Nikon Shooters - buffer clearence rate by mode.

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II

08/29/2014 03:02:34 PM · #1

OK, I've done the research and I've read the manuals, and I can't seem to come up with a reason for this, but it's absolutely consistent with both my D610 and D600.

Camera is set up with a 92Mbps SD card in slot 1 and an EyeFi X2 card in slot 2. Camera is set up to shoot RAW images only (not RAW + JPEG), so it's only writing one file. Both cards are formatted in-camera before I start.

When I shoot with the Slot 2 function set to RAW-1 & JPEG-2 the buffer fills after about 18 shots and then takes about 20-25 seconds to clear (i.e. the little green light on the back turns off). But, if I change the Slot 2 function to overflow I will get as many as 32 shots before the buffer fills and then it empties in under 5 seconds.

Why would that be? Particularly since I'm only writing one file and it's always writing to Slot 1?

I can only assume that there's some in-camera process thing where since I'm telling it that I only want to write JPEG's to Slot 2 if it doesn't have JPEGs then whatever resources were allocated to handling them just sit around so I'm getting partial power. OR it's doing the JPEG processing anyway and then just not writing anything, which is probably worse.

MattO

Nikon D4

08/29/2014 03:05:10 PM · #2

My guess is the write speed of your Eyefi card is slowing the process. Put a different card in slot two and shoot the same way it's slow and see what happens. Do I understand you right, you are setting your camera to record RAW to slot 1, and JPEG to slot 2?

Matt

Message edited by author 2014-08-29 15:06:01.

08/30/2014 07:02:47 AM · #3

Here's the thing, Matt, I'm not even writing to the second card. The second card is set to receive JPEGs, but I'm only shooting RAW files.

I did some more digging and testing last night and I think I've gotten to an understanding of it, if not the specific reason for it. I can't find the specific verbiage in the manual this morning but somewhere it implies that the function of Slot 2 is specifically different when in Backup or RAW-1 & JPEG-2 mode, or better said, those two modes work the same way. The difference, however, is that when in Backup mode it's always going to try and write to the second card, but in RAW+JPEG it will only write to Slot 2 if I'm producing a JPEG image - and I'm not!!

Having read this I did some testing. The first thing I tried was a faster card, and it made no difference - something I expected since I wasn't writing anything. No matter what kind of card I put in the second slot it didn't go any faster. But, if I took the card out of Slot 2 and left the mode the same it worked exactly the same as it did when I had the camera in Overflow mode, emptying the buffer in lightning speed.

So, I'm thinking that when the camera is in anything other than Overflow mode, and there is a card in slot 2, the camera splits processing resources between the two slots in anticipation of having to do work to write to card 2, ignoring the situation of when you are sending JPEGs to card 2 but not shooting any JPEGs. The split function is obviously instantiated by the presence of a card in the slot 2 and otherwise ignored, but it's not ignored when the Shooting Menu option of RAW only is selected. Probably an easier thing to code up, so I get it, but don't necessarily like it as I now have to change 2 things if I want to have the EyeFi in there on an outing.

MelonMusketeer

Nikon D7000

Nikon MF 50mm f/1.4

08/30/2014 08:44:07 AM · #4

That's some interesting observations you have made. I will have to try that with the D7000 and see if the results are the same.

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED

09/01/2014 10:53:33 AM · #5

Not sure if you can post YouTube URL's or not, but here's a video I did showing the difference in times. RAW-1 & JPEG-2 was almost 5 times slower, taking over a minute to clear 15 photos from the D600 buffer. Set in overflow, or without the second card, it did it in 15 seconds.

//youtu.be/t_5rPbF_DaY

tanguera

Nikon D750

09/01/2014 11:25:10 AM · #6

I'm just jealous you have an EyeFi...

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED

09/01/2014 01:14:31 PM · #7

Originally posted by tanguera:

I'm just jealous you have an EyeFi...

Got it for Christmas from my brother - wouldn't have gotten it otherwise. It's a bit wonky in terms of getting it to start broadcasting and stay broadcasting. Better than nothing, but by no means great. I'd never use it to transfer anything other than smaller sized jpegs - takes too darn long.

tanguera

Nikon D750

09/01/2014 02:03:33 PM · #8

I'm shocked there's still not a viable, high-speed wireless system. Shooting tethered is hardly any faster, and still beset with pesky problems. I've tried it in the past and had all sorts of issues. Don't know how the "pros" do it.

But now I've gone completely off topic. Sorry! Carry on....

MattO

Nikon D4

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II

09/01/2014 04:40:01 PM · #9

Originally posted by tanguera:

I shoot with the Nikon WT-5 with my D4 cameras.

Matt