I'll caveat what I'm about to say with the statement that I am *not* primarily a wildlife shooter (let alone BIF!), and also that my preferences should in no way be interpreted as an implied criticism of anyone who works differently.
But, having grown up shooting sports on motorized film cameras where 5fps was state of the art, I find that 12fps in EFCS mode on modern mirrorless bodies is perfectly great for nearly any action situation I encounter.
Having only transitioned to mirrorless cameras in 2022, I am also reminded that 12 fps exceeds the best DSLR framerates in all but the flagship sports bodies. The 5D Mark IV, for example, topped out at 7fps, IIRC. And interestingly, while my 1DX Mark II's could do 14 fps, I always set its maximum high-speed rate to 12 fps anyway. (For some reason, this just felt natural to me.)
In the rare cases where I switch to fully electronic shutter, it is usually to minimize noise, not to obtain the highest framerates. (Also, I shoot equestrian sports, and I find that panning with a horse and rider over a jump will cause visible warping of the jump standards when using electronic shutter, so I tend to avoid it for that reason too.)
The downside of EFCS or mechanical is more viewfinder blackout, but I'm used to this from DSLRs anyway, and it hasn't really hampered my ability to work.
At some future point we will no doubt see technology like that in the R1 become more affordable or even have fully global shutters without compromises in dynamic range or noise.
Dec 17, 2025 at 09:22 AM
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