The Buyers guide to...Which cameras have the highest fps in burst mode?

While there are cameras that can shoot at up to 60fps in certain circumstances, the 50.1Mp Sony A1 deserves special praise for its ability to combine high resolution with fast shooting.

If you need full-resolution uncompressed raw files the A1 can shoot at up to 20fps. However, if you’re happy to shoot compressed raw files, or Jpegs or HEIF files, the A1 has a maximum continuous shooting rate of 30fps using its electronic shutter – with continuous AF and exposure measurement.

Furthermore, the A1 can shoot up to 155 full-frame compressed raw images or 165 full-frame Jpeg images at 30fps.

At 30fps it takes just over 5 seconds to shoot 155 files, which feels like a long blast of images in real-world conditions.

Read our Sony A1 Review

Launched at the same time as the 20Mp Canon EOS R6, the 45Mp Canon EOS R5 isn’t too far behind the Sony A1 in terms of resolution and it can shoot at up to 20fps with full AF and exposure function.

Like the Sony A1 and Canon EOS R6, the R5 has an excellent Eye detection system that can be used to find human or animal eyes in the frame. It also works at speed, which means you can focus on the composition while shooting at 20fps and be confident that the subject’s eyes will be sharp.

Read our Canon EOS R5 Review

Although the 24.5Mp Nikon Z6 II shares much of the same specification as the 45.7Mp Nikon Z7 II, the difference in their resolution combined with the huge processing power of dual Expeed 6 engines enables the Z6 II to shoot at up to 14fps. It can maintain that rate for up to 200Jpegs or 124 12-bit uncompressed raw files.

In comparison, the Z7 II has a maximum rate of 10fps which it can sustain for up to 200 Jpegs or 77 12-bit uncompressed raw files.

Read our Nikon Z6 II Review

We’ve seen an escalation in continuous shooting rates recently with electronic shutters also allowing silent shooting. When the electronic shutter is in use, the G9 can shoot at up to 20fps (frames per second) with continuous autofocusing (AFC), that puts it level with the full-frame Sony A9. That’s good news for wildlife photographers who don’t want a clicking shutter to disturb their prey.

If you want to shoot faster still, the G9 can shoot full-resolution images at an incredible 60fps in single-AF mode, that is, with the focus set at the start of the sequence. That’s good news for shooting static action like water splashes or fleeting facial expressions.

At full-pelt, the G9’s buffer enables up to 50 raw files to be captured. If you switch to use the mechanical shutter, the maximum shooting rates drop to 9fps with AFC and 12fps with AFS, but the burst depth expands to 60 raw files.

In addition, Panasonic’s 4K Photo and 6K Photo modes are on hand with their convenient modes to help with capturing brief bursts of action. These modes use video technology to capture sequences of images which can then be extracted to create 8Mp (4K) or 18Mp (6K) still images.

The G9 can shoot 6K Photo images at 30fps for up to 10minutes. Alternatively, 4K Photo mode can be used at 60fps for 10 minutes or 30fps for a maximum of 30 minutes. Shooting for 10 minutes at 60fps produces a lot of 8Mp images!

Read our full Panasonic G9 review

The OM-D E-M1X is a doubled-gripped mirrorless camera. It uses Olympus’s Pro Capture mode for shooting stills of very fast action. Thanks to the dual processors, there’s also no blackout in the viewfinder when this is in action.

In Pro Capture High mode, the shooting rate is 60fps, but the focusing is fixed at the start of the sequence. Switch to Pro Capture Low, and you can shoot at 18fps with continuous focusing.

Pro Capture mode is designed to help you record fleeting moments that are easily missed. To that end, when it’s activated the camera starts writing images to the buffer as soon as the shutter release is half-pressed. Once the shutter button is pressed fully, the 35 images that were buffered immediately before it was pressed are recorded along with 100 from immediately after.

There’s also a standard sequential shooting mode that uses the mechanical shutter. When this is in action, the maximum shooting rate in single AF mode is 15fps for 143 raw files. In continuous autofocus mode, the maximum is 10fps for 283 raw files.

A High Res Shot mode also delivers larger and more detailed images. The 50Mp Handheld mode captures the images quickly but then takes a little longer to render the final shot than the Tripod mode. Comparing the results with standard images reveals a nice jump in the level of detail.

Similarly, the 80Mp tripod mode delivers impressive results. It gives a significant boost to the size of print that you can make. That compositing also has a beneficial effect on the dynamic range as there’s more detail visible (and extractable) from the shadows.

