Most compact digital cameras have a burst mode to take a series of shots in rapid succession. While the shutter button is fully pressed down, the camera shoots continuously. Images are held in the camera’s buffer then saved to a memory card or the camera’s built-in memory.

Burst mode is useful for taking photos of fast moving subjects where it is difficult to judge the correct timing to get a good photo. Because shots are taken sequentially, only the best of a series can be kept. When shooting a rapidly moving subject, pre-focusing is usually necessary.

Some digital cameras offer more than one continuous mode such as Continuous Low, Continuous High and Ultra High.

Burst mode performance

The number of images and the speed at which they are recorded varies between cameras. Write speed can also vary according to the image resolution and compression settings selected.

A camera make take only a predetermined number of photos in burst mode. For others, the actual number of images captured continuously is limited only by the the capacity of the memory card or the size of the camera buffer.

For best performance when shooting in high speed continuous mode, make sure batteries are fully charged. High speed performance is usually at it’s best when using a high speed memory card.*

Compact digital camera burst mode has improved through the years, but it usually can not match the high speed continuous performance of digital single lens reflex cameras.

* not all digital cameras benefit from the use of a high speed memory card. Check your camera manual.