Armchair advice requested

photogwannabe

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Paul
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Hi. I was out with my Nikon D700 taking photos of little munchkins cross country racing. I had the shutter on CH but was only getting two shot bursts. Is this indicative of the shutter mechanism beginning to die? I'm pretty sure the cost of a new shutter will be more than half the resale value of a used one. Keep shooting it in single shot mode till it fully poops out? Opinions please and thank you.
 
I had the shutter on CH but was only getting two shot bursts. Is this indicative of the shutter mechanism beginning to die?
Unlikely. I think it's more likely that it's been caused by something in the settings you were using. For example, if you're using AF-C and Focus Priority, that can cause the shooting to 'stutter' whilst it reacquires focus. I'm not suggesting that's necessarily the cause, but it would probably help if you could outline how you'd got the camera set up.
 
f you're using AF-C and Focus Priority, that can cause the shooting to 'stutter' whilst it reacquires focus.


BBF maybe helping you there to maintain critical focus acquisition.
 
Unlikely. I think it's more likely that it's been caused by something in the settings you were using. For example, if you're using AF-C and Focus Priority, that can cause the shooting to 'stutter' whilst it reacquires focus. I'm not suggesting that's necessarily the cause, but it would probably help if you could outline how you'd got the camera set up.

Settings haven't changed since initial acquisition of the camera. AF-C, dynamic area auto focus 21, shutter on release and focus. (Any other pertinent settings?) Testing on a static subject at home still yields only 2 frames on CH. I've not had any problems before using these settings and shooting active subjects - basketball, running, jumping. Interestingly, I just tried it on CL and I still only got 2 frames. No changes is switching to AF-S. The shutter clicks like it wants to do the proper speed/sequence but it just stops at 2 frames.
 
Try changing shutter setting from ‘release and focus’ to ‘release’.
Other settings af-c, dynamic area auto focus 21 and CH should be ok.
As another test, check the number of shots setting for CL and if it is set on 2 try increasing to a higher number number.
Not sure on the D700 if there is a setting for the number of shots per sec for the CH setting but worth checking to see if there is and what it is actually set to.
 
IfIt's not something really silly like having a low shutter speed is it? I once thought my continuous shooting was slow but it was because I was using a slow shutter.

Other than that try it on manual focus and see what happens. If it speeds up

If it literally won't fire more than two shots another thing to check is that you've not accidentally changed the max continuous release because if it's set at 2 frames it won't fire more than two frames regardless of fps.
 
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If it's not something really silly like having a low shutter speed is it? I once thought my continuous shooting was slow but it was because I was using a slow shutter.

Other than that try it on manual focus and see what happens. If it speeds up

If it literally won't fire more than two shots another thing to check is that you've not accidentally changed the max continuous release because if it's set at 2 frames it won't fire more than two frames regardless of fps.

Try changing shutter setting from ‘release and focus’ to ‘release’.
Other settings af-c, dynamic area auto focus 21 and CH should be ok.
As another test, check the number of shots setting for CL and if it is set on 2 try increasing to a higher number number.
Not sure on the D700 if there is a setting for the number of shots per sec for the CH setting but worth checking to see if there is and what it is actually set to.

CL is set at 3 fps and CH is 5fps. Manual focus, auto focus no difference. It only rattles off 2 frames on either CH or CL.
 
CL is set at 3 fps and CH is 5fps. Manual focus, auto focus no difference. It only rattles off 2 frames on either CH or CL.
Did you check the max continuous release? There's a setting (at least in my D750) called max continuous release, this sets how many shots will be fired in a burst. So if set at 2 frames it will only shoot 2 frames whether set at 1 fps or 7 fps.

Edit: Just googled the D700 manual, it's there on page 299. Might be worth checking what this is set to just in case it's ben accidentally changed somehow.

Screen Shot 2017-09-22 at 08.04.06.png
 
WINNER!!! Whatever the fault was, resetting to factory defaults did the trick. Thank you very much!

Thank you, as well, to everyone else for your suggestions and help.
your welcome Paul,
If ever I have a problem, my first port of call is reset.
probably from my days of being a computer gamer, we were always reformatting our PC's to get rid of problems and have a fresh start :)
 
WINNER!!! Whatever the fault was, resetting to factory defaults did the trick. Thank you very much!

Thank you, as well, to everyone else for your suggestions and help.
Glad it's sorted but part of me wishes we'd have found out what it was. I'm still leaning towards the max continuous release setting ;)
 
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