If you adopted the discharge of the brand new Canon EOS R8 Mark II, you is likely to be questioning what the function pre-continuous capturing is, in any other case generally known as pre-capture (Sony and Nikon), Pro Capture (OM System), Pre-Burst (Panasonic) or Pre-shot ES (Fujifilm).
The function has been round for some time now having been launched by OM System (Olympus), and it’s slowly labored its approach throughout manufacturers and into reasonably priced fashions, together with the R8 II, Sony A7 V and Nikon Z5 II.
I’m right here to clarify pre-capture, and present you the advantage of this function with photos I wouldn’t have in any other case been in a position to seize with out it. Let’s dive in.
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What is pre-capture and the way does it work?
Picture this — you’ve obtained your digicam mounted on a topic, poised for the motion to occur; athletes on the 100m begin line, a kingfisher on a department that might take flight at any second, a possible objective in a soccer match.
Sometimes your reactions aren’t up to the mark to seize the important thing second, and it is gone earlier than your finger has pressed the shutter button. It’s precisely these eventualities that pre-capture is designed for, and it is the function that helped me get the photographs of birds in flight, the place beforehand I’d have missed the second or just settled for ones of them perched on branches.
Pre-capture provides you as much as a 1 second head begin (relying on the mannequin) earlier than the shutter is pressed, frequently capturing (to a brief buffer) earlier than you press the shutter button, at which level the photographs shot within the specified time earlier than the shutter button was absolutely pressed are recorded retrospectively.
With pre-capture on, it is sometimes initiated by half urgent the shutter button (or absolutely urgent an assignable button, such because the autofocus button), as is the case with the Sony A7 V I used to take the pictures in this feature.
The Canon EOS R8 Mark II, for example, can shoot up to 40fps and offers up to 0.5 second pre-capture, meaning you can retrospectively record a 20 photo sequence in the half second before you press the shutter button. The Sony A7 V can shoot up to 30fps with up to 1 second pre-capture, so that’s up to 15 images.
How to use pre-capture effectively
I recently got into bird photography and it didn’t take me long to bag some beautiful photos of the varied birdlife in my local nature reserve and wetland, using some superb review gear — including the Sony 400-800mm F6.3-8 super telephoto zoom lens.
As enjoyable as this hobby is (and it really is), soon enough I was considering how I could mix up the kind of photos I was making, besides stationary birds on branches. Pre-capture came to mind. How about capturing photos of the birds taking flight?
Birds in flight is one of the toughest photography challenges — as I found out during a recent hands-on with the Fujifilm XF 400mm F4.5 R LM WR lens at a birds of prey experience. And that was when I had some idea of where the birds would be flying. But wild birds in flight? Nigh on impossible, I thought.
I chose the most appropriate autofocus mode (in this case bird subject detection), the continuous high drive mode (30fps), set a suitably fast shutter speed to freeze movement (1/1000sec, wasn’t fast enough it turned out) and, of course, activated pre-capture. I started with the maximum time possible of 1 second, though the camera in question has options from 0.1 sec to 1 sec in full decimal points.
Pre-capture helped me get the shots you see in this article, but there were a couple more non-technical ingredients in the recipe: an eye for the shot and, ultimately, patience.
Once I had the composition and subject I liked, I kept the camera locked in with the shutter half pressed and waited for the bird to take flight. Many times the bird was content for several minutes, and I could feel my finger / thumb burning by the time it moved.
On my first attempt I thought I had missed the moment even with pre-capture active, but low and behold my slow reactions were redeemed.
I think my patience has paid off. Yes, the photos of the birds stationary are still lovely, but the ones of them in flight in an already well-composed scene take them to new heights.
There are plenty of other scenarios that benefit from pre-capture, and if you’re a keen sports or wildlife photographer it’s well worth trying out — I’ve included a list of recent cameras equipped with the feature, plus shopping links, below.
Cameras with pre-capture
The following cameras are listed as having each company’s version of pre-capture:
- Canon EOS R1, EOS R5 Mark II, EOS R6 Mark II, EOS R6 Mark III, EOS R8 Mark II
- Nikon Z9, Nikon Z8, Nikon Z6 III, Nikon Z5 II, Nikon Z50 II
- Sony A9 III, Sony A1 II, Sony A7R VI, Sony A7 V
- OM System OM-1, OM1 Mark-II, OM-5 Mark II, Olympus OM-D E-M1 X, E-M1 Mark III, E-M1 Mark II, E-M5 Mark III, Tough TG-6, Tough TG-7
- Panasonic Lumix G9, Lumix G9 II, Lumix S5 II / X, Lumix S1 II, Lumix S1 II R
- Fujifilm X-T5, X-T4, X-T3, X-T30 III, X-T30 II, X-T30, X-H2S, X-H2, X-Pro3, X100VI
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