Pre-continuous shooting on the Canon EOS R5 Mark II

Capturing the instant right before the click

Pre-continuous shooting lets the burst begin before the shutter button is even fully pressed, as long as it was held at half-press for a moment beforehand. In practice, the camera continuously records into a memory buffer for roughly 0.5 seconds at 30 fps before the full press — the exact amount of preliminary shooting varies depending on the continuous shooting speed chosen.

Turning the feature on

The setting lives in the Shooting menu, under the Pre-continuous shooting option, where you specify the number of images to capture before the full shutter press.

The required conditions

This feature relies exclusively on the electronic shutter — it isn't available with the mechanical shutter — and requires a memory card with at least 4 GB of free space. Shutter speeds slower than 0.5 seconds aren't available.

Limits worth keeping in mind

Focus can be lost if the subject's distance changes suddenly. A low battery level degrades the feature's performance, and exposure can shift if you zoom while holding the shutter button at half or full press.