressing the trigger fires 3 or 5 or whatever shots, and I have to press the trigger again for another such short burst?

Not quite what you have in mind but motor drive for the Minolta 9000 you can select how fast, h, m or l. I think h is 5 frames, and low is 2 frames per second. The 9000 is the only AF with a separate motor drive or winder.

With the F3 you can set number of frames for the burst but then you will have to set it again if you want to shoot again.

Patrice listening to the shutter fires and when to release the shutter button to get the desired number of exposures you want. I did so with my F4s in Ch but I'm out of practice now. Its kinda like riding a bike, you never forget once you've learned.

swchris said:

...
My question is, is there a camera which "combines" S and C? I'm thinking of a camera where pressing the trigger fires 3 or 5 or whatever shots, and I have to press the trigger again for another such short burst?

Click to expand...

For the F3, there's the MD-4 which has only the S and C choices; the F4 has Ch and Cl, as you probably already know.

I shoot motorsports on the Cl setting. With Ch, I can't pan and track accurately. The trick is to practice, as mentioned above, and anticipate when things will happen. After all, sports used to be shot with 4x5 Speed Graphics!

Ultimate solution is to have a pretty assistant that loads film into second camera for you. The F4s is a total bargain today - inexpensive to get a second one.

Theo Sulphate said:

For the F3, there's the MD-4 which has only the S and C choices; the F4 has Ch and Cl, as you probably already know.

I shoot motorsports on the Cl setting. With Ch, I can't pan and track accurately. The trick is to practice, as mentioned above, and anticipate when things will happen. After all, sports used to be shot with 4x5 Speed Graphics!

Ultimate solution is to have a pretty assistant that loads film into second camera for you. The F4s is a total bargain today - inexpensive to get a second one.

Click to expand...

The ultimate solution is to use bulk film in a 250 exposure bulk film back as pro's used to do and practice, practise, practice. https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=n...0&bih=917&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved it

Theo Sulphate said:

For the F3, there's the MD-4 which has only the S and C choices; the F4 has Ch and Cl, as you probably already know.

Click to expand...

You can select frame rates of 1/fps, 2/fps, 3/fps, and maximum on the MD-4 with the MK-1 frame rate adapter.

f8&bthere said:

You can select frame rates of 1/fps, 2/fps, 3/fps, and maximum on the MD-4 with the MK-1 frame rate adapter.

Click to expand...

A person learns something new every day here - I didn't know about that! It's not mentioned as an accessory in my MD-4 manual either.

Anyway, the MIR site mentions how it gives you a vertical release, but in horizontal do you still use the regular MD-4 release? Is the button on the C1 C2 ... selector dial also a shutter release or is it to allow turning the selector?

The F5 has 2 continuous release modes. CL and CH. CL is changeable from 3 to 5 FPS via custom setting #10. CH is from 6-8 via setting #9.

There are command backs that allow you to set number of exposures and intervalls, but I thing they all only yield that function in autometed/timer mode and not in manual mode (via the release button).

Thanks for your insights.

Seems like I need to do some practising to get the "feel" of how long to depress the release button....

Getting a feel is probably the best solution. This just takes time, I've found. To your original question though, and if you're not against trying out another camera mount, Canon made the Motor Drive MA for the Canon A-1 and AE-1 Program. In high-speed mode it fires off about 5 fps. But it has a little white button down at the bottom of the grip that, when pressed by your pinky, automatically puts the drive in high speed mode as long as the button is depressed. I've always thought that was a nice feature, but honestly when I used the A-1 with motor I probably didn't use this feature more than one or two times. I found I could leave that drive (and most others, including my Nikons) set to "C" even when shooting singles without shooting extra shots unless that's what I wanted to do.

On the Nikon F100 you can set the bracket to 1/3 stop and get bursts of either 2 or 3 exposures at a time.