Trekker

Hi. I’ve been following you for quite some time. Thanks for all you’ve taught me!
My question—
A nearby town has an airport on the lake every winter. I take a ride down every winter to photograph planes landing and taking off. My dog and I really enjoy it. Anyway, last time I was there was really disappointing. A very bright sunny day shooting a Nikon 7100. Nikon 28-300 lens camera set A priority F 11 and ISO 100 shooting continuous high BBF. So I shoot a burst of the approach but camera couldn’t recover quickly enough to get anything at touch down. I’m guessing I had about 60 seconds after the approach shot to my attempt at touch down. Oh, I was shooting RAW. So is my problem operator error, the camera, the card, I don’t think the lens would effect that.
Thanks in advance for your help.

f8lee Loc: New Mexico

It sounds as though the issue might be either the memory buffer or the speed at with the memory card can accept data.

If it's the former, there's not much you can do (other than don't take too many shots during the approach).

If it's the latter (and you can check your manual to see the maximum speed cards the camera can take) then getting cards with faster write speeds (Class 10) could be a solution, at least until you hit the wall of having to wait for the in-camera buffer.

Bill_de Loc: US

This will answer your question.

https://forum.nikonrumors.com/discussion/940/d7100-how-to-maximize-the-raw-shooting-buffer-here-is-what-i-see-how-about-you

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KLambar Loc: New Jersey

Possibly the weather.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

It depends on the camera-
On mine:
If I shoot RAW+JPEG I get 4-5 shots before the camera gets buffer backup. (Depends on image complexity.)
If I do RAW only, I'm supposed to get up to 9.
If I shoot only JPEG, lots!

Welcome to the forum by the way.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Welcome to our forum!

Trekker

You guys are great! Thanks for the help. I’m thinking a card upgrade might be in order!

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

You do want cards with the fastest write time you can get, but it's still limited to the write speed of the camera. If your camera can only write at, lets say 80Mb/sec, having a 100Mb/s card will not help.

timcc Loc: Virginia

Welcome!! If the faster card doesn't do the trick, try slowing down the burst speed a little to avoid filling the buffer so quickly. Usually the camera has continuous drive settings of low-medium-high.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Some do, some don't.

Kuzano

.
My suspicion, and only that. RAW can be your enemy. I have never been convinced RAW is best for everything. In fact, I shoot very little RAW.

RAW Files = bigger files. Longer to get written through the buffer to the memory card. For instance, most camera's designed for action/sport max out at 16-24 MP, an sports shooters typically don't shoot RAW. Mission to get the action, not necessarily the detail. In fact, I would probably shoot JPEG AND choose a smaller file format to increase write speed to the card.

We buy bigger MP camera's because we are convinced by marketing mavens the bigger is better. It rarely occurs to us to crank our Megapixels down to one of the smaller setting. Generally digital cameras have 4 different MP ratings, and two quality settings, Fine and Standard.

We have these settings. Four megapixel sizes, each of which can be set at Fine or Standard quality.

My camera's always set at the highest MP rating, Fine only, and RAW is actually pretty useless to me, if I don't take advantage of it's other settings. And that's just cracking the egg.

Know your camera, and don't buy another until you max out your current camera features.

I spend my money on glass. One camera I still use is a very high quality Pro model Olympus 4:3 E-1, which sold in 2003 for $1900. It's use of the phenomenal Kodak sensor for great color rendition is it's strong suit.
It's a 5.1 Mp camera, with 4 different MP size setting. It still offers enough flexibility to shoot various style of shooting in differing scenarios. I take it out every so often.

Face it.... the camera industry has been whipping us into a confusing frenzy for two decades in their desire to sell us a new camera(s) every few months, sometimes weeks.

uhaas2009

in case you get a new memory card you need the check the read and write speed. some say 90 MB/s that means this one reads and writes 90 MB per second.....some cards maybe faster than your camera can handel. Check your camera model too

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Refer to page 348 of your D7100 User Manual. Note the values for column "Buffer Capacity" for the various file formats. The ISO used will impact the file sizes as well as the NEF format vs the JPEG quality. The differences can be significant such as 6 NEF files in 16-bit lossless compressed vs 33 JPEG Fine / Large. These statistics indicate about a 1-second burst in RAW vs a 6-second burst in JPEG Fine / Large. The write speed of the card then determines how fast the buffer can be emptied to the card.

As mentioned by others, consider when and how long to release the shutter. You might get 10+ continuous seconds with smaller, lower-quality JPEG and just a second or two with the highest quality RAW.

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

The D7100 is notorious for its very small buffer. It uses the same processor and buffer as the older 16MP D7000 but adds a 24MP sensor. The D7200 was brought out with the newer processor (plus WiFi) just to address the buffer issue. A faster card will not solve your issue. Shooting in Jpeg will help a lot.

Trekker

I’ve been noodeling this all morning. If my dog wasn’t so lazy I’d have him chase a ball to experiment! I need to do more research you have given me so much info. What an education. I should have consulted you long ago. I’ve been plodding along trying to teach myself. I’ll give you a report of my findings. Again, a big thanks’