Read our Olympus OM-D E-M1X Review

The Sony A9’s 24.2-megapixel full-frame sensor’s integral memory works in tandem with the Bionz X processor to enable faster data readout. As a consequence the Sony A9 has a full resolution maximum continuous shooting rate of 20fps (frames per second), that’s with continuous autofocus and metering.

That blistering pace can be maintained for up to 241 raw files or 362 jpegs – equating to roughly 12 seconds shooting continuously in raw format or 18 seconds in jpeg format.

So you should able to capture every fleeting expression on a top-class 100m sprinter’s face from the gun firing to the finish line and still have some capacity for the winner’s celebration.

In continuous AF mode the A9 is quick to latch onto moving subjects and it follows them with apparent ease. Angela, our reviews editor, normally shies away from settings that give a camera free rein to determine the AF point to use, but the A9 performed superbly in Wide AF mode even when there was a cluttered background such as cliffs or rocks behind the moving birds.

When she was using continuous AF mode to photograph my dog on the beach, She noticed that if he was still the camera sometimes focused on a point a little closer to her than he was, but as soon as he started moving it snapped onto him. If he ran towards her his head got the AF system’s attention; if he ran away it was his backside.

Find the latest deals on the Sony A9 at Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Read our Sony A9 review

The Nikon D6 doesn’t make a dramatic upgrade on the D5, but one aspect that it improves upon is the continuous shooting rate, or at least the usability of that rate.

Like the Nikon D5, the D6 has a maximum shooting rate of 14fps. However, in a significant upgrade, the D6 retains full autofocus and exposure functionality at 14fps. With the D5, the has to be locked up and focus and exposure are fixed at the start of the sequence to achieve the 14fps rate.

If you need a fast shooting rate with continuous autofocusing and exposure measurement with the D5, you have to opt for 12fps.

A 2fps increase in the shooting rate with AF and exposure measurement may not sound much, but it could be helpful for very fast action and fleeting moments in sport.

Read our Nikon D6 Review

In Live View mode, the Canon EOS-1D X Mark III can shoot at up to 20fps with continuous focusing. Alternatively, if the viewfinder is in use, the camera can shoot at up to 16fps.

Impressively, the 1D X Mark III can shoot at those high rates for over 1000 raw files or until the memory card is full with Jpegs.

It’s also worth remembering that the 1D X Mark III has Canon’s excellent Dual Pixel CMOS AF system which means its focusing is quick and effective in Live View mode, it’s capable of keeping up with fast-moving subjects.

Read our Canon EOS-1D X Mark III Review

Canon’s EOS 5D range of DSLRs has been popular with advanced enthusiasts and professionals looking for something which can cope well with a range of different subjects. The most recent in the line, the Mark IV, has a collection of useful features that make it well suited to demanding photographers.

While the 5D Mark III offered 22.3 million effective pixels, the Mark IV has 30.4 million, marking a significant jump up in resolution.

However, the inclusion of Digic 6+ processing technology enabled Canon to push the Mark IV’s native sensitivity range up from ISO 100-25,600 to ISO 100-32,000, with expansion settings taking this to ISO 50-102,400 – the same as the 5D Mark III. In video mode sensitivity can be set in the range ISO 100-102,400.

Interestingly, the Canon EOS 5D IV has dual processors, as the Digic 6+ unit is accompanied by a Digic 6 processor. The Digic 6 processor takes care of the exposure metering while the Digic 6+ engine takes care of image capture and processing.

It enables a maximum continuous shooting rate of 7fps (frames per second) with continuous autofocus and metering for up to 21 raw files or an unlimited number of jpegs. In live view mode the camera can shoot at up to 4.3fps.

Canon hasn’t given the 5D Mark IV more autofocus points than the 5D Mark III, but the 61 points are spread further up and down the frame. Also as before, there are 41 cross-type points; however, 21 of them are cross-type down to f/8 (rather than f/4).

There are also 5 dual cross-type points that are sensitive down to f/8 (with the 5D Mark III these are dual cross-type at f/2.8). The system also operates down to -3EV, 1EV darker conditions than the 5D Mark III’s system. This all adds up to make the Canon 5D Mark IV’s autofocus system more sensitive and better able to detect a subject.

Videographers have long enjoyed using the 5D range, and to that end, the Mark IV is capable of recording 4K video and has a range of useful video functions.

Find the latest deals on the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV at Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Read our Canon 5D Mark III review