Pre-capture helps photographers catch fast wildlife moments

TechRadar’s Timothy Coleman explains how pre-capture can help photographers record moments that happen before they fully press the shutter. The feature continuously shoots to a temporary buffer and retrospectively saves images from the specified time before the shutter is fully pressed.

Depending on the model, pre-capture can provide up to 1 second of preparation. Canon calls its version pre-continuous shooting, while Sony and Nikon use pre-capture. OM System calls it Pro Capture, Panasonic uses Pre-Burst and Fujifilm uses Pre-shot ES. The feature has also reached more affordable models, including the Canon EOS R8 Mark II, Sony A7 V and Nikon Z5 II.

For example, the Canon EOS R8 Mark II can shoot up to 40fps and offers up to 0.5 second of pre-capture, allowing a 20-photo sequence to be recorded from the half second before the shutter is pressed. The Sony A7 V can shoot up to 30fps with up to 1 second of pre-capture, allowing up to 15 images.

Coleman used the Sony A7 V and a Sony 400-800mm F6.3-8 lens for bird photography. He selected bird subject detection, 30fps and a shutter speed of 1/1000sec, then used pre-capture while waiting for birds to take flight. The camera offered settings from 0.1 sec to 1 sec. Coleman said the feature helped him capture flight images he might otherwise have missed.