Hold the shutter button down and the camera fires continuously. That is burst mode, and it is essential for sports, wildlife, and any situation where the decisive moment is hard to predict. A sprinter's stride, a bird taking off, a child blowing out birthday candles. Burst mode captures a sequence, and you pick the best frame later.

The speed of a burst is measured in frames per second. Entry-level cameras manage three to five frames per second. Professional sports cameras reach twenty or more. Buffer depth matters as much as speed. The buffer is the temporary memory that holds images before they are written to the card. Once it fills, the camera slows or stops. Burst mode drains battery and fills cards quickly. A ten-frame-per-second burst for five seconds produces fifty images. Multiply that by a day of shooting and you have thousands of frames to review. Photographers often use burst mode selectively, not as a default.

When to use burst mode

• Sports. Capturing peak action and follow-through.
• Wildlife. Birds in flight, animals running.
• Events. Weddings, concerts, and unpredictable moments.
• Children and pets. Fast, unpredictable subjects.

The downside is the edit. A burst of fifty frames may contain one keeper. Learning to time the shot is still a skill worth developing.