How do I set my Canon to take bursts of pics?

Question

Thanks. I looked through the book and can't find it.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Answer 1

The "Drive" setting (single shot vs. continuous shooting) is accessed by pressing the button on the back of your camera which resembles three overlapping rectangles (left of the "Set" button). When you press this, it should offer you several choices... a single rectangle is single shot mode. The overlapping rectangles are continuous shooting mode. There are other modes... such as the 2 second self-timer (which also activates the IR remote sensor) and a 10-second self-timer mode.
If you are asking this question because you plan to shoot action photography of moving subjects then you might ALSO want to switch the focus mode from "One Shot" mode (the default) to "AI Servo" (access this menu by pressing the "AF" button which is just to the right of the "Set" button.) While "One Shot" mode causes the focus system to just focus once and shoot, the "AI Servo" setting causes the focus system to continuously track the subject and adjust focus as it notices the subject distance changing. While it might seem you should just use this mode all the time, don't. One Shot mode is best for non-moving subjects. AI Servo is best for moving subjects (changing focus distance). There's also an "AI Focus" mode which I never use... it's not a real mode per se... it causes the camera to evaluate whether it thinks the subject is moving or not and then automatically uses the best mode (it behaves like you're in One Shot mode if it doesn't detect movement and it behaves like you're in AI Servo if it does detect movement). But it takes the camera a moment to do this evaluation... so if you KNOW your subject is going to be moving vs. non-moving it's better to just use the mode you know you'll need.
Tim Campbell
5D II, 5D III, 60Da