A few critical details:
- Enabling flash disables continuous shooting. Flash isn't compatible with burst mode photography because the time that the flash needs to recycle between shots slows down the capture rate too much. If flash is enabled, the camera operates as if you were using Single Frame mode.
- Images are stored temporarily in the memory buffer. The camera has a little bit of internal memory — a buffer — where it stores picture data until it has time to record them to the memory card. The number of pictures the buffer can hold depends on certain camera settings, such as resolution and file type (JPEG or Raw). When you press the shutter button halfway, the shots-remaining value in the lower-right corner of the viewfinder changes to display an r. For example, r24 means that 24 frames will fit in the buffer.
After shooting a burst of images, wait for the memory-card access light on the back of the camera to go out before turning off the camera. That's your signal that the camera has successfully moved all data from the buffer to the memory card. Turning off the camera before that happens may corrupt the image files.
- Your mileage may vary. The number of frames per second depends on several factors, including focusing method and shutter speed. To achieve the highest rate, Nikon suggests that you use manual focusing and a shutter speed of 1/250 second or faster. Additionally, although you can capture as many as 100 frames in a single burst, the frame rate can drop if the buffer gets full or when the battery power is low.