If you like photographing birds in flight -- or birds in action like this ringed kingfisher in the Pantanal of Brazil -- the camera's frame rate is extremely important. Six frames per second can capture a shot like this, but 10 frames per second or more gives you nuances of motion that are lost with a slower camera. The wings of birds move very fast, and milliseconds make the difference between getting a great shot and capturing a good one. For my first trip to the Pantanal, where the birds are amazing, I was shooting with a Canon 5D Mark III with a 6 fps rate. I'm leading another photo tour there this coming November, and I'll be bringing with me the Canon 7D Mark II with a 10 fps capability. This will make a huge difference. Even for jaguars, which are usually walking or laying in the grass, a fast frame rate is important if they suddenly spring into action. My settings for this were 1/1000, f/7.1, 1600 ISO, and the focal length was 280mm.
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