With the 500D on JPG only mode with a class 8 card, I can keep the shots firing and not hit the buffer... if you want to get a lot of shots out then make sure you get a good card!

And if lots of shots are important, go to JPG, you only lose a bit of flexibility and can rattle out a lot more shots..

Aye, though I have to admit I never needed to use up a full buffer on the 400D, which was much slower and took less images before it was full, so dont see it as a problem. I tend to like to experiment with shots, and as I dont do sports, the only "fast" things I want to take lots of shots of are insects in flight (IE, Dragonflies). As a result Ill keep my finger on the shutter for a couple of seconds on the 400D, or now probably just one or two seconds, before adjusting settings and trying again, just in case I get home and discover that actually, that aperture was much better than this one etc.

I dont know whether Ill run out with 16gb. Today this evening in 40 mins of microscopy I got through 500 shots on one beetle tray. It wasnt until shot 400 or so that the counter started to tick down from 999 .

I think out and about Ive more chance of the 2 batteries dying!

Raw, since getting the 400D Ive never shot jpg. Think the 16gb takes 1500 raw files or there abouts.

Heres the first of my proper 40D microscope shots, done properly with a specialist program and around 60 photos



Chlaenius nigricornis by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

Bah humbug to the 40D still taking CF cards!