Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

This site gives good info on speeds of cards in different cameras as well as current prices.

https://www.cameramemoryspeed.com/

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

Thanks! Like I said, my D7100 doesn't have an especially large buffer, so I've never actually run into a problem with a card that couldn't keep pace with the buffer. Those shooting LAG may run into it more frequently. I'll read through the tests when I have a spare few minutes and see if there's anything that might be a useful upgrade.

Andy

Blair Shaw Jr Loc: Dunnellon,Florida

Sounds like Buffering to me. Some cameras are slow to process burst shooting. There should be a small led on the camera when it's processing to let you know it's still working and not ready to go yet. It will be lit or flashing while it's processing. Consult your manual to find the led light location on the camera body.
I don't own a T7i so I am not 100% sure about the indicator light......good luck.

Canisdirus

It's the camera, not the card.
Pace your shots as best you can.
If you get more serious about shooting wildlife ... start saving for the next camera body.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

I used to shoot with a D7100, I settled on Samsung pro 32 gb cards based on results posted on that site and my own testing/comparisons and costs per card

Now I shoot with a Canon 80D and use SanDisk Extreme Pro cards, slightly faster then the Samsung’s

The 80D has a larger buffer then the D7100, so initially it has better burst shooting, but after filling the buffer, the faster it empties by writing to the card the better regardless of the camera used

FWIW I shoot 100% raw so there is no in camera processing to slow it down

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

That's raises an interesting question. Does the buffer fill "faster" with RAW data or processing of JPEGs?

The only experiments I've made have been in shooting my grandkids' sports, but in those cases, I get many more shots if I'm just shooting JPEG before the buffer fills up. The RAW shots must, I imagine, contain more data, but this seems to be the case for my gear even when I'm shooting fine JPEGs. I normally shoot everything in RAW, but for this particular use, I've found that the buffer accommodates more in JPEGs, so I wonder if the in-camera processing is a factor at all? Never really thought about it much, but my empirical results seem to indicate that processing the RAW data is what fills the buffer fastest. I'll experiment when I'm in a place to do so.

Thanks for raising the question! It may turn out that I've been buying faster cards than I need.

Andy

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Raw data of course fills the buffer faster because the size is much larger then a jpg. A jpg file is created from the raw data, what is not used is thrown away. A 25 mb raw file may end up as a 6k jpg, so it would take many jpgs to equal 1 raw file.

Raw files are not processed in the camera, jpgs are. The camera always takes raw data, if you are recording jpg files then the camera process the raw data per the settings you have set the camera for and only writes the resulting jpg data to the card, the raw data is thrown away.

If you shoot raw, the data is simply written to the card, no processing is done, except of course to add EXIF data.

The camera is capable of shooting in burst mode at specific frames per second and either writing the raw data to the card, or processing the raw data into a jpg and writing the jpg to the card. Depending on the camera, it may be faster to write raw data then to process it into a jpg which then gets written to the card, but of course the raw data is much bigger than the resulting jpg, so in reality shooting jpg and processing the raw into a jpg results in faster burst mode shooting and writing to the card.

Regardless, use of the fastest card your camera can use (write speed) is important. Using slower cards simply reduces how fast the buffer empties which affects frames per second of continuous burst shooting.

Think of the camera buffer as an additional SD card inside the camera, a faster but much smaller SD card. As you take pictures they first go into the buffer, then are written to the SD card...so smaller files means that the buffer can hold more before writing to the SD card and removing the files from the buffer.

FWIW - if I recall, testing my D7100 with the Samsung pro cards, shooting in small jpg, the buffer never filled up, change to raw and the buffer filled after 8 or 9 shots, slowing down the actual frames per second from 6 down to about 3.

ClarkG Loc: Southern Indiana USA

You may be using an SD card that is too slow to record images that are being taken faster than the SD card can record. Try getting a faster SD card. Look in your owners manual to see what it recommends. That may do the trick.

johngault007 Loc: Florida Panhandle

OP's initial post addressed that question.
---------

Paul posted the Canon T7i user manual page number that refers to all issues one may encounter with shooting high speed continuous.
Shooting Raw + JPG (large) on high speed is about 3 seconds of continuous shooting.
Shooting Raw on high speed is about 5.5 seconds of continuous shooting.

All other literature is based on camera settings, AF settings, etc..

beeyul69

You can preview the NEF files in windows explorer if you go to Nikon USA’s web site and download & instal the Windows Codex

johngault007 Loc: Florida Panhandle

OP owns a Canon camera.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

It's not the card, but the camera, it's all the buffer can handle!

bicyclerepairman Loc: North Central Texas

Thanks for that...I wanted to say something about it because things like that drive me crazy. That being said, no one is perfect. I shutter to think what the reaction might be...hee hee.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Yes, when cursed with a small buffer, either shoot the smallest file possible, OR use the fastest card possible to let the bufffer flush as fast as possible to refill again. Both options extend the buffer as much as possible and allow it to recover as quickly as possible.

I moved from a D7100 to a Canon 80D mainly because the 80D had a larger buffer, I am considering a 90D since it has even faster hardware for writing to newer UHS II cards.

CamB Loc: Juneau, Alaska

The D7100 is painfully slow. Thats one of the reasons the 7200 came out so quickly after the 7100. That 7100 buffer drove me crazy and was the main (though not the only) reason I switched to the 7500, which practically has no buffer. (100+raw with no slow down. aahhhh....)
...Cam